W3C libwww Architecture

Before and After Filters

Until now we have not mentioned a lot about what the Library actually can do. The fact is that the core part of libwww actually doesn't do much. All the functionality must be registered by the application - in orther words - the application programmer builds a libwww profile for an application by registrering a specific set of protocol modules, callbacks and filters.

Use the Standard Filters

The libwww distribution package somes with a large set of standard filters. These are filters that can be used in most applications and will do 80% of the job. The standard filters cover the following functions

Proxy and Gateway redirection

Memory and Persistent cache

Rule Files

Logging

Error Message Generation

Redirection

Authentication

Where the Standard Filters Aren't Enough

In some situations, you can not use the standard filters

Write you own Filters

A great way extending the fucntionallity of your application is to write a new filter that can either be hooked in globally or locally depending on its nature.


Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, libwww@w3.org,

@(#) $Id: Filters.html,v 1.1 1996/07/19 07:44:18 frystyk Exp $