A wrapper for 'libcurl' <http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/> Provides functions to allow one to compose general HTTP requests and provides convenient functions to fetch URIs, get & post forms, etc. and process the results returned by the Web server. This provides a great deal of control over the HTTP/FTP/... connection and the form of the request while providing a higher-level interface than is available just using R socket connections. Additionally, the underlying implementation is robust and extensive, supporting FTP/FTPS/TFTP (uploads and downloads), SSL/HTTPS, telnet, dict, ldap, and also supports cookies, redirects, authentication, etc.
This version of RCurl can be found in the following snapshots: