Feature request: output full HTTP request and response in a JSON structure

I would love to capture the full HTTP request and response in a JSON structure so I can extract the various parts programmatically without parsing the plaintext output.

For example:

http --output-full-json ...

{
  "request": {
    "headers": "Accept: application/json\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
    "body": "<request body here, escaped/encoded as necessary to work as a string value>"
  },
  "response": {
    "headers": "201 Created\r\nContent-Type: application/json\r\nContent-Length: 42",
    "body": "<response body here, escaped/encoded as necessary to work as a string value>"
  }
}

[jakubroztocil]

Thanks for the suggestion, @hughpv. I’ve been considering this for a while.

Initial thoughts

• Output options should be respected.
• With --all, an Array of exchanges is printed instead of a single object.
• What about binary bodies? Apply base64 encoding like httpbin.org? Let user choose to skip/base64-encode?
• JSON body, when valid, could be embedded into the structure directly (i.e., not as string).
• A structured object for headers would be nice, but we should support multiple headers of the same name somehow.
• UI — --output-format which could be raw (default) + json + potentially more in the future.
• User can always pipe to jq but consider supporting simple selectors directly. Something like --select=response.headers.content-type. These would work on the JSON structure so when used, then --output-format=json would be implied. Need to consider the multi-exchange scenario (where index might be needed).

Hypothetical example

$ http -v --output-format=json  example.org

// Exchange
{
  "request": {
    "headers": {
      "Foo": "Bar"
    },
    "body": "…"
  },
  "response": {
    "headers": {
      "Foo": "Bar"
    },
    "body": {
      "result": "ok"
    }
  }
}

[hughpv]

Correct. 😃 But I could definitely see where some users would find structured headers quite useful.