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Servlet Tutorial: Reading HTTP Request Headers

Reading HTTP Request Headers

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1. An Overview of Request Headers 2. Reading Request Headers from Servlets

3. Example: Printing all Headers 4. Servlet and JSP Tutorial: Top 5. Servlet and JSP Training Courses On-site at your company or at public venues.

1. An Overview of Request Headers

When an HTTP client (e.g. a browser) sends a request, it is required to supply a request line (usually G E Tor P O S T ). If it wants to, it can also send a number of headers, all of which are optional except for C o n t e n t L e n g t h , which is required only for P O S Trequests. Here are the most common headers: A c c e p tThe MIME types the browser prefers. A c c e p t C h a r s e tThe character set the browser expects. A c c e p t E n c o d i n gThe types of data encodings (such as gzip) the browser knows how to decode. Servlets can explicitly check for gzip support and return gzipped HTML pages to browsers that support them, setting the C o n t e n t E n c o d i n gresponse header to indicate that they are gzipped. In many cases, this can reduce page download times by a factor of five or ten. A c c e p t L a n g u a g eThe language the browser is expecting, in case the server has versions in more than one language. A u t h o r i z a t i o nAuthorization info, usually in response to a W W W A u t h e n t i c a t eheader from the server. C o n n e c t i o nUse persistent connection? If a servlet gets a K e e p A l i v evalue here, or gets a request line indicating HTTP 1.1 (where persistent connections are the default), it may be able to take advantage of persistent connections, saving significant time for Web pages that include several small pieces (images or applet classes). To do this, it needs to send a C o n t e n t L e n g t hheader in the response, which is most easily accomplished by writing into a B y t e A r r a y O u t p u t S t r e a m , then looking up the size just before writing it out. C o n t e n t L e n g t h(for P O S Tmessages, how much data is attached) C o o k i e(one of the most important headers; see separate section in this tutorial on handling cookies)
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F r o m(email address of requester; only used by Web spiders and other custom clients, not by browsers) H o s t(host and port as listed in the original URL) I f M o d i f i e d S i n c e(only return documents newer than this, otherwise send a 304 "Not Modified"

response) P r a g m a(the n o c a c h evalue indicates that the server should return a fresh document, even if it is a proxy with a local copy) R e f e r e r(the URL of the page containing the link the user followed to get to current page) U s e r A g e n t(type of browser, useful if servlet is returning browser-specific content) U A P i x e l s ,U A C o l o r ,U A O S ,U A C P U(nonstandard headers sent by some Internet Explorer versions, indicating screen size, color depth, operating system, and cpu type used by the browser's system) For full details on HTTP headers, see the specifications at http://www.w3.org/Protocols/.

2. Reading Request Headers from Servlets

Reading headers is very straightforward; just call the g e t H e a d e rmethod of the H t t p S e r v l e t R e q u e s t , which returns a S t r i n gif the header was supplied on this request, n u l lotherwise. However, there are a couple of headers that are so commonly used that they have special access methods. The g e t C o o k i e smethod returns the contents of the C o o k i eheader, parsed and stored in an array of C o o k i eobjects. See the separate section of this tutorial on cookies. The g e t A u t h T y p eand g e t R e m o t e U s e rmethods break the A u t h o r i z a t i o nheader into its component pieces. The g e t D a t e H e a d e rand g e t I n t H e a d e rmethods read the specified header and then convert them to D a t eand i n tvalues, respectively. Rather than looking up one particular header, you can use the g e t H e a d e r N a m e sto get an E n u m e r a t i o nof all header names received on this particular request. Finally, in addition to looking up the request headers, you can get information on the main request line itself. The g e t M e t h o dmethod returns the main request method (normally G E Tor P O S T , but things like H E A D ,P U T , and D E L E T Eare possible). The g e t R e q u e s t U R Imethod returns the URI (the part of the URL that came after the host and port, but before the form data). The g e t R e q u e s t P r o t o c o lreturns the third part of the request line, which is generally "H T T P / 1 . 0 " or "H T T P / 1 . 1 ".

