Using Configuration

Namespace

The elements used to configure an HTTP consumer endpoint are defined in the namespace http://cxf.apache.org/transports/http/configuration. It is commonly referred to using the prefix http-conf. In order to use the HTTP configuration elements you must add the lines shown in Example 5.1 to the beans element of your endpoint's configuration file. In addition, you must add the configuration elements' namespace to the xsi:schemaLocation attribute.

Example 5.1. HTTP Consumer Configuration Namespace

<beans ...
       xmlns:http-conf="http://cxf.apache.org/transports/http/configuration
       ...
       xsi:schemaLocation="...
                           http://cxf.apache.org/transports/http/configuration
                              http://cxf.apache.org/schemas/configuration/http-conf.xsd
                          ...>

The `conduit` element

You configure an HTTP endpoint using the http-conf:conduit element and its children. The http-conf:conduit element takes a single attribute, name, that specifies the WSDL port element corresponding to the endpoint. The value for the name attribute takes the form portQName.http-conduit. Example 5.2 shows the http-conf:conduit element that would be used to add configuration for an endpoint that is specified by the WSDL fragment <port binding="widgetSOAPBinding" name="widgetSOAPPort> when the endpoint's target namespace is http://widgets.widgetvendor.net.

Example 5.2. http-conf:conduit Element

...
  <http-conf:conduit name="{http://widgets/widgetvendor.net}widgetSOAPPort.http-conduit>
    ...
  </http-conf:conduit>
...

The http-conf:conduit element has child elements that specify configuration information. They are described in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1. Elements Used to Configure an HTTP Consumer Endpoint

Element	Description
`http-conf:client`	Specifies the HTTP connection properties such as timeouts, keep-alive requests, content types, etc. See The `client` element.
`http-conf:authorization`	Specifies the parameters for configuring the basic authentication method that the endpoint uses preemptively. The preferred approach is to supply a Basic Authentication Supplier object.
`http-conf:proxyAuthorization`	Specifies the parameters for configuring basic authentication against outgoing HTTP proxy servers.
`http-conf:tlsClientParameters`	Specifies the parameters used to configure SSL/TLS.
`http-conf:basicAuthSupplier`	Specifies the bean reference or class name of the object that supplies the basic authentication information used by the endpoint, either preemptively or in response to a `401` HTTP challenge.
`http-conf:trustDecider`	Specifies the bean reference or class name of the object that checks the HTTP(S) `URLConnection` object to establish trust for a connection with an HTTPS service provider before any information is transmitted.

The `client` element

The http-conf:client element is used to configure the non-security properties of a consumer endpoint's HTTP connection. Its attributes, described in Table 5.2, specify the connection's properties.

