Apache HTTP Client, POST request. How to correctly set request parameters?

Question

I'm using Apache HTTP Client and I need to send a POST request to my servlet. When the request is sent my servlet does not receive any parameters (in the HttpServletRequest).

Here is the client program code:

// Engage the HTTP client
DefaultHttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpResponse response;
try {
    HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost("http://localhost:8080/test-json-web/JSONReceiverServlet");

    // Setup the request parameters
    HttpParams params = new BasicHttpParams();
    params.setParameter("taskdef", task1JsonString);
    httpPost.setParams(params);

    // Make the request
    response = httpclient.execute(httpPost);

    HttpEntity responseEntity = response.getEntity();

    System.out.println("----------------------------------------");
    System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
    if(responseEntity != null) {
        System.out.println("Response content length: " + responseEntity.getContentLength());
    }

    String jsonResultString = EntityUtils.toString(responseEntity);
    EntityUtils.consume(responseEntity);
    System.out.println("----------------------------------------");
    System.out.println("result:");
    System.out.println();
} catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
    httpclient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
}

How to correctly set POST request parameters so that servlet actually receives them?

matkam · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-17 18:45:19Z

22

try this:

        List <NameValuePair> nvps = new ArrayList <NameValuePair>();
        nvps.add(new BasicNameValuePair("IDToken1", "username"));
        nvps.add(new BasicNameValuePair("IDToken2", "password"));

        httPost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nvps, Consts.UTF_8));

edited Jul 17, 2013 at 18:45

matkam

1751 silver badge7 bronze badges

answered Sep 20, 2011 at 8:05

swenker

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2 Comments

Prasad Over a year ago

this works ! But didn't get why the other one ( BasicHttpParams ) not working. Any idea/

MJar Over a year ago

Works :) Only thing to notice is that when I didn't specify the encoding for UrlEncodedFormEntity then Spring Controller didn't receive the parameters. So looks like the encoding is actually mandatory.

malah · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-03 12:32:15Z

1

Set "Content-Type" header to "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

answered Jul 3, 2015 at 12:32

malah

111 bronze badge

Comments

Arthur · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-15 10:03:18Z

You can also use this approach in case you want to pass some http parameters and send a json request:

(note: I have added in some extra code just incase it helps any other future readers)

note: imports are from org.apache.http libraries

public void postJsonWithHttpParams() throws URISyntaxException, UnsupportedEncodingException, IOException {

    //add the http parameters you wish to pass
    List<NameValuePair> postParameters = new ArrayList<>();
    postParameters.add(new BasicNameValuePair("param1", "param1_value"));
    postParameters.add(new BasicNameValuePair("param2", "param2_value"));

    //Build the server URI together with the parameters you wish to pass
    URIBuilder uriBuilder = new URIBuilder("http://google.ug");
    uriBuilder.addParameters(postParameters);

    HttpPost postRequest = new HttpPost(uriBuilder.build());
    postRequest.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");

    //this is your JSON string you are sending as a request
    String yourJsonString = "{\"str1\":\"a value\",\"str2\":\"another value\"} ";

    //pass the json string request in the entity
    HttpEntity entity = new ByteArrayEntity(yourJsonString.getBytes("UTF-8"));
    postRequest.setEntity(entity);

    //create a socketfactory in order to use an http connection manager
    PlainConnectionSocketFactory plainSocketFactory = PlainConnectionSocketFactory.getSocketFactory();
    Registry<ConnectionSocketFactory> connSocketFactoryRegistry = RegistryBuilder.<ConnectionSocketFactory>create()
            .register("http", plainSocketFactory)
            .build();

    PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager connManager = new PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager(connSocketFactoryRegistry);

    connManager.setMaxTotal(20);
    connManager.setDefaultMaxPerRoute(20);

    RequestConfig defaultRequestConfig = RequestConfig.custom()
            .setSocketTimeout(HttpClientPool.connTimeout)
            .setConnectTimeout(HttpClientPool.connTimeout)
            .setConnectionRequestTimeout(HttpClientPool.readTimeout)
            .build();

    // Build the http client.
    CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.custom()
            .setConnectionManager(connManager)
            .setDefaultRequestConfig(defaultRequestConfig)
            .build();

    CloseableHttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(postRequest);

    //Read the response
    String responseString = "";

    int statusCode = response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode();
    String message = response.getStatusLine().getReasonPhrase();

    HttpEntity responseHttpEntity = response.getEntity();

    InputStream content = responseHttpEntity.getContent();

    BufferedReader buffer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(content));
    String line;

    while ((line = buffer.readLine()) != null) {
        responseString += line;
    }

    //release all resources held by the responseHttpEntity
    EntityUtils.consume(responseHttpEntity);

    //close the stream
    response.close();

    // Close the connection manager.
    connManager.close();
}

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