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Send JSON body in HTTP GET request in java/spring boot

I need to send a GET request with a json body in java/spring boot. I'm aware of the advice against it, however I have to do it this was for a couple of reasons:
1. The 3rd party API I'm using only allows GET requests, so POST is not an option.
2. I need to pass an extremely large parameter in the body (a comma separated list of about 8-10k characters) so tacking query params onto the url is not an option either.
I've tried a few different things:
apache HttpClient from here: Send content body with HTTP GET Request in Java. This gave some error straight from the API itself about a bad key.
URIComponentsBuilder from here: Spring RestTemplate GET with parameters. This just tacked the params onto the url, which as I explained before is not an option.
restTemplate.exchange. This seemed the most straightforward, but the object wouldn't pass: https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/javadoc-api/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplate.html#exchange-java.lang.String-org.springframework.http.HttpMethod-org.springframework.http.HttpEntity-java.lang.Class-java.util.Map-
as well as probably another thing or two that I've forgotten about.
Here is what I'm talking about in Postman. I need to be able to pass both of the parameters given here. It works fine if run through Postman, but I can't figure it out in Java/Spring Boot.
Here is a code snippet from the restTemplate.exchange attempt:
public String makeMMSICall(String uri, List<String> MMSIBatchList, HashMap<String, String> headersList) {
ResponseEntity<String> result = null;
try {
RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
for (String key : headersList.keySet()) {
headers.add(key, headersList.get(key));
}
Map<String, String> params = new HashMap<String, String>();
params.put("mmsi", String.join(",", MMSIBatchList));
params.put("limit", mmsiBatchSize);
HttpEntity<?> entity = new HttpEntity<>(headers);
result = restTemplate.exchange(uri, HttpMethod.GET, entity, String.class, params);
System.out.println(result.getBody());
} catch (RestClientException e) {
LOGGER.error("Exception in makeGetHTTPCall :" + e.getMessage());
throw e;
} catch (Exception e) {
LOGGER.error("Exception in makeGetHTTPCall :" + e.getMessage());
throw e;
}
return result.getBody();
}
Thanks for helping!

You can try java.net.HttpUrlConnection, it works for me but indeed I normally use a POST
HttpURLConnection connection = null;
BufferedReader reader = null;
String payload = "body";
try {
URL url = new URL("url endpoint");
if (url.getProtocol().equalsIgnoreCase("https")) {
connection = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();
} else {
connection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
}
// Set connection properties
connection.setRequestMethod(method); // get or post
connection.setReadTimeout(3 * 1000);
connection.setDoOutput(true);
connection.setUseCaches(false);
if (payload != null) {
OutputStream os = connection.getOutputStream();
os.write(payload.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
os.flush();
os.close();
}
int responseCode = connection.getResponseCode();
}

There's no way of implementing it via RestTemplate, even with .exchange method. It'll simply not send the request body for GET calls even if we pass the entity within the function parameters.(Tested via interceptor logs)
You can use the Apache client to solve this issue/request (whatever you'd like to call it). The code you need is something along following lines.
private static class HttpGetWithBody extends HttpEntityEnclosingRequestBase {
JSONObject requestBody;
public HttpGetWithBody(URI uri, JSONObject requestBody) throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
this.setURI(uri);
StringEntity stringEntity = new StringEntity(requestBody.toString());
super.setEntity(stringEntity);
this.requestBody = requestBody;
}
#Override
public String getMethod() {
return "GET";
}
}
private JSONObject executeGetRequestWithBody(String host, Object entity) throws ClientProtocolException, IOException {
CloseableHttpClient httpClient = HttpClients.createDefault();
try{
JSONObject requestBody = new JSONObject(entity);
URL url = new URL(host);
HttpRequest request = new HttpGetWithBody(url.toURI(), requestBody);
request.addHeader(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_TYPE, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE);
request.addHeader(HttpHeaders.ACCEPT, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE);
HttpResponse response;
if(url.getPort() != 0) response = httpClient.execute(new HttpHost(url.getHost(), url.getPort()), request);
else response = httpClient.execute(new HttpHost(url.getHost()), request);
if(response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() == HttpStatus.SC_OK){
JSONObject res = new JSONObject(EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
httpClient.close();
return res;
}
}catch (Exception e){
log.error("Error occurred in executeGetRequestWithBody. Error: ", e.getStackTrace());
}
httpClient.close();
return null;
}
If you inspect even Apache client library doesn't support passing the body natively(checked via code implementation of HttpGet method), since contextually request body for a GET request is not a good and obvious practice.

