all working! thanks for the cmake help, @devcodex!

external/3rd/library/webAPI/webAPI.cpp

@@ -5,12 +5,15 @@
 // otherwise returns the "message" if no success
 std::string webAPI::simplePost(std::string endpoint, std::string data, std::string slotName)
 {
+	// declare our output and go ahead and attempt to get data from remote
 	nlohmann::json response = request(endpoint, data, 1);
 	std::string output;
 
+	// if we got data back...
 	if (response.count("status") && response["status"].get<std::string>() == "success")
 	{
-		if (slotName != "" && response.count(slotName))
+		// use custom slot if specified (not "")
+		if (!(slotName.empty()) && response.count(slotName))
 		{
 			output = response[slotName].get<std::string>();
 		}
@@ -18,8 +21,8 @@ std::string webAPI::simplePost(std::string endpoint, std::string data, std::stri
 		{
 			output = "success";
 		}
-	}
-	else
+	} 
+	else //default message is an error, the other end always assumes "success" or the specified slot
 	{
 		if (response.count("message"))
 		{
@@ -34,36 +37,41 @@ std::string webAPI::simplePost(std::string endpoint, std::string data, std::stri
 	return output;				
 }
 
+// this can be broken out to separate the json bits later if we need raw or other http type requests
+// all it does is fetch via get or post, and if the status is 200 returns the json, else error json
 nlohmann::json webAPI::request(std::string endpoint, std::string data, int reqType)
 {
 	nlohmann::json response;
 
 	if (!endpoint.empty()) //data is allowed to be an empty string if we're doing a normal GET
 	{
-		CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
+		CURL *curl = curl_easy_init(); // start up curl
 
                 if (curl)
                 {
-                        std::string readBuffer;
+                        std::string readBuffer; // container for the remote response
+			long http_code = 0; // we get this after performing the get or post
 
-                        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, endpoint.c_str());
-                        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, writeCallback);
-                        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_WRITEDATA, &readBuffer);			
+                        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, endpoint.c_str()); // endpoint is always specified by caller
+                        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, writeCallback); // place the data into readBuffer using writeCallback
+                        curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_WRITEDATA, &readBuffer); // specify readBuffer as the container for data
 
 			if (reqType == 1)
 			{
 				curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, data.c_str());
 			}
 
-			CURLcode res = curl_easy_perform(curl);
+			CURLcode res = curl_easy_perform(curl); // make the request!
+			
+			curl_easy_getinfo (curl, CURLINFO_RESPONSE_CODE, &http_code); //get status code
 
-			if (res == CURLE_OK && !(readBuffer.empty()))
+			if (res == CURLE_OK && http_code == 200 && !(readBuffer.empty())) // check it all out and parse
 			{
                         	response = nlohmann::json::parse(readBuffer);
 			}
-			curl_easy_cleanup(curl); 
+			curl_easy_cleanup(curl); // always wipe our butt
 		}
-		else
+		else //default err messages below
 		{
         		response["message"] = "Failed to initialize cURL.";
         		response["status"] = "failure";