README for LUAHTTP

Version 1.0.1

INTRODUCTION

This is a small package that provides five commands to make HTTP requests using Lua and LuaTeX. Functionalities include API calls, fetching RSS feeds and the possibility to include images using a link. These commands run during the compilation of the PDF-Document and may require user interaction.

This packages requires LuaTeX, Lua5.3, expat, openssl and the following Lua modules called "rocks":

• luasec
• dkjson
• ltn12
• feedparser
• luaexpat

MANUAL INSTALLATION

First the required dependencies need to be installed:

Arch:

lua53 luarocks expat openssl

Debian:

liblua5.3-dev libssl-dev lua5.3 libexpat1-dev luarocks

MacOS:

lua@5.3 luarocks expat openssl

The Lua rocks can be installed locally using luarocks. To install the Lua rocks locally we need to initialize the directory where the .tex file(s) is located. In the directory execute the following commands to initialize a new Lua project and install the required dependencies:

luarocks init --lua-version=5.3
luarocks install dkjson --lua-version=5.3
luarocks install luasec --lua-version=5.3
luarocks install ltn12 --lua-version=5.3
luarocks install luaexpat --lua-version=5.3
luarocks install feedparser --lua-version=5.3

For MacOS it may be necessary to add Lua 5.3 to your "$PATH" and install luaexpat and luasec using the commands bellow:

echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/lua@5.3/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
luarocks install luaexpat EXPAT_DIR=/usr/local/Cellar/expat/${YOUR_VERSION_HERE}
luarocks install luasec OPENSSL_DIR=/usr/local/Cellar/openssl@3/${YOUR_VERSION_HERE}

USAGE

Compilation requires the use of lualatex with the --shell-escape option.

lualatex --shell-escape

Add the package to your TeX file:

\usepackage{luahttp}

Here is a quick overview of the commands and their parameters. For further details and examples please read the package documentation.

• fetchJson, send a GET request and filter the response using optional keys:

  \fetchJson{URL}[optional: "key1,key2,.."]
  

• fetchJsonUsingFile, send a request specified in a JSON-file and filter the response using optional keys:

  \fetchJsonUsingFile{Path to JSON-file}[optional: "key1,key2,.."]
  

• fetchJsonUsingQuery, send a POST request with up to five query parameters and filter the response using keys:

  \fetchJsonUsingQuery{URL}{"key1,key2,.."} [optional: "?queryparameter1=value1"] .. [optional: "&queryparameter5=value5"]
  

• fetchRss, send a GET request and filter the feed and entries (limited by the second argument) using optional keys:

  \fetchRss{URL}{limit}[optional: "feedinfokey1,feedinfokey2,.."][optional: "entrykey1,entrykey2,.."]
  

• fetchImage, fetch an image from the internet and specify the width and height in cm using optional arguments:

  \fetchImage{URL}[optional: width in cm][optional: height in cm]
  

AUTHOR / MAINTAINER

• Johannes Casaburi (johannes.casaburi@protonmail.com)

LICENSE

LATEX Project Public License, version 1.3c or later.

KNOWN PROBLEMS

• Not all URL leading to an image are detected
• Results that where filtered using keys may not be displayed in the order of the given keys.