Try creating a new custom RequestFactory.
Similar to
get request with body

Consume REST API, Send data using x-www-form-urlencoded

I am trying to consume a web service to get a token. It is a POST service and I must send data using x-www-form-urlencoded, but I am not sure how to do it. I have the following code, but an error "400 Bad Request" returns. I'm using jersey.api.client and gson. The service returns a JSON object.
public VOToken getToken() {
String uri = "https://login.mypurecloud.com/oauth/token";
VOToken voToken = null;
ClientConfig clientConfig = new DefaultClientConfig();
clientConfig.getFeatures().put(JSONConfiguration.FEATURE_POJO_MAPPING, Boolean.TRUE);
System.out.println(getAuthorizationHeaderString());
Client client = Client.create(clientConfig);
WebResource webResource = client.resource(uri);
Form form = new Form();
form.add("grant_type", "client_credentials");
WebResource.Builder builder = webResource.accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED_TYPE);
builder.header("Authorization", getAuthorizationHeaderString());
builder.entity(form);
//Response
ClientResponse clientResponse = builder.type(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON).post(ClientResponse.class);
clientResponse.bufferEntity();
String jsonString = clientResponse.getEntity(String.class);
if(clientResponse.getStatus() == 200 ) {
voToken = new Gson().fromJson(jsonString, VOToken.class);
System.out.println(">> Access_token: "+ voToken.getAccess_token());
}
return voToken;
}
public String getAuthorizationHeaderString() {
String clientId = "32ef8d9c-######################";
String clientSecret = "6-M5A8Y06##################";
String authorizationHeaderString = "";
try {
String encodedData = DatatypeConverter.printBase64Binary((clientId + ":" + clientSecret).getBytes("UTF-8"));
authorizationHeaderString = "Basic " + encodedData;
} catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return authorizationHeaderString;
}

I believe it is APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED and not APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED_TYPE.
Also in your ClientResponse change the media type to APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED

Retrofit: Making Web Requests to Internal APIs

I want to make a request to my organisation api's. The request contains Headers, UserName, Password, & Cookie for session management.
Below is the actual code (in HttpClient) which I want to rewrite using Retrofit. I have heard that HttpClient libraries have been deprecated or someting so have opted Retrofit. I expect the response with 200 status code.
public static CookieStore cookingStore = new BasicCookieStore();
public static HttpContext context = new BasicHttpContext();
public String getAuth(String login,String password) {
String resp = null;
try {
String url = DOMAIN+"myxyzapi/myanything";
context.setAttribute(HttpClientContext.COOKIE_STORE, cookingStore);
HttpClient client = HttpClientBuilder.create().build();
HttpPost post = new HttpPost(url);
String log = URLEncoder.encode(login, "UTF-8");
String pass = URLEncoder.encode(password, "UTF-8");
String json = "username="+log+"&password="+pass+"&maintain=true&finish=Go";
StringEntity entity = new StringEntity(json);
post.setEntity(entity);
post.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
HttpResponse response = client.execute(post,context);
resp = EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity());
accountPoller();
} catch(Exception a) {
log.info("Exception in authentication api:"+a.getMessage().toString());
}
return resp;
}
Below is my code where I can't figure out how to pass the context with request. HttpResponse response = client.execute(post,**context**); using retrofit.
I don't even know if I have made my retrofit request right.
try {
String log = URLEncoder.encode(login, "UTF-8");
String pass = URLEncoder.encode(password, "UTF-8");
RequestBody formBody = new FormBody.Builder()
.add("username=", xyz)
.add("password=", mypass)
.add("&maintain=", "true")
.add("finish=", "Go")
.build();
String url = www.xyz.com+"myxyzapi/myanything";
OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
Request request = new Request.Builder().url(url).post(formBody).addHeader("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded").build();
client.newCall(request).enqueue(new Callback() {
#Override
public void onFailure(Call call, IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
#Override
public void onResponse(Call call, Response response) throws IOException {
if(response.isSuccessful()){
final String myresp = response.body().string();
}
}
});
} catch(Exception a) {
a.getMessage();
}

