This is a c++ library originally written for accessing GitHub REST API v3. Currently reorganized to be easily used with any Rest API available.
It supports three backends for establishing connections with remote API servers: Qt6/5, Curl and cpp-httplib.
This repository comes with submodules which are not necessary to build and use this project.
As of now the only submodule is vcpkg which can simplify build by providing required dependencies.
Please mind that vcpkg uses telemetry.
Visit https://learn.microsoft.com/vcpkg/about/privacy for more details.
This is a CMake based project and is meant to be included as a subproject.
Simply embed cpp_restapi's sources in your project,
choose which http backend you prefer (all can be used simoultanously) and include cpp_restapi project in your CMakeLists.txt like this:
set(CppRestAPI_QtBackend ON) # use this line if you prefer Qt backend
set(CppRestAPI_CurlBackend ON) # use this line if you prefer Curl backend
set(CppRestAPI_CppHttplibBackend ON) # use this line if you prefer cpp-httplib backend
add_subdirectory(cpp_restapi)Then you can link your application against cpp_restapi:
target_link_libraries(app
PRIVATE
cpp_restapi
)and that's all.
Depending on your choice of backend you may need to install libcurl, Qt and/or cpp-httplib libraries.
Qt backend can be compiled with Qt6 (default) or Qt5. If no Qt6 is found, an automatic fallback to Qt5 will happen.
Set CppRestAPI_UseQt5 CMake variable to TRUE to force Qt5 usage (in case both versions are available).
It is possible to build this project as any other regular CMake project by invoking:
cmake -B build
cmake --build buildIt can be usefull if you want to play with examples from examples dir or to run unit tests.
#include <iostream>
#include <cpp_restapi/curl_connection.hpp>
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
// Access The Star Wars API
cpp_restapi::CurlBackend::Connection connection("https://swapi.dev/api", {});
std::cout << connection.get("people/1") << '\n';
std::cout << connection.get("starships/12/") << '\n';
return 0;
}This example accesses The Star Wars API using curl backend.
As you can see it is enought to instantiate cpp_restapi::CurlBackend::Connection object providing API url and after that request can be made.
Qt version:
#include <iostream>
#include <QCoreApplication>
#include <QNetworkAccessManager>
#include <cpp_restapi/curl_connection.hpp>
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
QCoreApplication qapp(argc, argv);
QNetworkAccessManager manager;
// Access The Star Wars API
cpp_restapi::QtBackend::Connection connection(manager, "https://swapi.dev/api", {});
std::cout << connection.get("people/1") << '\n';
std::cout << connection.get("starships/12/") << '\n';
return 0;
}cpp-httplib version:
#include <iostream>
#include <cpp_restapi/cpp-httplib_connection.hpp>
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
// Access The Star Wars API
cpp_restapi::CppHttplibBackend::Connection connection("https://swapi.dev/api", {});
std::cout << connection.get("people/1") << '\n';
std::cout << connection.get("starships/12/") << '\n';
return 0;
}For accessing GitHub API it is possible to use exactly the same apporach as presented above.
However, for conveniance, there are also additional helpers available:
#include <QCoreApplication>
#include <QDebug>
#include <QNetworkAccessManager>
#include <cpp_restapi/qt_connection.hpp>
#include <cpp_restapi/github/connection_builder.hpp>
#include <cpp_restapi/github/request.hpp>
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
QCoreApplication qapp(argc, argv);
QNetworkAccessManager manager;
auto connection = cpp_restapi::GitHub::ConnectionBuilder().build<cpp_restapi::QtBackend::Connection>(manager);
cpp_restapi::GitHub::Request request(connection);
qInfo() << request.getRateLimit().c_str();
qInfo() << request.getUserInfo("Kicer86").c_str();
return 0;
}Here connection is being build with ConnectionBuilder.
Builder provides methods for setting additional connection parameters (passed as a second argument to Connection after API url).
It also sets the API url automatically.
Refer documentation of ConnectionBuilder for more details.
Additionaly there is also cpp_restapi::GitHub::Request class available which comes with accessors to most common API requests.
#include <iostream>
#include <cpp_restapi/curl_connection.hpp>
#include <cpp_restapi/github/connection_builder.hpp>
#include <cpp_restapi/github/request.hpp>
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
auto connection = cpp_restapi::GitHub::ConnectionBuilder().build<cpp_restapi::CurlBackend::Connection>();
cpp_restapi::GitHub::Request request(connection);
std::cout << request.getRateLimit() << '\n';
std::cout << request.getUserInfo("Kicer86") << '\n';
return 0;
}#include <iostream>
#include <cpp_restapi/cpp-httplib_connection.hpp>
#include <cpp_restapi/github/connection_builder.hpp>
#include <cpp_restapi/github/request.hpp>
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
auto connection = cpp_restapi::GitHub::ConnectionBuilder().build<cpp_restapi::CppHttplibBackend::Connection>();
cpp_restapi::GitHub::Request request(connection);
std::cout << request.getRateLimit() << '\n';
std::cout << request.getUserInfo("Kicer86") << '\n';
return 0;
}Also please look into 'examples' directory for details.
Examples are located in the 'examples' directory of the project.
To build them set CppRestAPI_Examples CMake variable to ON.
It can be done when invoking cmake command by providing -DCppRestAPI_Examples=ON commanline argument (see Standalone build section).
Or by modifying entry CppRestAPI_Examples in CMakeCache.txt file located in build directory of an already configured project.
Please mind that setting CppRestAPI_Examples to ON will force all backends to be used.
Unit tests are located in 'tests' directory of the project.
To build them set CppRestAPI_Tests CMake variable to ON.
Please mind that setting CppRestAPI_Tests to ON will force all backends to be used.
Code documentation available at https://kicer86.github.io/cpp_restapi/index.html