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HttpClient ​

The HttpClient package gives Quantum a small native cURL wrapper for outbound HTTP calls.

Use it when you want to:

  • send one HTTP request and inspect its response body, headers, cookies, or cURL info
  • batch multiple requests through native multi-cURL
  • keep request setup in Quantum code without talking to raw cURL resources

This package is intentionally small. It does not add retries, middleware, authentication helpers, or response object mapping. You work with one HttpClient facade backed by Quantum-owned cURL adapters.

Package shape ​

The package is built from these pieces:

  • Quantum\HttpClient\HttpClient is the runtime wrapper
  • Quantum\HttpClient\Factories\HttpClientFactory creates fresh request facades
  • httpRequest(), httpMultiRequest(), and httpAsyncMultiRequest() are helper shortcuts
  • Quantum\HttpClient\Exceptions\HttpClientException reports package-specific misuse such as starting before creating a request
  • Quantum\HttpClient\Enums\ExceptionMessages defines local message constants

Request modes ​

The package supports three modes.

Single request ​

createRequest($url) creates a native CurlAdapter, stores the URL, and lets you configure the request through HttpClient methods plus supported adapter passthrough methods.

This is the only mode that supports:

  • setMethod()
  • setData()
  • getRequestHeaders()
  • getResponseHeaders()
  • getResponseCookies()
  • getResponseBody()
  • info()
  • url()

Multi request ​

createMultiRequest() creates a native MultiCurlAdapter and registers a completion callback that collects each finished response into the package's internal response store.

Use this when you want to queue several requests and read the aggregated responses after start() finishes.

Async multi request ​

createAsyncMultiRequest($success, $error) creates a native MultiCurlAdapter, wires your success and error callbacks, and also keeps Quantum's internal response and error stores populated.

Use this when your application wants callback handling while still allowing later inspection through getResponse() and getErrors().

Supported single-request methods ​

setMethod() only accepts these values:

  • GET
  • POST
  • PUT
  • PATCH
  • DELETE

Any other method triggers HttpClientException::requestMethodNotAvailable(...). The list is also available as HttpClient::METHODS.

You can read back what you set with getMethod() and getData(), get the underlying adapter with getAdapter(), and ask isMultiRequest() which kind of request the client holds.

Response model ​

Responses are stored in three sections:

  • headers
  • cookies
  • body

Headers are normalized to lowercase before storage, so Content-Type becomes content-type when you read it back.

The body is decoded for you:

  • when the Content-Type contains json and the body is valid JSON, it is the result of json_decode(), so an object (stdClass), not an array
  • when the Content-Type contains xml and the body is valid XML, it is a SimpleXMLElement
  • a body sent with Content-Encoding: gzip is decompressed first
  • in every other case, including invalid JSON or XML, it is the raw string

For a single request, getResponse() returns one response array.

For multi requests, getResponse() returns a map keyed by curl request ID.

Important constraints ​

  • You must call one of the create...Request() methods before calling start() or any adapter passthrough method.
  • Single-request inspection methods are not available for multi-request adapters.
  • setData() only affects the single-request start() path.
  • Request headers are only mirrored into getRequestHeaders() when you set them through proxied setHeader() or setHeaders() calls.
  • Reusing one HttpClient instance across multiple requests keeps prior wrapper state unless you overwrite it. That includes the current method, pending data, tracked request headers, and collected response/error arrays.
  • Adapter passthrough is intentionally limited to supported adapter methods such as setHeader(), setHeaders(), setOpt(), setOpts(), addGet(), and addPost().