Using IO to request a URI

In this recipe, we will use the YUI 3 module IO to retrieve the contents of a locally hosted text file. This will demonstrate how to use IO to make a simple HTTP GET request and display the response.

How to do it...

1. 1. In this example, we will use three files:

   • text.txt: A simple text file containing the data that we will retrieve.

   • text.php: A PHP file that sets up the Moodle environment and defines the elements we need:

     <?php
     require_once(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../config.php');
     $PAGE->set_context(get_context_instance(CONTEXT_SYSTEM));
     $PAGE->set_url('/cook/text.php');
     $PAGE->requires->js('/cook/text.js', true);
     echo $OUTPUT->header();
     ?>
     <form>
     <textarea id="contents"></textarea>
     <br />
     <input id="go" type="button" value="Get file contents">
     </form>
     <?php
     echo $OUTPUT->footer();
     ?>
     

   • text.js: A JavaScript file that contains the actual IO request:

     YUI().use('io-base', 'node', function(Y)
     {
     function success...