Elixir:
Sending an HTTP request

How to:

Use Elixir’s HTTPoison library. It’s neat, simple, and gets the job done.

1. Add HTTPoison to your project’s mix.exs:

defp deps do
  [
    {:httpoison, "~> 1.8"}
  ]
end

2. Run mix deps.get in your terminal to fetch the dependency.

3. Now you’re set to send a GET request:

case HTTPoison.get("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1") do
  {:ok, %HTTPoison.Response{status_code: 200, body: body}} ->
    IO.inspect(body) # you've got your data!
  {:error, %HTTPoison.Error{reason: reason}} ->
    IO.inspect(reason) # handle error
end

Sample output: a JSON string of post data from the placeholder API.

Deep Dive

Historically, you’d use :httpc that comes with Erlang/OTP or Elixir’s HTTPotion. HTTPoison is more popular now, with cleaner syntax and built upon Hackney, a robust HTTP client for Erlang.

Alternatives to HTTPoison include Tesla – a flexible HTTP client with middleware support, and Mint – a shiny, low-level HTTP client.

Implementation wise, these libraries handle connection pooling, SSL, and keep-alive, tricky stuff that’s essential for efficient HTTP requests. They act like friendly librarians who handle the nitty-gritty, so you don’t have to crawl through the stacks yourself.

See Also

• HTTPoison GitHub – for all the details and updates.
• HexDocs for HTTPoison – the place for comprehensive documentation.
• Elixir Forum – to chat with the community.