HTTP Class Overview

This document provides an overview of the classes used by the Mozilla HTTP implementation. It's meant as a guide to developers wishing to understand or extend the Mozilla HTTP implementation.

nsHttpHandler

• implements nsIProtocolHandler
• manages preferences
• owns the authentication cache
• holds references to frequently used services

nsHttpChannel

• implements nsIHttpChannel
• talks to the cache
• initiates http transactions
• processes http response codes
• intercepts progress notifications

nsHttpConnection

• implements nsIStreamListener & nsIStreamProvider
• talks to the socket transport service
• feeds data to its transaction object
• routes progress notifications

nsHttpConnectionInfo

• identifies a connection

nsHttpTransaction

• implements nsIRequest
• encapsulates a http request and response
• parses incoming data

nsHttpChunkedDecoder

• owned by a transaction
• strips chunked transfer encoding

nsHttpRequestHead

• owns a nsHttpHeaderArray
• knows how to fill a request buffer

nsHttpResponseHead

• owns a nsHttpHeaderArray
• knows how to parse response lines
• performs common header manipulations/calculations

nsHttpHeaderArray

• stores http "<header>:<value>" pairs

nsHttpAuthCache

• stores authentication credentials for http auth domains

nsHttpBasicAuth

• implements nsIHttpAuthenticator
• generates BASIC auth credentials from user:pass

nsHttpDigestAuth

• implements nsIHttpAuthenticator
• generates DIGEST auth credentials from user:pass