Outbound HTTP connection
The outbound HTTP connection service provides an administration infrastructure for all outbound HTTP connections to remote computer systems.
The outbound HTTP connection service gives portal system administrators central control over outbound HTTP connections used, including functions for authentication and cookie handling. Application developers do not have to implement HTTP connections support. For example, they do not need to write the handler code for various types of HTTP-based authentication:
- Basic authentication
- Form based authentication
- Authentication through SSL tokens
- SAML authentication.
In WebSphere Portal v8.0 and earlier versions, outbound HTTP connections were accessible through the Ajax Proxy service. The Ajax Proxy service was configured by a configuration document proxy-config.xml, found in the /WEB-INF directory of the web module using the Ajax Proxy service. Starting with WebSphere Portal v8.5, and the new outbound connection service, the configuration of outbound HTTP connections is now part of the standard datastore-based portal configuration.
Outbound HTTP connections are created by application code to establish an HTTP connection to a remote system. For example, such application code can be part of portlets, portlet services, themes, servlet filters, or other items. A remote outbound HTTP connections can be called from different components. Examples:
- Code that runs in the context of a portlet
- Code that runs in the context of a servlet, for example, a servlet filter
- Code that runs on the portal server outside the context of a servlet request
- Code that runs on the client.
We can therefore establish outbound HTTP connections in the following different ways:
- Through the portlet-request based outbound HTTP connection service
- Through the servlet-request based outbound HTTP connection service
- Through the Ajax proxy.
The WebSphere Portal outbound HTTP connection includes the following components:
- A common outbound HTTP connection configuration infrastructure.
This infrastructure provides base functions for managing the configuration of outbound HTTP connections.
- The outbound HTTP connection service.
This service makes it possible to establish outbound HTTP connections from code that runs in the portal context.
- The HTTP proxy for Ajax application.
This application provides an interface for accessing outbound HTTP connections using an HTTP proxy channel.
The Ajax proxy and the outbound HTTP connection services use the same common configuration infrastructure. Use an outbound HTTP connection in the following two ways:
- Through the outbound HTTP connection service
- Through the Ajax Proxy, which is also known as the HTTP proxy for Ajax application.
- The programming model for the outbound HTTP connection service
- HTTP proxy for Ajax applications, also known as Ajax Proxy
- Configure outbound HTTP connections
- Authenticating outbound HTTP connections
- Use dynamic elements in outbound HTTP connection settings
- Use programmatic extensions for outbound HTTP connections
- Migration