[java] Sending HTTP Post request with SOAP action using org.apache.http

I'm trying to write a hard-coded HTTP Post request with SOAP action, using the org.apache.http api. My problem is I didn't find a way to add a request body (in my case - SOAP action). I'll be glad for some guidance.

import java.net.URI;
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;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.RequestWrapper;
import org.apache.http.protocol.HTTP;

public class HTTPRequest
{
    @SuppressWarnings("unused")
    public HTTPRequest()
    {
        try {
            HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
            String body="DataDataData";
            String bodyLength=new Integer(body.length()).toString();
            System.out.println(bodyLength);
//          StringEntity stringEntity=new StringEntity(body);

            URI uri=new URI("SOMEURL?Param1=1234&Param2=abcd");
            HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(uri);
            httpPost.addHeader("Test", "Test_Value");

//          httpPost.setEntity(stringEntity);

            StringEntity entity = new StringEntity(body, "text/xml",HTTP.DEFAULT_CONTENT_CHARSET);
            httpPost.setEntity(entity);

            RequestWrapper requestWrapper=new RequestWrapper(httpPost);
            requestWrapper.setMethod("POST");
            requestWrapper.setHeader("LuckyNumber", "77");
            requestWrapper.removeHeaders("Host");
            requestWrapper.setHeader("Host", "GOD_IS_A_DJ");
//          requestWrapper.setHeader("Content-Length",bodyLength);          
            HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(requestWrapper);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

... using org.apache.http api. ...

You need to include SOAPAction as a header in the request. As you have httpPost and requestWrapper handles, there are three ways adding the header.

 1. httpPost.addHeader( "SOAPAction", strReferenceToSoapActionValue );
 2. httpPost.setHeader( "SOAPAction", strReferenceToSoapActionValue );
 3. requestWrapper.setHeader( "SOAPAction", strReferenceToSoapActionValue );

Only difference is that addHeader allows multiple values with same header name and setHeader allows unique header names only. setHeader(... over writes first header with the same name.

You can go with any of these on your requirement.

This is a full working example :

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;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

public void callWebService(String soapAction, String soapEnvBody)  throws IOException {
    // Create a StringEntity for the SOAP XML.
    String body ="<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" xmlns:ns1=\"http://example.com/v1.0/Records\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\" xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:SOAP-ENC=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/\" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/\"><SOAP-ENV:Body>"+soapEnvBody+"</SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>";
    StringEntity stringEntity = new StringEntity(body, "UTF-8");
    stringEntity.setChunked(true);

    // Request parameters and other properties.
    HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost("http://example.com?soapservice");
    httpPost.setEntity(stringEntity);
    httpPost.addHeader("Accept", "text/xml");
    httpPost.addHeader("SOAPAction", soapAction);

    // Execute and get the response.
    HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpPost);
    HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

    String strResponse = null;
    if (entity != null) {
        strResponse = EntityUtils.toString(entity);
    }
}

The simplest way to identify what needs to be set on the soap action when invoking WCF service through a java client would to load the wsdl, go to the operation name matching the service. From there pick up the action URI and set it in the soap action header. You are done.

eg: from wsdl

<wsdl:operation name="MyOperation">
  <wsdl:input wsaw:Action="http://tempuri.org/IMyService/MyOperation" message="tns:IMyService_MyOperation_InputMessage" />
  <wsdl:output wsaw:Action="http://tempuri.org/IMyService/MyServiceResponse" message="tns:IMyService_MyOperation_OutputMessage" />

Now in the java code we should set the soap action as the Action URI.

//The rest of the httpPost object properties have not been shown for brevity
string actionURI='http://tempuri.org/IMyService/MyOperation';
httpPost.setHeader( "SOAPAction", actionURI);

Here is the example i have tried and it is working for me:

Create the XML file SoapRequestFile.xml

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:tem="http://tempuri.org/">
       <soapenv:Header/>
       <soapenv:Body>
          <tem:GetConversionRate>
             <!--Optional:-->
             <tem:CurrencyFrom>USD</tem:CurrencyFrom>
             <!--Optional:-->
             <tem:CurrencyTo>INR</tem:CurrencyTo>
             <tem:RateDate>2018-12-07</tem:RateDate>
          </tem:GetConversionRate>
       </soapenv:Body>
    </soapenv:Envelope>

And here the code in java:

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;

import org.apache.http.client.methods.CloseableHttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.entity.InputStreamEntity;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClients;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;
import org.junit.Assert;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

import io.restassured.path.json.JsonPath;
import io.restassured.path.xml.XmlPath;
@Test
            public void getMethod() throws Exception  {
                //wsdl file :http://currencyconverter.kowabunga.net/converter.asmx?wsdl
                File soapRequestFile = new File(".\\SOAPRequest\\SoapRequestFile.xml");

                CloseableHttpClient client = HttpClients.createDefault(); //create client
                HttpPost request = new HttpPost("http://currencyconverter.kowabunga.net/converter.asmx"); //Create the request
                request.addHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml"); //adding header
                request.setEntity(new InputStreamEntity(new FileInputStream(soapRequestFile)));
                CloseableHttpResponse response =  client.execute(request);//Execute the command

                int statusCode=response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode();//Get the status code and assert
                System.out.println("Status code: " +statusCode );
                Assert.assertEquals(200, statusCode);

                String responseString = EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity(),"UTF-8");//Getting the Response body
                System.out.println(responseString);


                XmlPath jsXpath= new XmlPath(responseString);//Converting string into xml path to assert
                String rate=jsXpath.getString("GetConversionRateResult");
                System.out.println("rate returned is: " +  rate);



        }

It was giving 415 Http response Code as error,

So I added

httppost.addHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8");

Everything alright now, Http: 200