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PHP Extension

ReceiveString Returns Only the Immediately Available Data

See more Socket/SSL/TLS Examples

Demonstrates that Socket.ReceiveString returns only the text immediately available and not the entire response. The example connects to chilkatsoft.com over TLS and requests big_helloWorld.txt, a large text file of roughly 74,000 lines. A single ReceiveString call returns just the first portion of the response, and the example reports how many characters were received compared with the total size given by the response Content-Length header.

Background. Because ReceiveString returns whatever text is currently available, one call cannot indicate whether the full response has arrived. Knowing when a response is complete requires either a known expected length (such as a Content-Length header or an application-defined length prefix), receiving in a loop until that many bytes are collected, or receiving until the peer closes the connection. This example sends a minimal HTTP request only to exercise ReceiveString against a public server; for actual HTTP work, use the Chilkat Http, Rest, or HttpCurl classes.

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PHP Extension
<?php

include("chilkat.php");

$success = false;

$socket = new CkSocket();

//  Connect to chilkatsoft.com over TLS.
$bTls = true;
$maxWaitMs = 5000;
$success = $socket->Connect('chilkatsoft.com',443,$bTls,$maxWaitMs);
if ($success == false) {
    print $socket->lastErrorText() . "\n";
    exit;
}

$socket->put_StringCharset('utf-8');

//  Send an HTTP GET request for big_helloWorld.txt, a large text file of roughly 74,000 lines of
//  "Hello World!".  This uses a minimal HTTP request only to exercise ReceiveString against a public
//  server -- for real HTTP work, use the Chilkat Http, Rest, or HttpCurl classes instead.
$httpReq = 'GET /big_helloWorld.txt HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: chilkatsoft.com\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n';
$success = $socket->SendString($httpReq);
if ($success == false) {
    print $socket->lastErrorText() . "\n";
    exit;
}

//  Call ReceiveString a single time.  It returns only the text that is immediately available --
//  typically just the first network packet -- and does NOT wait for the entire response to arrive.
$responseText = $socket->receiveString();
if ($socket->get_LastMethodSuccess() == false) {
    print $socket->lastErrorText() . "\n";
    exit;
}

//  Load the received text into a StringBuilder so its length can be measured and the Content-Length
//  header extracted.  The Content-Length header gives the total size, in bytes, of the response body.
$sb = new CkStringBuilder();
$sb->Append($responseText);
$contentLength = $sb->getBetween('Content-Length: ','\r\n');
if ($sb->get_LastMethodSuccess() == false) {
    print $sb->lastErrorText() . "\n";
    exit;
}

//  Compare what this single ReceiveString returned against the full size of the expected response.
//  The received amount is only a small fraction of the total.
print 'Characters received so far (headers + partial body): ' . $sb->get_Length() . "\n";
print 'Expected response body size (Content-Length): ' . $contentLength . ' bytes' . "\n";

//  A single ReceiveString call returns whatever is currently available, so it cannot indicate whether
//  the full response has arrived.  This makes it difficult to know when a response is complete: the
//  application must either know how many bytes to expect (for example from a Content-Length header or
//  an application-defined length prefix) and keep receiving until that many bytes are collected, or
//  keep receiving until the peer closes the connection.

?>