Non-SOAP HTTP Client for FedEx WebService

[Senthil B Kumar]

Hi everybody,
I'm developing a Java client for one of the FedEx Shipping web-services. I'm trying to post the XML input via HTTP post requests and receive the xml response to parse it for output. Below is part of my client program for which i'm receiving "Invalid Transaction Type." error as XML output.

I took the XML content exactly from FedEx's developer WSDL downloads and have my input embedded in it.

Has anyone tried doing this ? or is aware of this error.

    

import java.net.URLEncoder;
import javax.net.*;
import java.io.*;
import javax.net.ssl.*;
import java.net.Socket;


  public class FedexHTTPS {
    static final int HTTPS_PORT = 443;
    public static String enc = "encoding='UTF-16'";

	public static String subRequestSOAP = "<RateRequest xmlns='http://fedex.com/ws/rate/v5' xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xmlns:soapenv='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/' xmlns:rep='http://fedex.com/esb/report'>\n" + 
	"<WebAuthenticationDetail>\n" + 
	"<UserCredential>\n" + 
	"<Key>MYKEY</Key>\n" + 
	"<Password>MYPASSWORD</Password>\n" + 
	"</UserCredential>\n" + 
	"</WebAuthenticationDetail>\n" + 
	"<ClientDetail>\n" + 
	"<AccountNumber>MYACNT</AccountNumber>\n" + 
	"<MeterNumber>MYMETER</MeterNumber>\n" + 
	"</ClientDetail>\n" + 
	"<TransactionDetail>\n" + 
	"<CustomerTransactionId>senthils java sample - Rate Request</CustomerTransactionId>\n" + 
	"</TransactionDetail>\n" + 
	"<Version>\n" + 
	"<ServiceId>crs</ServiceId>\n" + 
	"<Major>5</Major>\n" + 
	"<Intermediate>0</Intermediate>\n" + 
	"<Minor>0</Minor>\n" + 
	"</Version>\n" + 
	"<RequestedShipment>\n" + 
	"<ShipTimestamp>2009-03-13T17:00:19.718Z</ShipTimestamp>\n" + 
	"<DropoffType>REGULAR_PICKUP</DropoffType>\n" + 
	"<ServiceType>STANDARD_OVERNIGHT</ServiceType>\n" + 
	"<PackagingType>YOUR_PACKAGING</PackagingType>\n" + 
	"<Shipper>\n" + 
	"<Address>\n" + 
	"<StreetLines>TEST</StreetLines>\n" + 
	"<City>Miami</City>\n" + 
	"<StateOrProvinceCode>FL</StateOrProvinceCode>\n" + 
	"<PostalCode>33180</PostalCode>\n" + 
	"<CountryCode>US</CountryCode>\n" + 
	"</Address>\n" + 
	"</Shipper>\n" + 
	"<Recipient>\n" + 
	"<Address>\n" + 
	"<StreetLines>TEST</StreetLines>\n" + 
	"<City>CHICAGO</City>\n" + 
	"<StateOrProvinceCode>IL</StateOrProvinceCode>\n" + 
	"<PostalCode>60656</PostalCode>\n" + 
	"<CountryCode>US</CountryCode>\n" + 
	"</Address>\n" + 
	"</Recipient>\n" + 
	"<ShippingChargesPayment>\n" + 
	"<PaymentType>SENDER</PaymentType>\n" + 
	"</ShippingChargesPayment>\n" + 
	"<RateRequestTypes>LIST</RateRequestTypes>\n" + 
	"<PackageCount>1</PackageCount>\n" + 
	"<PackageDetail>INDIVIDUAL_PACKAGES</PackageDetail>\n" + 
	"<RequestedPackages>\n" + 
	"<Weight>\n" + 
	"<Units>KG</Units>\n" + 
	"<Value>.18</Value>\n" + 
	"</Weight>\n" + 
	"<Dimensions>\n" + 
	"<Length>6</Length>\n" + 
	"<Width>3</Width>\n" + 
	"<Height>3</Height>\n" + 
	"<Units>IN</Units>\n" + 
	"</Dimensions>\n" + 
	"<SpecialServicesRequested/>\n" + 
	"</RequestedPackages>\n" + 
	"</RequestedShipment>\n" + 
	"</RateRequest>";


    public static String address = "gatewaybeta.fedex.com";

    public static void main(String argv[]) throws Exception {

        String encData=null;
        try {
           encData = URLEncoder.encode(subRequestSOAP,"UTF-8");
        } catch (Exception ex){
            System.out.println("Exception: " + ex.getMessage());
        }
        //System.out.println(encData);

        int length = encData.length();
        //String combined = accessRequest + trackRequest;

        // Get a Socket factory
        SocketFactory factory = SSLSocketFactory.getDefault();

        // Get Socket from factory
        Socket socket = factory.createSocket(address, HTTPS_PORT);

        /*BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(new
                OutputStreamWriter(socket.getOutputStream())); */
        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));

//Ganesh - Once the xml is fixed you will get METHOD NOT ALLOWED errror, for that changed the method from POST to GET in the below header.

OutputStream out = socket.getOutputStream();
        String xmlEnc = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
        String msg = "POST /xml HTTP/1.0\r\n"
                + "\r\nReferer: TEST"
                + "\r\nHost: gatewaybeta.fedex.com"
                + "\r\nPort: 443"
                + "\r\nAccept: image/gif,image/jpeg,image pjpeg, text/xml,text/html/,*/*"
                + "\r\nContent-Type: text/html"
                + "\r\nContent-length: " + length
                + "\r\n\r\n" + encData;
        out.write(msg.getBytes());
        out.flush();

        String line;
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
        while((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
            sb.append(line);
        }
        //out.close();
        in.close();
        System.out.println(sb.toString());
    }
}

[Ivan Krizsan]

Hi!
That looks really painful. Why don't you generate client artifacts from the WSDL and use those instead?
Best wishes!

[Senthil B Kumar]

I was able to do it with the help of the Java Stub files provided by FedEx and the Axis library from Apache. But this is a technical requirement in the project that wants the web-services to be consumed this way :-( not sure why

[William Brogden]

I would use SOAPui or tcpmon to capture the exact message text sent by the client that works so you can compare it with the text your client is trying to send. Surely there must be some difference.

Bill

[Senthil B Kumar]

thanks for that suggestion, i was wondering whether will i be able to capture the exact message text sent by the client that works.

Let me check about the SOAPui or tcpmon you've mentioned, if you can give me more pointers about it, it'l be very helpful.

I'm now trying to use the Apache's httpclient utility to create and send that POST request since i thought the error might be because the way i'm sending the message but not with the message itself.