<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <title>Introduction</title> </head> <body><div class="manualnavbar" style="text-align: center;"> <div class="prev" style="text-align: left; float: left;"><a href="book.http.html">HTTP</a></div> <div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="http.setup.html">Installing/Configuring</a></div> <div class="up"><a href="book.http.html">HTTP</a></div> <div class="home"><a href="index.html">PHP Manual</a></div> </div><hr /><div id="intro.http" class="preface"> <h1 class="title">Introduction</h1> <p class="simpara"> The HTTP extension aims to provide a convenient and powerful set of functionality for major applications. </p> <p class="simpara"> The HTTP extension eases handling of HTTP URLs, dates, redirects, headers and messages in a HTTP context (both incoming and outgoing). It also provides means for client negotiation of preferred language and charset, as well as a convenient way to exchange arbitrary data with caching and resuming capabilities. </p> <p class="simpara"> Also provided is a powerful request and parallel interface (PHP 5+), if the extension is built with cURL support. </p> <p class="simpara"> Additionally to the API reference in this manual you can find information about how to install and configure as well as which global constants are predefined in the following sections: </p> </div><hr /><div class="manualnavbar" style="text-align: center;"> <div class="prev" style="text-align: left; float: left;"><a href="book.http.html">HTTP</a></div> <div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="http.setup.html">Installing/Configuring</a></div> <div class="up"><a href="book.http.html">HTTP</a></div> <div class="home"><a href="index.html">PHP Manual</a></div> </div></body></html>