Table 5.2. HTTP Consumer Configuration Attributes

Attribute	Description
`ConnectionTimeout`	Specifies the amount of time, in milliseconds, that the consumer attempts to establish a connection before it times out. The default is `30000`. `0` specifies that the consumer will continue to send the request indefinitely.
`ReceiveTimeout`	Specifies the amount of time, in milliseconds, that the consumer will wait for a response before it times out. The default is `30000`. `0` specifies that the consumer will wait indefinitely.
`AutoRedirect`	Specifies if the consumer will automatically follow a server issued redirection. The default is `false`.
`MaxRetransmits`	Specifies the maximum number of times a consumer will retransmit a request to satisfy a redirect. The default is `-1` which specifies that unlimited retransmissions are allowed.
`AllowChunking`	Specifies whether the consumer will send requests using chunking. The default is `true` which specifies that the consumer will use chunking when sending requests. Chunking cannot be used if either of the following are true: `http-conf:basicAuthSupplier` is configured to provide credentials preemptively. `AutoRedirect` is set to `true`. In both cases the value of `AllowChunking` is ignored and chunking is disallowed.
`Accept`	Specifies what media types the consumer is prepared to handle. The value is used as the value of the HTTP Accept property. The value of the attribute is specified using multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME) types.
`AcceptLanguage`	Specifies what language (for example, American English) the consumer prefers for the purpose of receiving a response. The value is used as the value of the HTTP AcceptLanguage property. Language tags are regulated by the International Organization for Standards (ISO) and are typically formed by combining a language code, determined by the ISO-639 standard, and country code, determined by the ISO-3166 standard, separated by a hyphen. For example, en-US represents American English.
`AcceptEncoding`	Specifies what content encodings the consumer is prepared to handle. Content encoding labels are regulated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). The value is used as the value of the HTTP AcceptEncoding property.
`ContentType`	Specifies the media type of the data being sent in the body of a message. Media types are specified using multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME) types. The value is used as the value of the HTTP ContentType property. The default is `text/xml`. For web services, this should be set to `text/xml`. If the client is sending HTML form data to a CGI script, this should be set to `application/x-www-form-urlencoded`. If the HTTP POST request is bound to a fixed payload format (as opposed to SOAP), the content type is typically set to `application/octet-stream`.
`Host`	Specifies the Internet host and port number of the resource on which the request is being invoked. The value is used as the value of the HTTP Host property. This attribute is typically not required. It is only required by certain DNS scenarios or application designs. For example, it indicates what host the client prefers for clusters (that is, for virtual servers mapping to the same Internet protocol (IP) address).
`Connection`	Specifies whether a particular connection is to be kept open or closed after each request/response dialog. There are two valid values: `Keep-Alive` — Specifies that the consumer wants the connection kept open after the initial request/response sequence. If the server honors it, the connection is kept open until the consumer closes it. `close`(default) — Specifies that the connection to the server is closed after each request/response sequence.
`CacheControl`	Specifies directives about the behavior that must be adhered to by caches involved in the chain comprising a request from a consumer to a service provider. See Consumer Cache Control Directives.
`Cookie`	Specifies a static cookie to be sent with all requests.
`BrowserType`	Specifies information about the browser from which the request originates. In the HTTP specification from the World Wide Web consortium (W3C) this is also known as the user-agent. Some servers optimize based on the client that is sending the request.
`Referer`	Specifies the URL of the resource that directed the consumer to make requests on a particular service. The value is used as the value of the HTTP Referer property. This HTTP property is used when a request is the result of a browser user clicking on a hyperlink rather than typing a URL. This can allow the server to optimize processing based upon previous task flow, and to generate lists of back-links to resources for the purposes of logging, optimized caching, tracing of obsolete or mistyped links, and so on. However, it is typically not used in web services applications. If the `AutoRedirect` attribute is set to `true` and the request is redirected, any value specified in the `Referer` attribute is overridden. The value of the HTTP Referer property is set to the URL of the service that redirected the consumer’s original request.
`DecoupledEndpoint`	Specifies the URL of a decoupled endpoint for the receipt of responses over a separate provider->consumer connection. For more information on using decoupled endpoints see, Using the HTTP Transport in Decoupled Mode. You must configure both the consumer endpoint and the service provider endpoint to use WS-Addressing for the decoupled endpoint to work.
`ProxyServer`	Specifies the URL of the proxy server through which requests are routed.
`ProxyServerPort`	Specifies the port number of the proxy server through which requests are routed.
`ProxyServerType`	Specifies the type of proxy server used to route requests. Valid values are: `HTTP`(default) `SOCKS`

Example 5.3 shows the configuration of an HTTP consumer endpoint that wants to keep its connection to the provider open between requests, that will only retransmit requests once per invocation, and that cannot use chunking streams.

Example 5.3. HTTP Consumer Endpoint Configuration

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:http-conf="http://cxf.apache.org/transports/http/configuration"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://cxf.apache.org/transports/http/configuration
                             http://cxf.apache.org/schemas/configuration/http-conf.xsd
                           http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
                             http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">
   
  <http-conf:conduit name="{http://apache.org/hello_world_soap_http}SoapPort.http-conduit">
    <http-conf:client Connection="Keep-Alive"
                      MaxRetransmits="1"
                      AllowChunking="false" />
  </http-conf:conduit>
</beans>