Switched to "==" a the separator for URL params.

Also refactored item escaping.

README.rst

@@ -83,8 +83,8 @@ File fields (``field@/path/to/file``)
   ``screenshot@/path/to/file.png``. The presence of a file field results into
   a ``multipart/form-data`` request.
 
-Query string parameters (``name=:value``)
-  Appends the given name/value pair as a query string  parameter to the URL.
+Query string parameters (``name==value``)
+  Appends the given name/value pair as a query string parameter to the URL.
 
 
 Examples
@@ -127,11 +127,12 @@ The above will send the same request as if the following HTML form were submitte
         <input type="file" name="cv" />
     </form>
 
-Query string parameters can be added to any request::
+**Query string parameters** can be added to any request without having to quote
+the ``&`` characters::
 
-    http GET example.com/ search=:donuts
+    http GET example.com/ search==donuts in==fridge
 
-Will GET the URL "example.com/?search=donuts".
+Will ``GET` the URL ``http://example.com/?search=donuts&in=fridge``.
 
 A whole request body can be passed in via **``stdin``** instead, in which
 case it will be used with no further processing::
@@ -151,7 +152,7 @@ the second one does via ``stdin``::
 
     http https://api.github.com/repos/jkbr/httpie | http httpbin.org/post
 
-Note that when the output is redirected (like the examples above), HTTPie
+Note that when the **output is redirected** (like the examples above), HTTPie
 applies a different set of defaults then for console output. Namely colors
 aren't used (can be forced with ``--pretty``) and only the response body
 gets printed (can be overwritten with ``--print``).
@@ -165,7 +166,7 @@ request will send the verbatim contents of the file with
 
     http PUT httpbin.org/put @/data/file.xml
 
-When using HTTPie from shell scripts you might want to use the
+When using HTTPie from **shell scripts**, you might want to use the
 ``--check-status`` flag. It instructs HTTPie to exit with an error if the
 HTTP status is one of ``3xx``, ``4xx``, or ``5xx``. The exit status will
 be ``3`` (unless ``--allow-redirects`` is set), ``4``, or ``5``
@@ -213,7 +214,7 @@ See ``http -h`` for more details::
                             separator used. It can be an HTTP header
                             (header:value), a data field to be used in the request
                             body (field_name=value), a raw JSON data field
-                            (field_name:=value), a query parameter (name=:value),
+                            (field_name:=value), a query parameter (name=value),
                             or a file field (field_name@/path/to/file). You can
                             use a backslash to escape a colliding separator in the
                             field name.
@@ -333,7 +334,7 @@ Changelog
       the new default behaviour is to only print the response body.
       (It can still be overriden via the ``--print`` flag.)
     * Improved highlighing of HTTP headers.
-    * Added query string parameters (param=:value).
+    * Added query string parameters (param==value).
     * Added support for terminal colors under Windows.
 * `0.2.5 <https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/compare/0.2.2...0.2.5>`_ (2012-07-17)
     * Unicode characters in prettified JSON now don't get escaped for

httpie/cli.py

@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ def _(text):
 
 # ``requests.request`` keyword arguments.
 parser.add_argument(
-    '--auth', '-a', type=cliparse.AuthCredentialsType(cliparse.SEP_COMMON),
+    '--auth', '-a', type=cliparse.AuthCredentialsArgType(cliparse.SEP_COMMON),
     help=_('''
         username:password.
         If only the username is provided (-a username),
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ def _(text):
 )
 parser.add_argument(
     '--proxy', default=[], action='append',
-    type=cliparse.KeyValueType(cliparse.SEP_COMMON),
+    type=cliparse.KeyValueArgType(cliparse.SEP_COMMON),
     help=_('''
         String mapping protocol to the URL of the proxy
         (e.g. http:foo.bar:3128).
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ def _(text):
 parser.add_argument(
     'items', nargs='*',
     metavar='ITEM',
-    type=cliparse.KeyValueType(
+    type=cliparse.KeyValueArgType(
         cliparse.SEP_COMMON,
         cliparse.SEP_QUERY,
         cliparse.SEP_DATA,
@@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ def _(text):
         separator used. It can be an HTTP header (header:value),
         a data field to be used in the request body (field_name=value),
         a raw JSON data field (field_name:=value),
-        a query parameter (name=:value),
+        a query parameter (name==value),
         or a file field (field_name@/path/to/file).
         You can use a backslash to escape a colliding
         separator in the field name.

