LWP::Protocol::create() function calls the constructor for one of its
subclasses.

All derived LWP::Protocol classes need to override the request()
method which is used to service a request. The overridden method can
make use of the collect() function to collect together chunks of data
as it is received.

The following methods and functions are provided:

=over 4

=item $prot = LWP::Protocol->new()

The LWP::Protocol constructor is inherited by subclasses. As this is a
virtual base class this method should B<not> be called directly.

=item $prot = LWP::Protocol::create($scheme)

Create an object of the class implementing the protocol to handle the
given scheme. This is a function, not a method. It is more an object
factory than a constructor. This is the function user agents should
use to access protocols.

=item $class = LWP::Protocol::implementor($scheme, [$class])

Get and/or set implementor class for a scheme.  Returns '' if the
specified scheme is not supported.

=item $prot->request(...)

 $response = $protocol->request($request, $proxy, undef);
 $response = $protocol->request($request, $proxy, '/tmp/sss');
 $response = $protocol->request($request, $proxy, \&callback, 1024);

Dispatches a request over the protocol, and returns a response
object. This method needs to be overridden in subclasses.  Refer to
L<LWP::UserAgent> for description of the arguments.

=item $prot->collect($arg, $response, $collector)

Called to collect the content of a request, and process it
appropriately into a scalar, file, or by calling a callback.  If $arg
is undefined, then the content is stored within the $response.  If
$arg is a simple scalar, then $arg is interpreted as a file name and
the content is written to this file.  If $arg is a reference to a
routine, then content is passed to this routine.

The $collector is a routine that will be called and which is
responsible for returning pieces (as ref to scalar) of the content to
process.  The $collector signals EOF by returning a reference to an
empty sting.

The return value from collect() is the $response object reference.

B<Note:> We will only use the callback or file argument if
$response->is_success().  This avoids sending content data for
redirects and authentication responses to the callback which would be
confusing.

=item $prot->collect_once($arg, $response, $content)

Can be called when the whole response content is available as
$content.  This will invoke collect() with a collector callback that
returns a reference to $content the first time and an empty string the
next.

=head1 SEE ALSO

Inspect the F<LWP/Protocol/file.pm> and F<LWP/Protocol/http.pm> files
for examples of usage.

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1995-2001 Gisle Aas.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.