Http Control

Note: The Http control is available in WebLogic Workshop only for licensed users of WebLogic Integration.

Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the globally-accepted method of communicating web pages across the internet. It is a stateless, application-level protocol. The currently defined version of HTTP is 1.1. HTTP protocol is a synchronous protocol, that is, each request message sent from the client to a server is followed by a response message returned from the server to the client.

The Http control's purpose is to provide outgoing HTTP access to WebLogic Workshop clients. The Http control complements the other controls provided in WebLogic Integration and can be used with WebLogic Workshop and business processes to work with HTTP requests and process responses. The Http control is built using the features of the WebLogic Platform control architecture. The Http control source file is a wrapper around the Jakarta Commons HttpClient package. The Http control conforms to HTTP/1.1 specific features.

The Http control supports two types of request methods for data transfer, namely Get and Post. By using the Get mode, you can send your business data along with the URL. By using Post mode, you can send large amount of information like Binary, XML and String documents to the server within the body of the request.

You can specify Http control properties in an annotation, or pass dynamic properties via an XML variable. Inbound HTTP requests can be processed with the HTTP event generator. The HTTP event generator is a servlet which takes an HTTP request, checks for the content type and then publishes the message to the message broker. For more information on the HTTP event generator, see The HTTP Event Generator.

Using the Http control, you can send an HTTP or HTTPS (Secure HTTP) request to a URL and receive specific HTTP response header and body data, as follows:

• Send Business data using HTTP Get and receive the HTTP response code and the message corresponding to the response code in an XML document.
• Set HTTP header values for the HTTP Post mode.
• Send Binary, XML, and String type data using HTTP Post and receive the HTTP response code and the message corresponding to the response code in an XML document.
• Configure cookies for both the HTTP Get and HTTP Post modes.
• Communicate via a secure HTTP (HTTPS) connection with both client-side and server-side authentication enabled.
• Use a proxy server for sending an HTTP or HTTPS request.
• Receive response headers in an XML document conforming to a pre-defined schema.
• Receive response body data of type Binary, XML or String.
• Receive cookies in an XML document conforming to a pre-defined schema.

Topics Included in This Section

Creating a New Http Control

Describes how to create a new Http control

Using the Http Control in a Business Process

Describes how to create a new Http control and use it in a business process.

Specifying Http Control Properties

Describes Http control properties and the method to specify and edit these properties.

Using HTTP Methods to Set Properties

Describes the various HTTP methods used to specify header properties, cookies, and so on.

Logging Debug Messages and Exceptions

Describes the method used to log debug messages.

Http Control Caveats

Lists out the known limitations and caveats of the WebLogic Integration Http control.

The HTTP Event Generator

Describes the HTTP event generator briefly, with a link to a more detailed information source.