Slide with Tomcat 3.3

[Pill, Juergen]

Hello,

I think I found a problem with Slide and Tomcat 3.3 (it should also occur in
Tomcat 3.2 for for some reason it does not).

Scenario:

A file is locked (e.g. by word) and an other user (e.g. an application using
the slide client API) wants to overwrite this file. In this case the second
user (over writer) will try to put the files multiple times (up to 5) until
he prints an exception (if the Slide client API is used):

Reopen connection : Host:localhost Port:8080


HTTP/1.0 423
Closing connection
Reopen connection : Host:localhost Port:8080


HTTP/1.0 423
Closing connection
Reopen connection : Host:localhost Port:8080


HTTP/1.0 423
Closing connection
Reopen connection : Host:localhost Port:8080


HTTP/1.0 423
Closing connection
Reopen connection : Host:localhost Port:8080


HTTP/1.0 423
Closing connection
Reopen connection : Host:localhost Port:8080
org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpException: Unable to process request
        at
org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient.executeMethod(HttpClient.java:606)
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.tprocessor.TProcessors.executeStep(TPro
cessors.java:376)
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.tprocessor.TProcessors.exceuteStepOrRep
eater(TProcessors.java:299)
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.tprocessor.TProcessors.executeTestCase(
TProcessors.java:266)
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.tprocessor.TProcessors.mainExecuter(TPr
ocessors.java:142)
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.walker.MultiTProcessorExecuter$1.job(Mu
ltiTProcessorExecuter.java:50)
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.walker.DirectoryWalker.walkDirectory(Di
rectoryWalker.java:65)
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.walker.DirectoryWalker.walkDirectory(Di
rectoryWalker.java:69)
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.walker.DirectoryWalker.walkDirectory(Di
rectoryWalker.java:69)
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.walker.DirectoryWalker.<init>(Directory
Walker.java:30)
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.walker.MultiTProcessorExecuter.exceuteA
llSpecifiedXMLFileByTProcessor(Mult
        at
com.softwareag.xtools.xdav.testtools.walker.MultiTProcessorExecuter.main(Mul
tiTProcessorExecuter.java:62)



The problem lies in following code snipplet:


        public synchronized void executeMethod(HttpMethod method)
                throws IOException, HttpException {

                int retries = 0;

                Hashtable responseHeaders = null;

                boolean methodProcessed = false;
                boolean sentRequestBody = false;

                openConnection();

                while ((retries < 5) && (!methodProcessed)) {

                        try {

                                responseHeaders = null;
                                sentRequestBody = false;

                                // Send the request header except if the
                                byte[] query = sendRequestHeader(method);

                                if ((!http11) ||
(!method.needExpectation())) {
                                        sendRequestBody(method, query);
                                        sentRequestBody = true;
                                }


The server will start to process the request when the header is sent. The
request can be completely executed by the header infos only, and the server
closes that request, including the associated sockets. Thus sending the body
will lead to an IOException, which will redo this scenario until the retries
condition holds.

Does this make sense? (if yes, Remy, will you do the necessary changes?)

Best regards

Juergen Pill