httpie/cliparse.py

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
     OrderedDict = dict
 
 from requests.structures import CaseInsensitiveDict
+from requests.compat import str
 
 from . import __version__
 
@@ -25,7 +26,7 @@
 SEP_DATA = '='
 SEP_DATA_RAW_JSON = ':='
 SEP_FILES = '@'
-SEP_QUERY = '=:'
+SEP_QUERY = '=='
 DATA_ITEM_SEPARATORS = [
     SEP_DATA,
     SEP_DATA_RAW_JSON,
@@ -61,7 +62,6 @@ def parse_args(self, env, args=None, namespace=None):
 
         if not env.stdin_isatty:
             self._body_from_file(args, env.stdin)
-
         if args.auth and not args.auth.has_password():
             # stdin has already been read (if not a tty) so
             # it's save to prompt now.
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ def _guess_method(self, args, env):
             # - Set `args.url` correctly.
             # - Parse the first item and move it to `args.items[0]`.
 
-            item = KeyValueType(
+            item = KeyValueArgType(
                 SEP_COMMON,
                 SEP_QUERY,
                 SEP_DATA,
@@ -119,20 +119,20 @@ def _guess_method(self, args, env):
     def _parse_items(self, args):
         """
         Parse `args.items` into `args.headers`,
-        `args.data`, `args.queries`, and `args.files`.
+        `args.data`, `args.`, and `args.files`.
 
         """
         args.headers = CaseInsensitiveDict()
         args.headers['User-Agent'] = DEFAULT_UA
         args.data = OrderedDict()
         args.files = OrderedDict()
-        args.queries = CaseInsensitiveDict()
+        args.params = OrderedDict()
         try:
             parse_items(items=args.items,
                         headers=args.headers,
                         data=args.data,
                         files=args.files,
-                        queries=args.queries)
+                        params=args.params)
         except ParseError as e:
             if args.traceback:
                 raise
@@ -195,49 +195,91 @@ def __eq__(self, other):
         return self.__dict__ == other.__dict__
 
 
-class KeyValueType(object):
-    """A type used with `argparse`."""
+class KeyValueArgType(object):
+    """
+    A key-value pair argument type used with `argparse`.
+
+    Parses a key-value arg and constructs a `KeyValue` instance.
+    Used for headers, form data, and other key-value pair types.
+
+    """
 
     key_value_class = KeyValue
 
     def __init__(self, *separators):
         self.separators = separators
-        self.escapes = ['\\\\' + sep for sep in separators]
 
