HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request in java HTTP post

Question

I am trying to post xml data to API using HTTP post method with credentials but a getting HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request error .. Can anyone pl help me out ....

Here is my sample code:

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File("Data.xml")));

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        while((line=br.readLine())!= null){
            sb.append(line.trim());
            }
        System.out.println("xml:  "+sb);



        params=sb.toString();
        HttpPost request = new HttpPost("*****************url***************");
        String urlaparam=URLEncoder.encode("importFormatCode:1&data:"+params,"UTF-8");
        String userCredentials = "****:******";
        byte[] auth = Base64.encodeBase64(userCredentials.getBytes());

        StringEntity entity=new StringEntity(urlaparam);
        request.addHeader("Content-type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
        request.addHeader("Accept", "application/xml");
        request.addHeader("Accept-Language", "en-US,en;q=0.5");
        request.addHeader("Authorization", "Basic " + new String(auth));


        request.setEntity(entity);
        HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(request);    

       System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
       System.out.println(request);
}
    catch(Exception e)
{
}

I think, your parameter format is wrong. The key-value separator should be "=", not ":". You can use org.apache.http.client.utils.URLEncodedUtils.format(...) to encode your parameters. — isnot2bad
– isnot2bad, Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 10:35

isnot2bad · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-02 12:06:48Z

1

First of all, your form parameters are not encoded correctly. You are using colon (:) to separate keys from their values, but instead, the equal sign (=) must be used:

Wrong: "importFormatCode:1&data:" + params
Correct: "importFormatCode=1&data=" + params

(See also W3C.org - Forms in HTML Documents - application/x-www-form-urlencoded)

Apart from that, you must not URL-encode the entire string but only the keys and the values. Otherwise you'll also encode the separator characters = and &!

The easiest way is to use the existing utility class org.apache.http.client.utils.URLEncodedUtils (assuming that you're using Apache HTTP Components):

String xmlData = // your xml data from somewhere

List<NameValuePair> params = Arrays.asList(
    new BasicNameValuePair("importFormatCode", "1"),
    new BasicNameValuePair("data", xmlData)
);
String body = URLEncodedUtils.format(params, encoding); // use encoding of request

StringEntity entity = new StringEntity(body);
// rest of your code

answered Jun 2, 2014 at 12:06

isnot2bad

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5 Comments

user3698939 Over a year ago

its fine .. thanks for your valuable reply but pl tell me more about encoding that you have done ...string body = URLEncodedUtils.format(params, encoding);

isnot2bad Over a year ago

@user3698939 What do you mean? I'm just calling the method of the utility class.

isnot2bad Over a year ago

@user3698939 If you are interested in the encoding itself, please have a look at the W3C link I've posted.

isnot2bad Over a year ago

Are you sure, the request is application/x-www-form-urlencoded? Usually, data like XML is NOT sent via HTTP that way.

isnot2bad Over a year ago

Then you should better check the server API documentation; maybe something else is wrong (XML syntax, ...). Also inspect the error message that might come together with the error response. And do some tests using a REST-Client (e.g. Browser Plugin) to ensure the API works as expected.

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