| Home | Libraries | People | FAQ | More

### BodyWriter

A BodyWriter provides an online algorithm to obtain a sequence of zero or more buffers from a body during serialization. The implementation creates an instance of this type when needed, and calls into it one or more times to retrieve buffers holding body octets. The interface of BodyWriter is intended to obtain buffers for these scenarios:

- A body that does not entirely fit in memory.
- A body produced incrementally from coroutine output.
- A body represented by zero or more buffers already in memory.
- A body whose size is not known ahead of time.
- Body data generated dynamically from other threads.
- Body data computed algorithmically.

##### Associated Types

- `is_body_writer`
- Body

##### Requirements

| Warning
These requirements may undergo non-backward compatible changes in subsequent versions.

In this table:

- `W` denotes a type meeting the requirements of BodyWriter.
- `B` denotes a Body where `std::is_same<W, B::writer>::value == true`.
- `a` denotes a value of type `W`.
- `h` denotes a const value of type `header<isRequest, Fields> const&`.
- `v` denotes a possibly const value of type `Body::value_type&`.
- `ec` is a value of type `error_code&`.
- `W<T>` is the type `boost::optional<std::pair<T, bool>>`.

Table 1.38. Valid expressions

Expression | Type | Semantics, Pre/Post-conditions
--- | --- | ---
`W::const_buffers_type` |  | A type which meets the requirements of ConstBufferSequence. This is the type of buffer returned by `W::get`.

`W{h,v};`

Constructible from `h` and `v`. The lifetime of `h` and `v` are guaranteed to end no earlier than after the `W` is destroyed. The writer shall not access the contents of `h` or `v` before the first call to `init`, permitting lazy construction of the message.

The constructor may optionally require that `h` and `v` are `const` references, with these consequences:

* If `W` requires that `h` and `v` are const references, then the corresponding serializer constructors for messages with this body type will will accept a const reference to a message, otherwise:

* If `W` requires that `h` and `v` are non-const references, then the corresponding serializer constructors for messages with this body type will require a non-const reference to a message.

`a.init(ec)` |  | Called once to fully initialize the object before any calls to `get`. The message body becomes valid before entering this function, and remains valid until the writer is destroyed. The function will ensure that `!ec` is `true` if there was no error or set to the appropriate error code if there was one.

`a.get(ec)`

`W<W::const_buffers_type>`

Called one or more times after `init` succeeds. This function returns `boost::none` if all buffers representing the body have been returned in previous calls or if it sets `ec` to indicate an error. Otherwise, if there are buffers remaining the function should return a pair with the first element containing a non-zero length buffer sequence representing the next set of octets in the body, while the second element is a `bool` meaning `true` if there may be additional buffers returned on a subsequent call, or `false` if the buffer returned on this call is the last buffer representing the body. The function will ensure that `!ec` is `true` if there was no error or set to the appropriate error code if there was one.

##### Exemplar

    struct BodyWriter
    {
    public:
        /// The type of buffer returned by `get`.
        using const_buffers_type = net::const_buffer;

        /** Construct the writer.

            @param h The header for the message being serialized

            @param body The body being serialized
        */
        template<bool isRequest, class Fields>
        BodyWriter(header<isRequest, Fields> const& h, value_type const& body);

        /** Initialize the writer.

            This is called after construction and before the first
            call to `get`. The message is valid and complete upon
            entry.

            @param ec Set to the error, if any occurred.
        */
        void
        init(error_code& ec)
        {
            // The specification requires this to indicate "no error"
            ec = {};
        }

        /** Returns the next buffer in the body.

            @li If the return value is `boost::none` (unseated optional) and
                `ec` does not contain an error, this indicates the end of the
                body, no more buffers are present.

            @li If the optional contains a value, the first element of the
                pair represents a <em>ConstBufferSequence</em> containing one or
                more octets of the body data. The second element indicates
                whether or not there are additional octets of body data.
                A value of `true` means there is more data, and that the
                implementation will perform a subsequent call to `get`.
                A value of `false` means there is no more body data.

            @li If `ec` contains an error code, the return value is ignored.

            @param ec Set to the error, if any occurred.
        */
        boost::optional<std::pair<const_buffers_type, bool>>
        get(error_code& ec)
        {
            // The specification requires this to indicate "no error"
            ec = {};

            return boost::none; // for exposition only
        }
    };

##### Models

- `basic_dynamic_body::writer`
- `basic_file_body::writer`
- `basic_string_body::writer`
- `buffer_body::writer`
- `empty_body::writer`
- `span_body::writer`
- `vector_body::writer`