.. _request-level-api:

Request-Level Client-Side API
=============================

The request-level API is the most convenient way of using Akka HTTP's client-side functionality. It internally builds upon the
:ref:`host-level-api` to provide you with a simple and easy-to-use way of retrieving HTTP responses from remote servers.
Depending on your preference you can pick the flow-based or the future-based variant.


Flow-Based Variant
------------------

The flow-based variant of the request-level client-side API is presented by the ``Http().superPool(...)`` method.
It creates a new "super connection pool flow", which routes incoming requests to a (cached) host connection pool
depending on their respective effective URIs.

The ``Flow`` returned by ``Http().superPool(...)`` is very similar to the one from the :ref:`host-level-api`, so the
:ref:`using-a-host-connection-pool` section also applies here.

However, there is one notable difference between a "host connection pool client flow" for the host-level API and a
"super-pool flow":
Since in the former case the flow has an implicit target host context the requests it takes don't need to have absolute
URIs or a valid ``Host`` header. The host connection pool will automatically add a ``Host`` header if required.

For a super-pool flow this is not the case. All requests to a super-pool must either have an absolute URI or a valid
``Host`` header, because otherwise it'd be impossible to find out which target endpoint to direct the request to.


Future-Based Variant
--------------------

Sometimes your HTTP client needs are very basic. You simply need the HTTP response for a certain request and don't
want to bother with setting up a full-blown streaming infrastructure.

For these cases Akka HTTP offers the ``Http().singleRequest(...)`` method, which simply turns an ``HttpRequest`` instance
into ``Future[HttpResponse]``. Internally the request is dispatched across the (cached) host connection pool for the
request's effective URI.

Just like in the case of the super-pool flow described above the request must have either an absolute URI or a valid
``Host`` header, otherwise the returned future will be completed with an error.


Example
-------

.. includecode:: ../../code/docs/http/scaladsl/HttpClientExampleSpec.scala
   :include: single-request-example