ant-http library

This is a clone of missing-link project on Google Code (https://code.google.com/p/missing-link/)

Overview

The missing link Ant HTTP task was created due to the lack of a full featured, usable and liberally licensed Ant HTTP task. This Ant task is coded from scratch utilizing only core Java classes; as such it does not require any third party dependencies at runtime.

This Ant task also simplifies common aspects of HTTP communication, which other libraries seem to needlessly complicate, such as: authentication, TLS/SSL and HTTP methods other than GET and POST.

License

The missing link Ant HTTP task is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license, a copy of the license can be found with the missing link Ant HTTP task distribution or at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html.

Features

The missing link Ant HTTP task was created with the following features in mind:

• No third party library dependencies.
• TLS/SSL support on a configuration, per-connection basis, not JVM-wide.
• Support for HTTP methods GET, POST, PUT, OPTIONS, HEAD and TRACE.
• Support for BASIC authentication.
• Support for multiple URL/URI building options.
• Support for specifying arbitrary HTTP request headers.
• Support for specifying a request entity in-line or through a file.
• Options on what information to print to the output.
• Options to govern what response status codes are expected, and what should cause a build-failing exception.

Ant task XML elements

http

supported parameters:

Name	Description	Required	Default	Example
url	HTTP URL	Yes		http://www.google.com
method	HTTP method	No	GET	GET, PUT, POST, etc.
printRequest	Print request entity	No	false	true or false
printResponse	Print response entity	No	false	true or false
printRequestHeaders	Print request headers	No	true	true or false
printResponseHeaders	Print response headers	No	true	true or false
expected	Expected HTTP status	No	200	200, 201, 404, etc.
failOnUnexpected	Fail on unexpected status	No	true	true or false
outfile	Write response to file	No		Any filename
followRedirects	Follow redirections	No	true	true or false
setContentLengthHeader	Set Content-Length header	No	false	true or false
statusProperty	Property to save status to	No		http.status
update	Update/overwrite outfile	No	true	true or false
entityProperty	Property to save response entity to	No		response.entity

example:

<http url="http://google.com"
      method="GET"
      printRequest="false"
      printResponse="true"
      printRequestHeaders="true"
      printResponseHeaders="true"
      expected="200"
      failOnUnexpected="false"/>

http/credentials

supported parameters:

Name	Description	Required	Default	Example
username	HTTP Basic username	Yes		john.doe
password	HTTP Basic password	No		p@55w0rd
show	Print the credentials	No	false	true or false

example:

<http url="http://google.com">
  <credentials username="john.doe" password="p@55w0rd"/>
</http>

http/keystore

supported parameters:

Name	Description	Required	Default	Example
file	KeyStore file	Yes (unless trustall="true")		/path/to/keystore.jks
password	KeyStore password	No		p@55w0rd
trustall	Accept all certificates	No	false	true or false

NB: use trustall with caution in production environments!

example:

<http url="http://google.com">
  <keystore file="/path/to/keystore.jks" password="p@55w0rd"/>
</http>

http/headers/header

supported parameters:

Name	Description	Required	Default	Example
name	Header name	Yes		Accept
value	Header value	No		application/xml,*/*

example:

<http url="http://google.com">
  <headers>
    <header name="Accept" value="application/xml,*/*"/>
    <header name="Content-Type" value="application/xml"/>
  </headers>
</http>

http/query/parameter

supported parameters:

Name	Description	Required	Default	Example
name	Query parameter name	Yes		qp
value	Query parameter value	No		value123

example:

<http url="http://google.com">
  <query>
    <parameter name="qp1" value="value1"/>
    <parameter name="qp2" value="value2"/>
  </query>
</http>

http/entity

supported parameters:

Name	Description	Required	Default	Example
file	File to read entity from	No		request.xml
binary	Treat entity as binary	False		true or false
value	Value to use as entity	No		${my.prop}

example:

<http url="http://google.com">
  <entity file="request.zip" binary="true"/>
</http>

<http url="http://google.com">
  <entity><![CDATA[Request Entity]]></entity>
</http>

Ant configuration

The following is a basic example of how to import and use the missing link Ant HTTP task:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="ml-ant-http" basedir="." default="http-get">

  <property name="ml-ant-http.jar" value="ml-ant-http-1.0.jar"/>
  
  <fileset id="runtime.libs" dir=".">
    <include name="${ml-ant-http.jar}"/>
  </fileset>
  
  <path id="runtime.classpath">
    <fileset refid="runtime.libs"/>
  </path>
  
  <taskdef name="http" classname="org.missinglink.ant.task.http.HttpClientTask">
    <classpath refid="runtime.classpath"/>
  </taskdef>
  
  <target name="http-get">
    <http url="http://www.google.com"/>
  </target>
  
</project>