Sending HTTP Post request with SOAP action using org.apache.http

Question

I'm trying to write a hard-coded HTTP Post request with SOAP action, using the org.apache.http api. My problem is I didn't find a way to add a request body (in my case - SOAP action). I'll be glad for some guidance.

import java.net.URI;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.RequestWrapper;
import org.apache.http.protocol.HTTP;

public class HTTPRequest
{
    @SuppressWarnings("unused")
    public HTTPRequest()
    {
        try {
            HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
            String body="DataDataData";
            String bodyLength=new Integer(body.length()).toString();
            System.out.println(bodyLength);
//          StringEntity stringEntity=new StringEntity(body);

            URI uri=new URI("SOMEURL?Param1=1234&Param2=abcd");
            HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(uri);
            httpPost.addHeader("Test", "Test_Value");

//          httpPost.setEntity(stringEntity);

            StringEntity entity = new StringEntity(body, "text/xml",HTTP.DEFAULT_CONTENT_CHARSET);
            httpPost.setEntity(entity);

            RequestWrapper requestWrapper=new RequestWrapper(httpPost);
            requestWrapper.setMethod("POST");
            requestWrapper.setHeader("LuckyNumber", "77");
            requestWrapper.removeHeaders("Host");
            requestWrapper.setHeader("Host", "GOD_IS_A_DJ");
//          requestWrapper.setHeader("Content-Length",bodyLength);          
            HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(requestWrapper);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

This is a full working example :

import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost; 
import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

public void callWebService(String soapAction, String soapEnvBody)  throws IOException {
    // Create a StringEntity for the SOAP XML.
    String body ="<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" xmlns:ns1=\"http://example.com/v1.0/Records\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\" xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:SOAP-ENC=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/\" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/\"><SOAP-ENV:Body>"+soapEnvBody+"</SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>";
    StringEntity stringEntity = new StringEntity(body, "UTF-8");
    stringEntity.setChunked(true);

    // Request parameters and other properties.
    HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost("http://example.com?soapservice");
    httpPost.setEntity(stringEntity);
    httpPost.addHeader("Accept", "text/xml");
    httpPost.addHeader("SOAPAction", soapAction);

    // Execute and get the response.
    HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpPost);
    HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

    String strResponse = null;
    if (entity != null) {
        strResponse = EntityUtils.toString(entity);
    }
}

Answer 2

The soapAction must passed as a http-header parameter - when used, it's not part of the http-body/payload.

Look here for an example with apache httpclient: http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/httpcomponents/oac.hc3x/trunk/src/examples/PostSOAP.java

Answer 3

... using org.apache.http api. ...

You need to include SOAPAction as a header in the request. As you have httpPost and requestWrapper handles, there are three ways adding the header.

 1. httpPost.addHeader( "SOAPAction", strReferenceToSoapActionValue );
 2. httpPost.setHeader( "SOAPAction", strReferenceToSoapActionValue );
 3. requestWrapper.setHeader( "SOAPAction", strReferenceToSoapActionValue );

Only difference is that addHeader allows multiple values with same header name and setHeader allows unique header names only. setHeader(... over writes first header with the same name.

You can go with any of these on your requirement.