[java] How to POST JSON request using Apache HttpClient?

I have something like the following:

final String url = "http://example.com";

final HttpClient httpClient = new HttpClient();
final PostMethod postMethod = new PostMethod(url);
postMethod.addRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
postMethod.addParameters(new NameValuePair[]{
        new NameValuePair("name", "value)
});
httpClient.executeMethod(httpMethod);
postMethod.getResponseBodyAsStream();
postMethod.releaseConnection();

It keeps coming back with a 500. The service provider says I need to send JSON. How is that done with Apache HttpClient 3.1+?

This question is related to java json http post apache-commons-httpclient

The answer is


Apache HttpClient doesn't know anything about JSON, so you'll need to construct your JSON separately. To do so, I recommend checking out the simple JSON-java library from json.org. (If "JSON-java" doesn't suit you, json.org has a big list of libraries available in different languages.)

Once you've generated your JSON, you can use something like the code below to POST it

StringRequestEntity requestEntity = new StringRequestEntity(
    JSON_STRING,
    "application/json",
    "UTF-8");

PostMethod postMethod = new PostMethod("http://example.com/action");
postMethod.setRequestEntity(requestEntity);

int statusCode = httpClient.executeMethod(postMethod);

Edit

Note - The above answer, as asked for in the question, applies to Apache HttpClient 3.1. However, to help anyone looking for an implementation against the latest Apache client:

StringEntity requestEntity = new StringEntity(
    JSON_STRING,
    ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON);

HttpPost postMethod = new HttpPost("http://example.com/action");
postMethod.setEntity(requestEntity);

HttpResponse rawResponse = httpclient.execute(postMethod);

As mentioned in the excellent answer by janoside, you need to construct the JSON string and set it as a StringEntity.

To construct the JSON string, you can use any library or method you are comfortable with. Jackson library is one easy example:

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode;
import org.apache.http.entity.ContentType;
import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
ObjectNode node = mapper.createObjectNode();
node.put("name", "value"); // repeat as needed
String JSON_STRING = node.toString();
postMethod.setEntity(new StringEntity(JSON_STRING, ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON));

For Apache HttpClient 4.5 or newer version:

    CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.createDefault();
    HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost("http://targethost/login");
    String JSON_STRING="";
    HttpEntity stringEntity = new StringEntity(JSON_STRING,ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON);
    httpPost.setEntity(stringEntity);
    CloseableHttpResponse response2 = httpclient.execute(httpPost);

Note:

1 in order to make the code compile, both httpclient package and httpcore package should be imported.

2 try-catch block has been ommitted.

Reference: appache official guide

the Commons HttpClient project is now end of life, and is no longer being developed. It has been replaced by the Apache HttpComponents project in its HttpClient and HttpCore modules


Examples related to java

Under what circumstances can I call findViewById with an Options Menu / Action Bar item? How much should a function trust another function How to implement a simple scenario the OO way Two constructors How do I get some variable from another class in Java? this in equals method How to split a string in two and store it in a field How to do perspective fixing? String index out of range: 4 My eclipse won't open, i download the bundle pack it keeps saying error log

Examples related to json

Use NSInteger as array index Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input at JSON.parse (<anonymous>) HTTP POST with Json on Body - Flutter/Dart Importing json file in TypeScript json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Extra data: line 2 column 1 (char 190) Angular 5 Service to read local .json file How to import JSON File into a TypeScript file? Use Async/Await with Axios in React.js Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token u in JSON at position 0 how to remove json object key and value.?

Examples related to http

Access blocked by CORS policy: Response to preflight request doesn't pass access control check Axios Delete request with body and headers? Read response headers from API response - Angular 5 + TypeScript Android 8: Cleartext HTTP traffic not permitted Angular 4 HttpClient Query Parameters Load json from local file with http.get() in angular 2 Angular 2: How to access an HTTP response body? What is HTTP "Host" header? Golang read request body Angular 2 - Checking for server errors from subscribe

Examples related to post

How to post query parameters with Axios? How can I add raw data body to an axios request? HTTP POST with Json on Body - Flutter/Dart How do I POST XML data to a webservice with Postman? How to set header and options in axios? Redirecting to a page after submitting form in HTML How to post raw body data with curl? How do I make a https post in Node Js without any third party module? How to convert an object to JSON correctly in Angular 2 with TypeScript Postman: How to make multiple requests at the same time

Examples related to apache-commons-httpclient

Deprecated Java HttpClient - How hard can it be? How to POST JSON request using Apache HttpClient? Using Apache httpclient for https Disable HttpClient logging How to handle invalid SSL certificates with Apache HttpClient? Best Practice to Use HttpClient in Multithreaded Environment