Extract SOAP object from HttpServletRequest

Hi all,
new to WS. How do you extract the SOAP object from a HttpServletRequest.

Mat

I think you have that the wrong way around. If you're dealing with SOAP, then most implementations are based on servlets, and will provide access to the HttpServletRequest object in some way. But that is not generally necessary, as SOAP operates on a higher level than HTTP.

I'm not sure what you mean by "SOAP object", though - SOAP is a protocol, which can be (and has been) implemented in any number of ways. What exactly are you trying to do?

Hi Ulf,

Im currently using acegi authentication entry point filter to capture the SOAP requests being passed into my existing web application.

public void commence(ServletRequest request,
ServletResponse response,
AuthenticationException authException)
throws IOException, ServletException

If a web service call is detected via

if (!StringUtil.isEmpty(req.getServletPath())&&
(req.getServletPath().indexOf("/services")!=-1))

then a RequestDispatcher dispatcher.forward(request, response)
is done to pass the soap request to Axis2 engine.

Other requests that are not ws are asked to authenticate via SSO.

Each WS soap request contains a user id that needs to be logged.
Logging needs to be done before the dispatcher.forward statement.

How can I get hold of the user id

If the ID you want to extract is in the SOAP formatted message that is the body of the resource, you have your work cut out for you.

The SOAP servelet is going to want to see an unaltered input stream that forms the SOAP message so your filter will have to:

1. capture the complete SOAP message as text
2. parse out the ID you want
3. create an custom class extension of HttpServletRequestWrapper than can take the complete SOAP message from 1. and form a new InputStream that can be handed to the SOAP servlet. In other words, the servlet gets your custom wrapper instead of the original HttpServletRequest object.

See the servlet JavaDocs and good luck!

Bill

Hi William,
just to get me started, how do I capture the complete SOAP message as text from the request

That's what the getInputStream and getReader methods do.

Hi Ulf and William,
would the following work to extract the soap package?

import org.apache.axis2.context.MessageContext;
import org.apache.axiom.soap.SOAPEnvelope;
import org.apache.axis2.transport.TransportUtils;

protected void simulateLogin(HttpServletRequest request)throws Exception
{

InputStream inStream=request.getInputStream();
SOAPEnvelope soap= TransportUtils.createSOAPMessage(MessageContext.getCurrentMessageContext(), inStream, request.getContentType());

//Extract the user id from the soap package
}

Mat

Hi Ulf,
managed to get the personId using the following:-

protected void simulateLogin(HttpServletRequest request)throws Exception
{
InputStream inStream=request.getInputStream();
InputStreamReader reader = new InputStreamReader(inStream);
BufferedReader bReader = new BufferedReader(reader);
String soapBody=bReader.readLine();
String personId =getMessageValue("personId",soapBody);
}

but after calling the above I pass the soap req/resp to the Axis2 engine as follows:-

RequestDispatcher dispatcher = request.getRequestDispatcher(requestURI);
dispatcher.forward(request, response);

This usually works ok, but since I have called simulateLogin I get the following error:-
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: com.ctc.wstx.exc.WstxEOFException: Unexpected EOF in prolog at [row,col {unknown-source}]: [1,0] on server

Do I need to clone the HttpServletRequest going into simulateLogin due to it doing a read

I have tried writting the following to clone HttpServletRequest but this did not work

class CustomRequestWrapper implements Cloneable
{
private HttpServletRequest request=null;

public CustomRequestWrapper(HttpServletRequest request)
{this.request=request;}
public CustomRequestWrapper(){ }

public HttpServletRequest getHttpServletRequest(){
return request;
}
public Object clone()
{
CustomRequestWrapper clone = new CustomRequestWrapper();
clone.request=request;
return clone;
}
}

Any ideas

You'll need to implement the full step #3 William mentions above. Just making a copy of the request object pointer accomplishes nothing.

Hi Bill/Ulf,

followed the above and get the following error:-
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: java.lang.ClassCastException on server

The code I used was as follows:-

class CustomRequestWrapper extends HttpServletRequestWrapper
{
private String soapMessage=null;

public CustomRequestWrapper(HttpServletRequest request)
{
super(request);
}

public void setSoapMessage(String soapMessage){
this.soapMessage= soapMessage;
}

/**
* This method should override the getInputStream from (HttpServletRequestWrapper extends ServletRequestWrapper)
*/
public ServletInputStream getInputStream() throws java.lang.IllegalStateException, java.io.IOException
{

if(soapMessage==null) return null;

java.io.InputStream in = null;
try{
in = new StringBufferInputStream(soapMessage);

}catch(Exception ex){

}

return (ServletInputStream)in;

}
}//CustomRequestWrapper

I think that Axis2 engine sees the class exception on calling the follwoing line:-
(ServletInputStream)in

I'm not sure how to convert the StringBufferInputStream into a ServletInputStream

.

Mat Anthony wrote:I'm not sure how to convert the StringBufferInputStream into a ServletInputStream

You can't. You'll need to subclass ServletInputStream and implement the read method, like its javadocs suggest.

Hi Bill/Ulf,
got it working at last

with the following code:-

class CustomRequestWrapper extends HttpServletRequestWrapper
{
private String soapMessage=null;

public CustomRequestWrapper(HttpServletRequest request)
{
super(request);
}

public void setSoapMessage(String soapMessage){
this.soapMessage= soapMessage;
}

public ServletInputStream getInputStream() throws java.lang.IllegalStateException, java.io.IOException
{
if(soapMessage==null) return null;
StringBufferInputStream in = null;
try{
in = new StringBufferInputStream(soapMessage);

}catch(Exception ex){

}
return new BufferedServletInputStream(in);

}
}

private class BufferedServletInputStream extends ServletInputStream {

private StringBufferInputStream bais;
public BufferedServletInputStream(StringBufferInputStream bais) {
this.bais = bais;
}

public int available() {
return this.bais.available();
}

public int read() {
return this.bais.read();
}

public int read(byte[] buf, int off, int len) {
return this.bais.read(buf, off, len);
}
}

Thanks for all your help

Congratulations on mastering one of the tricky but powerful aspects of the servlet API!

Bill