Using HTTPBuilder to execute a HTTP DELETE request - http

Question

I'm trying to use the Groovy HTTPBuilder library to delete some data from Firebase via a HTTP DELETE request. If I use curl, the following works
curl -X DELETE https://my.firebase.io/users/bob.json?auth=my-secret
Using the RESTClient class from HTTPBuilder works if I use it like this:
def client = new RESTClient('https://my.firebase.io/users/bob.json?auth=my-secret')
def response = client.delete(requestContentType: ContentType.ANY)
However, when I tried breaking down the URL into it's constituent parts, it doesn't work
def client = new RESTClient('https://my.firebase.io')
def response = client.delete(
requestContentType: ContentType.ANY,
path: '/users/bob.json',
query: [auth: 'my-secret']
)
I also tried using the HTTPBuilder class instead of RESTClient
def http = new HTTPBuilder('https://my.firebase.io')
// perform a POST request, expecting TEXT response
http.request(Method.DELETE, ContentType.ANY) {
uri.path = '/users/bob.json'
uri.query = [auth: 'my-secret']
// response handler for a success response code
response.success = { resp, reader ->
println "response status: ${resp.statusLine}"
}
}
But this also didn't work. Surely there's a more elegant approach than stuffing everything into a single string?

Answer 1

There's an example of using HttpURLClient in the tests to do a delete, which in its simplest form looks like:
def http = new HttpURLClient(url:'https://some/path/')
resp = http.request(method:DELETE, contentType:JSON, path: "destroy/somewhere.json")
def json = resp.data
assert json.id != null
assert resp.statusLine.statusCode == 200
Your example is very close to the test for the delete in a HTTPBuilder.
A few differences I see are:
Your path is absolute and not relative
Your http url path doesn't end with trailing slash
You're using content type ANY where test uses JSON. Does the target need the content type to be correct? (Probably not as you're not setting it in curl example unless it's doing some voodoo on your behalf)
Alternatively you could use apache's HttpDelete but requires more boiler plate. For a HTTP connection this is some code I've got that works. You'll have to fix it for HTTPS though.
def createClient() {
HttpParams params = new BasicHttpParams()
HttpProtocolParams.setVersion(params, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1)
HttpProtocolParams.setContentCharset(params, "UTF-8")
params.setBooleanParameter(ClientPNames.HANDLE_REDIRECTS, true)
SchemeRegistry registry = new SchemeRegistry()
registry.register(new Scheme("http", PlainSocketFactory.getSocketFactory(), 80))
ClientConnectionManager ccm = new PoolingClientConnectionManager(registry)
HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(params, 8000)
HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(params, 5400000)
HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient(ccm, params)
return client
}
HttpClient client = createClient()
def url = new URL("http", host, Integer.parseInt(port), "/dyn/admin/nucleus$component/")
HttpDelete delete = new HttpDelete(url.toURI())
// if you have any basic auth, you can plug it in here
def auth="USER:PASS"
delete.setHeader("Authorization", "Basic ${auth.getBytes().encodeBase64().toString()}")
// convert a data map to NVPs
def data = [:]
List<NameValuePair> nvps = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(data.size())
data.each { name, value ->
nvps.add(new BasicNameValuePair(name, value))
}
delete.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nvps))
HttpResponse response = client.execute(delete)
def status = response.statusLine.statusCode
def content = response.entity.content
I adopted the code above from a POST version, but the principle is the same.