How to set proxy host on HttpClient request in Java

Question

I want to set proxy before sending HttpClient request on a URL. As I am able to connect it curl command setting up the proxy but with Java code I am not able to do that.

Curl command:

**curl -I -x IP:80  URL**

Code change done in java file:

HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
System.getProperties().put("http.proxyHost", "someProxyURL");
System.getProperties().put("http.proxyPort", "someProxyPort");
EntityEnclosingMethod method = new PostMethod(url);
method.setRequestEntity(new StringRequestEntity(requestXML, "text/xml", "utf-8"));

With above code changes in my java file I am getting below error :

java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused (Connection refused)

Which shows that I am not able to connect that URL with the proxy I am trying to use to connect the URL.

Answer 1

Add maven dependency (4.2.X+):

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
    <version>4.5.3</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
            <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
</dependency>

Use HttpClientBuilder and set flag useSystemProperties:

HttpClient client = HttpClientBuilder.create().useSystemProperties().build();

then you have two options at least:

Option A: Override arguments, i.e.

java -Djava.net.useSystemProxies=true 
     -Dhttp.proxyHost=PROXY_HOST
     -Dhttp.proxyPort=PROXY_PORT 
     -Dhttp.proxyUser=USERNAME
     -Dhttp.proxyPassword=PASSWORD
     -jar your-app.jar

Option B: Set up JVM (${JAVA_HOME}/lib/net.properties):

java.net.useSystemProxies=true
http.proxyHost=some-host
http.proxyPort=some-port

and run your application

Answer 2

A full example is given in this tutorial: How do I setting a proxy for HttpClient?

package org.kodejava.example.commons.httpclient;

import org.apache.commons.httpclient.Credentials;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HostConfiguration;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethod;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpStatus;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.UsernamePasswordCredentials;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.auth.AuthScope;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.GetMethod;

import java.io.IOException;

public class HttpGetProxy {
    private static final String PROXY_HOST = "proxy.host.com";
    private static final int PROXY_PORT = 8080;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
        HttpMethod method = new GetMethod("https://kodejava.org");

        HostConfiguration config = client.getHostConfiguration();
        config.setProxy(PROXY_HOST, PROXY_PORT);

        String username = "guest";
        String password = "s3cr3t";
        Credentials credentials = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(username, password);
        AuthScope authScope = new AuthScope(PROXY_HOST, PROXY_PORT);

        client.getState().setProxyCredentials(authScope, credentials);

        try {
            client.executeMethod(method);

            if (method.getStatusCode() == HttpStatus.SC_OK) {
                String response = method.getResponseBodyAsString();
                System.out.println("Response = " + response);
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            method.releaseConnection();
        }
    }
}

For this, you need to add a jar file: http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/commons-httpclient/commons-httpclient/3.1/commons-httpclient-3.1.jar

Complete Example of a Apache HttpClient 4.1, setting proxy can be found below

HttpHost proxy = new HttpHost("ip address",port number);
DefaultHttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
httpclient.getParams().setParameter(ConnRoutePNames.DEFAULT_PROXY,proxy);

HttpPost httpost = new HttpPost(url);
List<NameValuePair> nvps = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
nvps.add(new BasicNameValuePair("param name", param));
httpost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nvps, HTTP.ISO_8859_1));
HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpost);

HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
System.out.println("Request Handled?: " + response.getStatusLine());
InputStream in = entity.getContent();
httpclient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();

Resource Link: https://stackoverflow.com/a/4957144

For other version like 4.3 or 4.3+, you can go through this SO answer: Apache HttpClient 4.1 - Proxy Authentication