Which Perl modules are good for writing a RESTful web API client?

Question

Hi all:

I am going to be writing an application that does a bit of computation on data it gets from a RESTful web service and outputs to a text file and/or HTML page. The web service is XML over HTTP. I have done a simple proof of concept with LWP::Simple and XML::Simple, but it's all a bit ad-hoc.

Can anyone recommend some Perl modules or best practice for interacting with RESTful web services in this way? Is there one module that will take care of all the details for me (making request + handling response) or is the problem domain too general for that?

Note the web service is all XML over HTTP, though I expect to have to use HTTP GET, POST and HEAD eventually. I think I have the option of requesting JSON instead of XML if it makes thins simpler.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I do most everything either with LWP::Simple, LWP::UserAgent, or WWW::Mechanize. The REST stuff is just choosing the right URL to send the request too. Once you get the response, there are plenty of modules on CPAN to handle XML or JSON.