The programming model for the outbound HTTP connection service

The outbound HTTP connection service can be used from the context of a servlet request service or from the context of a portlet request service. Here are some code examples.

Obtain the outbound HTTP connection service from the context of a portlet:

import javax.naming.Context;
import javax.naming.InitialContext;
import javax.naming.NamingException;
import javax.portlet.PortletRequest;
import javax.portlet.PortletResponse;
import com.ibm.portal.outbound.service.OutboundConnectionService;
import com.ibm.portal.outbound.service.OutboundConnectionServiceHome;
import com.ibm.portal.outbound.service.OutboundConnectionServiceException;


private OutboundConnectionService getService (PortletRequest p_request, PortletResponse p_response) 
throws  OutboundConnectionServiceException, NamingException
{
  Context ctx = new InitialContext();
  final OutboundConnectionServiceHome home = (OutboundConnectionServiceHome) ctx.lookup(OutboundConnectionServiceHome.JNDI_NAME);
  final OutboundConnectionService service = home.getOutboundConnectionService(p_request, p_response);   
  return service;
}

In a different scenario, the code that calls the outbound HTTP connection service is part of a servlet. In this case, the method getOutboundConnectionService () receives the servlet request and servlet response variable.

import javax.naming.Context;
import javax.naming.InitialContext;
import javax.naming.NamingException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import com.ibm.portal.outbound.service.OutboundConnectionService;
import com.ibm.portal.outbound.service.OutboundConnectionServiceHome;
import com.ibm.portal.outbound.service.OutboundConnectionServiceException;
...
 // Obtain an Outbound HTTP connection service object  (servlet context)
private OutboundConnectionService getService ( HttpServletRequest s_request, HttpServletResponse s_response) 
throws OutboundConnectionServiceException, NamingException
{
  Context ctx = new InitialContext();
    final OutboundConnectionServiceHome home = (OutboundConnectionServiceHome) ctx.lookup(OutboundConnectionServiceHome.JNDI_NAME);
    final OutboundConnectionService service = home.getOutboundConnectionService(p_request, p_response);   
    return service;
}

Applications use the createConnection() method of the outbound HTTP connection service to open an outbound HTTP connection.

The following code snippet connects to a URL resource through outbound HTTP connections and reads the content of the web page and writes it to a byte array output stream:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;
import com.ibm.portal.outbound.service.OutboundConnectionService;
 ...
/**
 * usage sample for GET requests using Outbound HTTP Connections  
 * @param service the outbound HTTP connection service  
 * @param theURL the remote URL  
 * @param bos An object that receives the content of the GET request.
 * @return the HTTP status  **/


private int doGet (OutboundConnectionService service, URL theURL, ByteArrayOutputStream bos) 
    throws OutboundConnectionServiceException, IOException 
{

// obtain a connection object      
HttpURLConnection connection = createConnection(theURL);
    try {
       // Submit the URL connection to the remote host.
       connection.connect();
        // read the returned content:
       InputStream is = (InputStream)connection.getContent();
       int byt = is.read();
       while (byt >= 0) {
          bos.write(byt);
          byt = is.read();
       }      int status = connection.getStatus();         
       return status;
    } finally {
       connection.disconnect();
       bos.close();
    }
}

Connect to a URL resource through outbound HTTP connections and submit a POST request:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;
import com.ibm.portal.outbound.service.OutboundConnectionService;
 ...
/**
 * usage sample for POST requests using Outbound HTTP Connections  
 * @param service the outbound HTTP connection service  
 * @param theURL the remote URL  
 * @param postData the POST data.
 * @param bos An object that receives the content of the GET request.
 * @return the HTTP status  **/
private int doPost (OutboundConnectionService service, URL theURL, byte[] postData, ByteArrayOutputStream bos) 
throws OutboundConnectionServiceException, IOException 
{
    // obtain a connection object      
    HttpURLConnection connection = createConnection(theURL);
    try {
       // write the POST data        
       OutputStream os = connection.getOutputStream();
       os.write(postData, 0, postData.length);
       os.close();
        // Submit the URL connection to the remote host.
       connection.connect();           
       // read the returned content:
       InputStream is = (InputStream)connection.getContent();
       int byt = is.read();
       while (byt >= 0) {
          bos.write(byt);
          byt = is.read();
       }      int status = connection.getStatus();         
       return status;
    } finally {
       connection.disconnect();
       bos.close();
    }
}

The following code snippet obtains an outbound connection service and requests the content of the URL www.ibm.com:

ByteArrayOutputStrream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
OutboundConnectionService ocs = getService (request, response);

int status = doGet(ocs, new URL("http.//www.ibm.com"), bos);

if (status >= 400) {
    System.err.println("Remote connection failed with HTTP status "+status);
} else {
    byte[] da = bos.toByteArray();
    String first = da.length > 10 ? new String(da,0,da.length) : new String(da);
    System.out.println("The content starts with "+first);
}

Parent Outbound HTTP connection