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59.4. Client Request Filter

Overview
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This section explains how to implement and register a client request filter, which is used to intercept an outgoing request message on the client side. Client request filters are often used to process headers and can be used for any kind of generic request processing.

ClientRequestFilter interface
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The javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestFilter interface is defined as follows: 
// Java
package javax.ws.rs.client;
...
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestFilter;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestContext;
...
public interface ClientRequestFilter {
    void filter(ClientRequestContext requestContext) throws IOException;
}
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By implementing the ClientRequestFilter, you can create a filter for the ClientRequest extension point on the client side, which filters the request message before sending the message to the server.

ClientRequestContext interface
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The filter method of ClientRequestFilter receives a single argument of type javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestContext, which can be used to access the outgoing request message and its related metadata. The ClientRequestContext interface is defined as follows: 
// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.client;

import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.net.URI;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.ws.rs.core.Configuration;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Cookie;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MultivaluedMap;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.MessageBodyWriter;

public interface ClientRequestContext {

    public Object getProperty(String name);

    public Collection<String> getPropertyNames();

    public void setProperty(String name, Object object);

    public void removeProperty(String name);

    public URI getUri();

    public void setUri(URI uri);

    public String getMethod();

    public void setMethod(String method);

    public MultivaluedMap<String, Object> getHeaders();

    public abstract MultivaluedMap<String, String> getStringHeaders();

    public String getHeaderString(String name);

    public Date getDate();

    public Locale getLanguage();

    public MediaType getMediaType();

    public List<MediaType> getAcceptableMediaTypes();

    public List<Locale> getAcceptableLanguages();

    public Map<String, Cookie> getCookies();

    public boolean hasEntity();

    public Object getEntity();

    public Class<?> getEntityClass();

    public Type getEntityType();

    public void setEntity(final Object entity);

    public void setEntity(
            final Object entity,
            final Annotation[] annotations,
            final MediaType mediaType);

    public Annotation[] getEntityAnnotations();

    public OutputStream getEntityStream();

    public void setEntityStream(OutputStream outputStream);

    public Client getClient();

    public Configuration getConfiguration();

    public void abortWith(Response response);
}
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Sample implementation
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To implement a client request filter for the ClientRequest extension point (that is, where the filter is executed prior to sending the request message), define a class that implements the ClientRequestFilter interface.
For example, the following code shows an example of a simple client request filter that gets installed in the ClientRequest extension point, with a priority of 20: 
// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestContext;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestFilter;
import javax.annotation.Priority;
 
@Priority(value = 20)
public class SampleClientRequestFilter implements ClientRequestFilter {

  public SampleClientRequestFilter() {
    System.out.println("SampleClientRequestFilter starting up");
  }

  @Override
  public void filter(ClientRequestContext requestContext) {
    System.out.println("ClientRequestFilter.filter() invoked");
  }
}
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Aborting the invocation
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It is possible to abort a client-side invocation by implementing a suitable client request filter. For example, you might implement a client-side filter to check whether a request is correctly formatted and, if necessary, abort the request.
The following test code always aborts the request, returning the BAD_REQUEST HTTP status to the client calling code: 
// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestContext;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestFilter;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response.Status;
import javax.annotation.Priority;
 
@Priority(value = 10)
public class TestAbortClientRequestFilter implements ClientRequestFilter {

  public TestAbortClientRequestFilter() {
    System.out.println("TestAbortClientRequestFilter starting up");
  }

  @Override
  public void filter(ClientRequestContext requestContext) {
    // Test filter: aborts with BAD_REQUEST status
    requestContext.abortWith(Response.status(Status.BAD_REQUEST).build());
  }
}
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Registering the client request filter
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Using the JAX-RS 2.0 client API, you can register a client request filter directly on a javax.ws.rs.client.Client object or on a javax.ws.rs.client.WebTarget object. Effectively, this means that the client request filter can optionally be applied to different scopes, so that only certain URI paths are affected by the filter.
For example, the following code shows how to register the SampleClientRequestFilter filter so that it applies to all invocations made using the client object; and how to register the TestAbortClientRequestFilter filter, so that it applies only to sub-paths of rest/TestAbortClientRequest. 
// Java
... 
import javax.ws.rs.client.Client;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientBuilder;
import javax.ws.rs.client.Invocation;
import javax.ws.rs.client.WebTarget;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
...
Client client = ClientBuilder.newClient();
client.register(new SampleClientRequestFilter());
WebTarget target = client
  .target("http://localhost:8001/rest/TestAbortClientRequest");
target.register(new TestAbortClientRequestFilter());
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