Re: http headers and handlers

[Aaron Hamid]

By the way, I forgot to mention, if you are sending some "official" 
HTTP headers, Axis will forcibly strip them.  The only solution for 
now is to either modify the distributed HTTPSender or create your own 
modified HTTPSender and register it dynamically (again, I can provide 
code illustrating this dynamic registration).

See this bug:

http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=21812

Aaron

Aaron Hamid wrote:

Implement a javax.xml.rpc.handler.GenericHandler and register it on your 
client (if sending headers) or server (if receiving headers).  On the 
client side you need to dynamically register your handler through the 
handlerregistry of your service.  On the server side it is a matter of 
editing the deployment descriptor to include your handler.

In your client handler you can do:

public boolean handleRequest(MessageContext context) {
    // get the headers object
    Hashtable headers = (Hashtable) 
context.getProperty(HTTPConstants.REQUEST_HEADERS);
    if (headers == null) {
      headers = new Hashtable();
      context.setProperty(HTTPConstants.REQUEST_HEADERS, headers);
    }

    // add a header
    String someheadervalue = (String) context.getProperty("PROPS_KEY");
    headers.put("MYHEADER", someheadervalue);
    return true;
}
Now, you ask how the handler will know what header to set.  Well, you 
have to use the _setProperty() call on your stub to propagate 
information to the handler.  e.g.

((javax.xml.rpc.Stub)yourapi)._setProperty("PROPS_KEY", "here is the 
value of the header I want to set, thank you");

As an additional treat, these properties are apparently not accessible 
from the handler prior to Axis 1.1.

On the server side your handler needs to do something like:

public boolean handleRequest(javax.xml.rpc.handler.MessageContext 
context) {
    // get the servletrequest object
    HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest) 
context.getProperty(HTTPConstants.MC_HTTP_SERVLETREQUEST);
    if (request == null) return true;

    // look up your header
    String myheadervalue = (String) request.getHeader("MYHEADER");
    System.out.println("my header was propagated with this value!: " + 
myheadervalue);

    return true;
}
Note that this requires usage of specific internal Axis classes/APIs 
(e.g. HTTPConstants properties set in the context), so it will probably 
not be portable (although I imagine other frameworks will provide 
similar mechanisms).

I can provide sample code and/or libraries if you need.

Aaron Hamid
CIT/I&D
Cornell University
Benjamin Flohr wrote:

Hi*,

we need to access the http headers and set them using information 
taken from
the fully formed SOAP envelope before it is posted. We managed to do 
this by
modifying the HttpSender and assigning it to the call as its handler.
Unfortunately we lose the typemapping for the serializer/deserializer and
can no
longer parse the incoming SOAP message. Is there a straightforward way to
alter
Http headers? Can anyone help?

thanks

Andrew and Benjamin