3. Example: Printing all Headers

Here's a servlet that simply creates a table of all the headers it receives, along with their associated values. It also prints out the three components of the main request line (method, URI, and protocol).

3.1 ShowRequestHeaders.java
You can also download the source or try it on-line.
p a c k a g eh a l l ; i m p o r tj a v a . i o . * ; i m p o r tj a v a x . s e r v l e t . * ; i m p o r tj a v a x . s e r v l e t . h t t p . * ; i m p o r tj a v a . u t i l . * ;
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Servlet Tutorial: Reading HTTP Request Headers

p u b l i cc l a s sS h o w R e q u e s t H e a d e r se x t e n d sH t t p S e r v l e t{ p u b l i cv o i dd o G e t ( H t t p S e r v l e t R e q u e s tr e q u e s t , H t t p S e r v l e t R e s p o n s er e s p o n s e ) t h r o w sS e r v l e t E x c e p t i o n ,I O E x c e p t i o n{ r e s p o n s e . s e t C o n t e n t T y p e ( " t e x t / h t m l " ) ; P r i n t W r i t e ro u t=r e s p o n s e . g e t W r i t e r ( ) ; S t r i n gt i t l e=" S e r v l e tE x a m p l e :S h o w i n gR e q u e s tH e a d e r s " ; o u t . p r i n t l n ( S e r v l e t U t i l i t i e s . h e a d W i t h T i t l e ( t i t l e )+ " < B O D YB G C O L O R = \ " # F D F 5 E 6 \ " > \ n "+ " < H 1A L I G N = C E N T E R > "+t i t l e+" < / H 1 > \ n "+ " < B > R e q u e s tM e t h o d :< / B > "+ r e q u e s t . g e t M e t h o d ( )+" < B R > \ n "+ " < B > R e q u e s tU R I :< / B > "+ r e q u e s t . g e t R e q u e s t U R I ( )+" < B R > \ n "+ " < B > R e q u e s tP r o t o c o l :< / B > "+ r e q u e s t . g e t P r o t o c o l ( )+" < B R > < B R > \ n "+ " < T A B L EB O R D E R = 1A L I G N = C E N T E R > \ n "+ " < T RB G C O L O R = \ " # F F A D 0 0 \ " > \ n "+ " < T H > H e a d e rN a m e < T H > H e a d e rV a l u e " ) ; E n u m e r a t i o nh e a d e r N a m e s=r e q u e s t . g e t H e a d e r N a m e s ( ) ; w h i l e ( h e a d e r N a m e s . h a s M o r e E l e m e n t s ( ) ){ S t r i n gh e a d e r N a m e=( S t r i n g ) h e a d e r N a m e s . n e x t E l e m e n t ( ) ; o u t . p r i n t l n ( " < T R > < T D > "+h e a d e r N a m e ) ; o u t . p r i n t l n ( " < T D > "+r e q u e s t . g e t H e a d e r ( h e a d e r N a m e ) ) ; } o u t . p r i n t l n ( " < / T A B L E > \ n < / B O D Y > < / H T M L > " ) ; } p u b l i cv o i dd o P o s t ( H t t p S e r v l e t R e q u e s tr e q u e s t , H t t p S e r v l e t R e s p o n s er e s p o n s e ) t h r o w sS e r v l e t E x c e p t i o n ,I O E x c e p t i o n{ d o G e t ( r e q u e s t ,r e s p o n s e ) ; } }

3.2 ShowRequestHeaders Output

Here are the results of two typical requests, one from Netscape and one from Internet Explorer. You'll see the reason Netscape shows a C o o k i eheader when you get to the tutorial section on cookies.

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Servlet Tutorial: Reading HTTP Request Headers

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Servlet Tutorial: Reading HTTP Request Headers

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