User defined HTTP headers

Question

          Hi.
          Is there any way that I can add a user defined HTTP header when posting messages
          to a servlet?
          I tried the following --
          URL url = new URL("http://localhost:7001/ebXML/receiver");
          HttpURLConnection urlc = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
          urlc.setRequestMethod("POST");
          urlc.setDoOutput(true);
          FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream("ebxml.xml");
          byte[] buf = new byte[8192];
          buflen = in.read(buf);
          System.out.println("len="+buflen);
          urlc.setRequestProperty("Content-length", (new Integer(buflen)).toString());
          urlc.setRequestProperty("Content-type",
                         "multipart/related; type=text/xml; boundary=\"BEA-EBXML-Boundary\"; version=1.0");
          urlc.setRequestProperty("SOAPAction", "ebXML");
          At the receiving side, the servlet uses
          HttpServletRequest.getHeaderNames() to get all the headers.
          The Content-type and the Content-length headers are shown up properly; however
          the "SOAPAction" header is missing.
          I tried to put "X-" in front of "SOAPAction". Then, it got through. It seems to
          me that our Servlet Container has filtered out user defined headers if they are
          not started with "X-".
          How can I work around this problem? The ebXML TRP spec specified that the "SOAPAction"
          header must be in the HTTP header and I can not change the name to be "X-SOAPAction".
          

Answer 1

Weird. I use 6.1sp1 and this works as expected. Here is a small test
          (app does pretty much the same):
          test.jsp:
          <%
          Enumeration e = request.getHeaderNames();
          while(e.hasMoreElements()) {
          String name= (String)e.nextElement();
          out.println(name + " = " + request.getHeader(name));
          %>
          Test.java:
          import java.io.*;
          import java.net.*;
          public class Test {
          public static void main(String[] args) {
          try {
          URL url = new URL("http://localhost:7001/test.jsp");
          HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
          conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
          conn.setDoOutput(true);
          conn.setRequestProperty("Content-type", "some/xml");
          conn.setRequestProperty("SOAPAction", "foo:bar");
          OutputStream out = conn.getOutputStream();
          byte[] data = "Hello, World!".getBytes();
          out.write(data);
          out.close();
          BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
          String line;
          while((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
          System.out.println(line);
          } catch(Throwable oops) {
          oops.printStackTrace();
          # java Test
          Content-type = some/xml
          SOAPAction = foo:bar
          User-Agent = Java1.3.1
          Host = localhost:7001
          Accept = text/html, image/gif, image/jpeg, *; q=.2, */*; q=.2
          Connection = keep-alive
          Content-length = 13
          > Dimitri Rakitine <[email protected]> wrote:
          >>Hrm. Unless you use some internal WebLogic version this should
          >>work (And it does work as expected - using both 5.1sp10 and 6.1sp1 -
          >>
          >>SoapAction gets to the servlet just fine).
          >>
          > I do use WLS 6.1 sp1 release version. I also find out another application using
          > java mail to post a request on the same servlet can have any user defined header
          > in the HTTP header.
          > So, I guess the problem is at the sending side. Have you tried to use the same
          > mechanism (HttpURLConnection) I was using to send the HTTP request?
          > Thanks!
          > Yuhua
          >>Yuhua <[email protected]> wrote:
          >>
          >>> Hi.
          >>
          >>> Is there any way that I can add a user defined HTTP header when posting
          >>messages
          >>> to a servlet?
          >>
          >>> I tried the following --
          >>
          >>> URL url = new URL("http://localhost:7001/ebXML/receiver");
          >>> HttpURLConnection urlc = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
          >>> urlc.setRequestMethod("POST");
          >>> urlc.setDoOutput(true);
          >>
          >>> FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream("ebxml.xml");
          >>> byte[] buf = new byte[8192];
          >>> buflen = in.read(buf);
          >>> System.out.println("len="+buflen);
          >>
          >>> urlc.setRequestProperty("Content-length", (new Integer(buflen)).toString());
          >>> urlc.setRequestProperty("Content-type",
          >>>                "multipart/related; type=text/xml; boundary=\"BEA-EBXML-Boundary\";
          >>version=1.0");
          >>> urlc.setRequestProperty("SOAPAction", "ebXML");
          >>
          >>> ;;;;;;;;;;;;
          >>> At the receiving side, the servlet uses
          >>> HttpServletRequest.getHeaderNames() to get all the headers.
          >>> The Content-type and the Content-length headers are shown up properly;
          >>however
          >>> the "SOAPAction" header is missing.
          >>
          >>> I tried to put "X-" in front of "SOAPAction". Then, it got through.
          >>It seems to
          >>> me that our Servlet Container has filtered out user defined headers
          >>if they are
          >>> not started with "X-".
          >>
          >>> How can I work around this problem? The ebXML TRP spec specified that
          >>the "SOAPAction"
          >>> header must be in the HTTP header and I can not change the name to
          >>be "X-SOAPAction".
          >>
          >>
          >>
          >>
          >>--
          >>Dimitri
          Dimitri