     def __call__(self, string):
-        found = {}
-        found_escapes = []
-        for esc in self.escapes:
-            found_escapes += [m.span() for m in re.finditer(esc, string)]
-        for sep in self.separators:
-            matches = re.finditer(sep, string)
-            for match in matches:
-                start, end = match.span()
-                inside_escape = False
-                for estart, eend in found_escapes:
-                    if start >= estart and end <= eend:
-                        inside_escape = True
-                        break
-                if start in found and len(found[start]) > len(sep):
-                    break
-                if not inside_escape:
-                    found[start] = sep
-
-        if not found:
+        """
+        Parse `string` and return `self.key_value_class()` instance.
+
+        The best of `self.separators` is determined (first found, longest).
+        Back slash escaped characters aren't considered as separators
+        (or parts thereof). Literal back slash characters have to be escaped
+        as well (r'\\').
+
+        """
+
+        class Escaped(str):
+            pass
+
+        def tokenize(s):
+            """
+            r'foo\=bar\\baz'
+            => ['foo', Escaped('='), 'bar', Escaped('\'), 'baz']
+
+            """
+            tokens = ['']
+            esc = False
+            for c in s:
+                if esc:
+                    tokens.extend([Escaped(c), ''])
+                    esc = False
+                else:
+                    if c == '\\':
+                        esc = True
+                    else:
+                        tokens[-1] += c
+            return tokens
+
+        tokens = tokenize(string)
+
+        # Sorting by length ensures that the longest one will be
+        # chosen as it will overwrite any shorter ones starting
+        # at the same position in the `found` dictionary.
+        separators = sorted(self.separators, key=len)
+
+        for i, token in enumerate(tokens):
+
+            if isinstance(token, Escaped):
+                continue
+
+            found = {}
+            for sep in separators:
+                pos = token.find(sep)
+                if pos != -1:
+                    found[pos] = sep
+
+            if found:
+                # Starting first, longest separator found.
+                sep = found[min(found.keys())]
+
+                key, value = token.split(sep, 1)
+
+                # Any preceding tokens are part of the key.
+                key = ''.join(tokens[:i]) + key
+
+                # Any following tokens are part of the value.
+                value += ''.join(tokens[i + 1:])
+
+                break
+
+        else:
             raise argparse.ArgumentTypeError(
                 '"%s" is not a valid value' % string)
 
-        # split the string at the earliest non-escaped separator.
-        seploc = min(found.keys())
-        sep = found[seploc]
-        key = string[:seploc]
-        value = string[seploc + len(sep):]
-
-        # remove escape chars
-        for sepstr in self.separators:
-            key = key.replace('\\' + sepstr, sepstr)
-            value = value.replace('\\' + sepstr, sepstr)
-        return self.key_value_class(key=key, value=value, sep=sep, orig=string)
+        return self.key_value_class(
+            key=key, value=value, sep=sep, orig=string)
 
 
 class AuthCredentials(KeyValue):
@@ -260,13 +302,13 @@ def prompt_password(self):
             sys.exit(0)
 
 
-class AuthCredentialsType(KeyValueType):
+class AuthCredentialsArgType(KeyValueArgType):
 
     key_value_class = AuthCredentials
 
     def __call__(self, string):
         try:
-            return super(AuthCredentialsType, self).__call__(string)
+            return super(AuthCredentialsArgType, self).__call__(string)
         except argparse.ArgumentTypeError:
             # No password provided, will prompt for it later.
             return self.key_value_class(
@@ -277,10 +319,10 @@ def __call__(self, string):
             )
 
 
-def parse_items(items, data=None, headers=None, files=None, queries=None):
+def parse_items(items, data=None, headers=None, files=None, params=None):
     """
-    Parse `KeyValueType` `items` into `data`, `headers`, `files`,
-    and `queries`.
+    Parse `KeyValue` `items` into `data`, `headers`, `files`,
+    and `params`.
 
     """
     if headers is None:
@@ -289,15 +331,15 @@ def parse_items(items, data=None, headers=None, files=None, queries=None):
         data = {}
     if files is None:
         files = {}
-    if queries is None:
-        queries = {}
+    if params is None:
+        params = {}
     for item in items:
         value = item.value
         key = item.key
         if item.sep == SEP_HEADERS:
             target = headers
         elif item.sep == SEP_QUERY:
-            target = queries
+            target = params
         elif item.sep == SEP_FILES:
             try:
                 value = open(os.path.expanduser(item.value), 'r')
@@ -322,4 +364,4 @@ def parse_items(items, data=None, headers=None, files=None, queries=None):
 
         target[key] = value
 
-    return headers, data, files, queries
+    return headers, data, files, params

httpie/core.py

@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ def get_response(args):
             proxies=dict((p.key, p.value) for p in args.proxy),
             files=args.files,
             allow_redirects=args.allow_redirects,
-            params=args.queries,
+            params=args.params,
         )
 
     except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):