FYI, I got it all working. It was pretty simple and slick. Simply put,
the keys were:

#1: use of curl.POST with curl.READFUNCTION
#2: use of curl.WRITEFUNCTION to get returned data.

Andrew Bushnell wrote:

> Looks like part of my answer is to use the :
>
> curl.(c.POST, 1) and combined read function to get my string posted.
>
>
> Andrew Bushnell wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am moving some code over to use pycurl (great library btw, thanks!!)
>> but I am having difficulty replacing a section of code using pycurl.
>> The old code/algorithm looks as something along the lines of:
>>
>> connection = HTTPConnection(host)
>> connection.putheader("POST", "URLTOPOSTTO")
>> connection.putheader("content-type", "text/xml")
>> connection.putheader("Content-length", str(len(mydata)))
>> connectino.putheader("mycustomheader", "mycustomvalue")
>> connection.endheaders()
>> connection.send(data)
>>
>> ...
>>
>> then I get the reply and in this case, it is "data" to download/read
>> off of the socket.
>>
>> I need/want to use pycurl to get round some proxy/ssl issues which it
>> handles beautifully for me in other areas. However, I am stuck on 2
>> questions/issues:
>>
>> #1: it seems to set the HTTPPOST, my data needs to be in the form of a
>> list with field, data... This is not the case for me.
>>
>> #2: will a registered WRITEFUNCTION get the data requested via my post
>> and custom header? Basically, the post contains an "action" to be
>> peformed by the remote. When finished, it writes back the data,
>> including content-type and length and based on that I read the data.
>>
>> Some curl psuedocode that I was working with:
>>
>> class Test:
>> def myfunction():
>> ...
>> c = pycurl.Curl()
>> t = Test()
>> c.setopt(c.URL, 'url_posting_to')
>> # insecure for now..
>> c.setopt(c.SSL_VERIFYPEER, False)
>> c.setopt(c.SSL_VERIFYHOST, 1)
>> c.setopt(c.PROXY, 'proxy')
>> # tunnel to get to secure site.
>> c.setopt(c.HTTPPROXYTUNNEL, True)
>> c.setopt(c.VERBOSE, 1)
>> # mydata is a python string object...
>> c.setopt(c.HTTPPOST, mydata)
>> c.setopt(c.WRITEFUNCTION, t.myfunction)
>> c.perform()
>> c.close()
>>
>>
>> I will keep fishing/digging, but any help is appreciated.
>>
>

-- 
************************************
Andrew Bushnell
Lead Development Engineer
Fluent Inc.
10 Cavendish Court
Centerra Resource Park
Lebanon, NH  03766
awb_at_fluent.com
Phone: 603-643-2600, ext. 757
Fax: 603-643-1721
www.fluent.com
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