Groovy/Grails posting XML over HTTP (using REST plugin) - http

Question

I am trying HTTP Post an XML string to a WebMethods server using basic auth. I was trying to use the REST plugin which sits on top of HTTP Builder. I've tried a few things all resulting in a 0 length response. Using Firefox poster I have used the exact same XML and user auth and the WebMethods response is to echo back the request with some extra info, so it is something I am doing in the code below that is wrong. Hope someone has a pointer for doing a HTTP Post of XML.
string orderText = "<item>
<item>1</item>
<price>136.000000</price>
</item>"
def response = withHttp(uri: "https://someserver.net:4433") {
auth.basic 'user', 'pass'
// have tried body: XmlUtil.serialize(orderText)
def r = post(path: '/invoke/document', body: orderText, contentType: XML, requestContentType: XML)
{ resp, xml ->
log.info resp.status
log.info resp.data
resp.headers.each {
log.info "${it.name} : ${it.value}"
}
}
log.info r
return r
}
Logs say:
04-02-2011 14:19:39,894 DEBUG HTTPBuilder - Response code: 200; found handler: OrdersService$_closure1_closure2_closure3_closure4#36293b29
04-02-2011 14:19:39,895 INFO HTTPBuilder - Status: 200
04-02-2011 14:19:39,896 INFO HTTPBuilder - Data: null
04-02-2011 14:19:39,896 INFO HTTPBuilder - XML: null
04-02-2011 14:19:39,913 INFO HTTPBuilder - Content-Type : application/EDIINT; charset=UTF-8
04-02-2011 14:19:39,913 INFO HTTPBuilder - Content-Length : 0
Cheers,
Steve

Answer 1

Here is what I ended up with. It is quite standard use of common HTTP Client
For basic auth over SSL you can simply have your url like: https://user:pass#www.target.com/etc
Grails remember to copy the HTTPClient jar to the lib folder or in my case I installed the REST plugin which includes HTTPClient anyway.
There are good docs on the HTTPClient site: http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/
import org.apache.http.HttpEntity
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost
import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient
def sendHttps(String httpUrl, String data) {
HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient()
HttpResponse response
try {
HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(httpUrl)
httpPost.setHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml")
HttpEntity reqEntity = new StringEntity(data, "UTF-8")
reqEntity.setContentType("text/xml")
reqEntity.setChunked(true)
httpPost.setEntity(reqEntity)
log.info "executing request " + httpPost.getRequestLine()
response = httpClient.execute(httpPost)
HttpEntity resEntity = response.getEntity()
log.info response.getStatusLine()
if (resEntity != null) {
log.with {
info "Response content length: " + resEntity.getContentLength()
if (isDebugEnabled()) {
debug "Response Chunked?: " + resEntity.isChunked()
debug "Response Encoding: " + resEntity.contentEncoding
debug "Response Content: " + resEntity.content.text
}
}
}
// EntityUtils.consume(resEntity);
}
finally {
// When HttpClient instance is no longer needed,
// shut down the connection manager to ensure
// immediate deallocation of all system resources
httpClient.getConnectionManager().shutdown()
}
return response.getStatusLine()
}

Answer 2

try it this way:
HTTPBuilder builder = new HTTPBuilder( url )
builder.request( Method.POST ) {
// set uriPath, e.g. /rest/resource
uri.path = uriPath
requestContentType = ContentType.XML
// set the xml body, e.g. <xml>...</xml>
body = bodyXML
// handle response
response.success = { HttpResponseDecorator resp, xml ->
xmlResult = xml
}
}

Answer 3

I guess there's no need to get it done that difficult, I use a simpler approach (by the way you don't need extra plugins). So consider the next piece of code, and of course I'm ommiting the authentication part
class YourController{
static allowedMethods = [operation:['POST','GET']]
def operation(){
def xmlRequest = request.reader.text
println xmlRequest
//TODO: XML postprocessing, here you might use XmlParser.ParseText(xmlRequest)
}
}
I know this might be out of context because you are asking for the REST plugin, yet I wanted to share this since there's another alternative.
I'm using grails 2.3.2 and Firefox RESTClient to test the webservice.