SunOne Web Server 6.1 and JSP response content-length

Question

Hi,
I am looking for help for a problem in my previous post
http://swforum.sun.com/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=58612.
It seems to me the only significant difference of the response to the same jsp file from 6.0 and 6.1 server is the content-length header.
6.0 response has the content-length header;
6.1 response does not have the content-length header.
HttpUrlConnection::getContentLength() returns the actual content length of the 6.0 response;
HttpUrlConnection::getContentLength() returns -1 for the 6.1 response.
Here is the dump,
SunOne WebServer 6.0
allowUserInteraction? false
content? sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection$HttpInputStream@1eed786
contentEncoding? null
contentLength? 999
contentType? application/x-java-jnlp-file
Date? 1131378080000
DefaultAllowUserInteraction? false
DefaultUseCaches? true
DoInput? true
DoOutput? false
Expiration? Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 EST 1969
FileNameMap? java.net.URLConnection$1@1a1c887
lastModified? Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 EST 1969
requestMethod? GET
responseCode? 200
responseMessage? OK
HEADER::Set-cookie=[JSESSIONID=pkand013-1%253A436f75a0%253A5b909ee2e5bbe3bc;path=/]
HEADER::Date=[Mon, 07 Nov 2005 15:41:20 GMT]
HEADER::Server=[Netscape-Enterprise/6.0]
HEADER::null=[HTTP/1.1 200 OK]
HEADER::Content-length=[999]
HEADER::Content-type=[application/x-java-jnlp-file]
SunOne WebServer 6.1
allowUserInteraction? false
content? sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection$HttpInputStream@1fee6fc
contentEncoding? null
contentLength? -1
contentType? application/x-java-jnlp-file
Date? Mon Nov 07 10:49:07 EST 2005
DefaultAllowUserInteraction? false
DefaultUseCaches? true
DoInput? true
DoOutput? false
Expiration? Wed Dec 31 14:00:00 EST 1969
FileNameMap? java.net.URLConnection$1@1503a3
lastModified? Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 EST 1969
requestMethod? GET
responseCode? 200
responseMessage? OK
HEADER::null=[HTTP/1.1 200 OK]
HEADER::Expires=[Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST]
HEADER::Set-cookie=[JSESSIONID=44A318F4BC0802A4C70C27FD4AB1C115;Path=/]
HEADER::Transfer-encoding=[chunked]
HEADER::Date=[Mon, 07 Nov 2005 15:49:07 GMT]
HEADER::Pragma=[No-cache]
HEADER::Server=[Sun-ONE-Web-Server/6.1]
HEADER::Content-type=[application/x-java-jnlp-file]
HEADER::Cache-control=[no-cache]
In my test env, 6.0 and 6.1 are installed on the same machine (Win2K), using the same directory as web root, same http port. Browser runs on a different machine.
Thanks
Harry

Answer 1

Hi, elving
This is good information. Thanks very much.
Actually, I am not using SSL, just plain http connection with basic auth. It might be the cache-control header that causes the head ache. 6.0 response does not have the cache-control header, but 6.1 has.
The interesting thing is that adding a servlet mapping on 6.1 solves the problem.
I will take a further look tomorrow.
Cheers,
Harry
I doubt the problem has to do with the Content-Length
header.
I'd guess that you're using SSL. Are you? If so,
you're almost certainly bumping into a known bug (or,
as Microsoft describes it, a "feature") in Internet
Explorer. Microsoft article KB316431 at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=316431h
as some information on the problem. As the article
points out, the problem occurs when Internet Explorer
needs to invoke an external application to handle a
file that was served over SSL with Cache-Control:
no-cache and/or Pragma: no-cache headers.
A work around would be force Web Server to send
Cache-Control and Pragma headers that don't include
the no-cache directive. For example, the following
lines could be added to the obj.conf configuration
file:<Object ppath="*.jnlp">
Output fn="set-variable" set-srvhdrs="Cache-Control:
private"
Output fn="set-variable" set-srvhdrs="Pragma:
private"
</Object>Fortunately, it sounds like you've already
found another viable work around.