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:
- Jetty, which is described in detail in Section 12.4, “Configuring the Jetty Runtime”.
- Netty, which is described in detail in Section 12.5, “Configuring the Netty Runtime”.
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:addresselement. - SOAP 1.2 uses the
soap12:addresselement. - 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>