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Chapter 12. Using HTTP

Abstract

HTTP is the underlying transport for the Web. It provides a standardized, robust, and flexible platform for communicating between endpoints. Because of these factors it is the assumed transport for most WS-* specifications and is integral to RESTful architectures.

12.1. Adding a Basic HTTP Endpoint

Alternative HTTP runtimes

Apache CXF supports the following alternative HTTP runtime implementations:

Netty HTTP URL

Normally, a HTTP endpoint uses whichever HTTP runtime is included on the classpath (either Jetty or Netty). If both the Jetty runtime and Netty runtime are included on the classpath, however, you need to specify explicitly when you want to use the Netty runtime, because the Jetty runtime will be used by default.
In the case where more than one HTTP runtime is available on the classpath, you can select the Netty runtime by specifying the endpoint URL to have the following format:
netty://http://RestOfURL

Payload types

There are three ways of specifying an HTTP endpoint’s address depending on the payload format you are using.
  • SOAP 1.1 uses the standardized soap:address element.
  • SOAP 1.2 uses the soap12:address element.
  • All other payload formats use the http:address element.

SOAP 1.1

When you are sending SOAP 1.1 messages over HTTP you must use the SOAP 1.1 address element to specify the endpoint’s address. It has one attribute, location, that specifies the endpoint’s address as a URL. The SOAP 1.1 address element is defined in the namespace http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/.
Example 12.1, “SOAP 1.1 Port Element” shows a port element used to send SOAP 1.1 messages over HTTP.

Example 12.1. SOAP 1.1 Port Element

<definitions ...
             xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/" ...>
  ...
  <service name="SOAP11Service">
    <port binding="SOAP11Binding" name="SOAP11Port">
      <soap:address location="http://artie.com/index.xml">
    </port>
  </service>
  ...
<definitions>

SOAP 1.2

When you are sending SOAP 1.2 messages over HTTP you must use the SOAP 1.2 address element to specify the endpoint’s address. It has one attribute, location, that specifies the endpoint’s address as a URL. The SOAP 1.2 address element is defined in the namespace http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap12/.
Example 12.2, “SOAP 1.2 Port Element” shows a port element used to send SOAP 1.2 messages over HTTP.

Example 12.2. SOAP 1.2 Port Element

<definitions ...
             xmlns:soap12="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap12/" ... >
  <service name="SOAP12Service">
    <port binding="SOAP12Binding" name="SOAP12Port">
      <soap12:address location="http://artie.com/index.xml">
    </port>
  </service>
  ...
</definitions>

Other messages types

When your messages are mapped to any payload format other than SOAP you must use the HTTP address element to specify the endpoint’s address. It has one attribute, location, that specifies the endpoint’s address as a URL. The HTTP address element is defined in the namespace http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/http/.
Example 12.3, “HTTP Port Element” shows a port element used to send an XML message.

Example 12.3. HTTP Port Element

<definitions ...
             xmlns:http="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/http/" ... >
  <service name="HTTPService">
    <port binding="HTTPBinding" name="HTTPPort">
      <http:address location="http://artie.com/index.xml">
    </port>
  </service>
  ...
</definitions>