You have to catch exception and use this class.
retrofit2.HttpException
retrofit2
Class HttpException
int
code()
HTTP status code.
String
message()
HTTP status message.
Response
response()
The full HTTP response.

Empty request when sending special characters to API with Java

I'm using Java to send http requests to my API which is created using Laravel (5.4). If I send a request without any special characters it all works like a charm. But if there are any 'special' characters like: é, å, ö and such the request in Laravel is empty:
dd(request()->all()) outputs []
I guess this has to do with some wrong settings while creating the request in Java. I couldn't find a solution.
Here is the code responsible for creating the request.
public class HttpClient {
org.apache.http.client.HttpClient client;
public HttpClient() {
client = HttpClientBuilder.create().build();
}
public void post(String json) {
try {
HttpPost request = buildPostRequest(json);
HttpResponse response = createClient().execute(request);
int code = getStatusCode(response);
if (code != 200) {
throw new Exception("Error (" + code + ") on server.");
}
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}
}
private org.apache.http.client.HttpClient createClient() {
return HttpClientBuilder.create().build();
}
private HttpPost buildPostRequest(String json) throws Exception {
HttpPost request = new HttpPost("some uri");
request.addHeader("Content-type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
request.addHeader("Accept", "application/json");
StringEntity params = new StringEntity(json);
params.setContentEncoding("utf-8");
params.setContentType("application/json; charset=utf-8");
request.setEntity(params);
return request;
}
private int getStatusCode(HttpResponse response) {
StatusLine line = response.getStatusLine();
return line.getStatusCode();
}
}
EDIT
Dump of the request before it get's send to the API.

I found a solution to the problem. In the buildPostRequest() method I changed from a StringEntity to a ByteArrayEntity and coverted the string to UTF-8 bytes.
ByteArrayEntity params = new ByteArrayEntity(json.getBytes("UTF-8"));
If I send special characters to the API the request isn't empty anymore.

try this way
HttpPost request = new HttpPost(URLEncoder.encode("url here", "UTF-8"));

Getting data with Httpclient and displaying it with JSON

I have to write a code that retrieves specific information (not all of it) from url.com/info/{CODE} and uses json to display it in a server I have up.
This is my code up until now:
A class to get the info
#RequestMapping("/info")
public class Controller {
public void httpGET() throws ClientProtocolException, IOException {
String url = "Getfromhere.com/";
CloseableHttpClient client = HttpClients.createDefault();
HttpGet request = new HttpGet(url);
CloseableHttpResponse response = client.execute(request);
}
and a class that should return the data depending on the code inserted in the url by the user
#RequestMapping(value = "/{iataCode}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
#ResponseBody
public CloseableHttpResponse generate(#PathVariable String iataCode) {
;
return response;
}
How I can implement json for the return?.

To begin with, you must configure Spring to use Jackson or some other API to convert all your responses to json.
If the data you are retrieving is already in json format, you can return it as String.
Your big mistake: right now you are returning an object of type CloseableHttpResponse. Change return type of generate() from CloseableHttpResponse to String and return a string.
CloseableHttpResponse response = client.execute(request);
String res = null;
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
if (entity != null) {
InputStream instream = entity.getContent();
byte[] bytes = IOUtils.toByteArray(instream);
res = new String(bytes, "UTF-8");
instream.close();
}
return res;