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YOUSEFUL / FILEMAKER

Youseful HTTP: FAQ, examples and tutorial

Learning center · Function reference

Use YsflHttp.fmx64 for REST, GraphQL, uploads and downloads through Windows WinHTTP. The short examples work offline; the tutorial needs your own read-only test endpoint returning JSON.

FAQ

Is HTTP 404 a transport failure? No. The server can successfully return a 404 response. Save LastError immediately after the request, then Status and the body. Handle non-2xx status codes in your application.

When should I choose Curl instead? HTTP covers the common REST and GraphQL workflow. Curl adds options such as HTTP/2 negotiation, cookie jars, transfer statistics and additional URL protocols. See the Curl guide.

How are options separated? Use spaces or paragraphs. Headers and some other values consume the rest of their line, so put them on separate lines. For example, "timeout=15¶header=X-Demo: Youseful¶accept=application/json".

Can Get return an image or PDF? Use GetContainer for binary content and Download for a file on disk. Get is the text-oriented function.

Examples

Encode one query-parameter value:

filemaker
YsflHt_URLEncode ( "a b&c" )

Result: a%20b%26c. Encode values, rather than an entire URL containing separators.

Read a URL host without connecting:

filemaker
YsflHt_ParseURL ( "https://api.example.com:8443/items?id=7" ; "host" )

Result: api.example.com.

Tutorial

Standalone sample scripts: Fetch JSON.

Goal: fetch JSON while distinguishing transport failure from HTTP failure.

  1. Choose a read-only test endpoint you control or are allowed to call. This script expects a 2xx JSON response. Replace the example URL before running it.
  2. Create Youseful - Fetch JSON:
filemaker
Set Variable [ $url ; Value: "https://api.example.com/demo.json" ]
Set Variable [ $body ; Value: YsflHt_Get ( $url ; "timeout=15¶accept=application/json" ) ]
Set Variable [ $transportError ; Value: YsflHt_LastError ]
Set Variable [ $transportMessage ; Value: YsflHt_LastErrorText ]
Set Variable [ $status ; Value: YsflHt_Status ]
If [ $transportError <> 0 ]
    Show Custom Dialog [ "Connection failed" ; $transportMessage ]
    Exit Script [ Text Result: $body ]
End If
If [ $status < 200 or $status >= 300 ]
    Show Custom Dialog [ "HTTP " & $status ; $body ]
    Exit Script [ Text Result: $body ]
End If
Set Variable [ $formatted ; Value: JSONFormatElements ( $body ) ]
If [ Left ( $formatted ; 1 ) = "?" ]
    Show Custom Dialog [ "Response is not JSON" ; $body ]
Else
    Show Custom Dialog [ "HTTP " & $status ; $formatted ]
End If
  1. Run it. With an endpoint serving {"message":"Hello"}, expect an HTTP 200 dialog containing that JSON. Exact status and data depend on your endpoint.
  2. Request a missing resource on your test server to exercise the HTTP-error branch. Status must be captured before a later request overwrites it.

For a bearer-protected endpoint, add "¶bearer=" & $token to the options after obtaining the token through your application's authentication flow.

Troubleshooting

Capture errors before Status: Status itself clears LastError. An empty successful 204 response is valid HTTP but is not JSON, so adapt the final branch for that API. For certificate failures, fix the certificate or trust configuration rather than disabling verification in the example.