[jetty-discuss] Read the inputStream of a POST Request

[Sebastien P. <seb...@qo...>]

Hello,

This mail was first sent to the jetty-support list, but nobody seemed to =
be very=20
inspired by it, so I'll have a try here... Hope I don't disturb anyone.

I am a developer for logback, a logging framework which you might know.

One of the logback modules, called Access, integrates with Servlet contai=
ners to
provide HTTP-access log functionality. To allow flexibility in the loggin=
g layout, we
have developed a special implementation of a PatternLayout, which you mig=
ht see as a
http-centered PatternLayout.

The problem I am facing now is the following. I'd like to add to the Patt=
ernLayout
the possibility to output the content of a POST request.

I wrote a test case that creates a Jetty server, with a ContextHandler,
RequestLogHandler and a "BasicHandler". The last handler is here just to =
send a
"hello world" response to the client. The RequestLogHandler is set with o=
ur own
implementation of Jetty's RequestLog interface.

In the test, I create a POST request like this:

URL url =3D new URL("http://localhost:8080/");
HttpURLConnection connection =3D (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
((HttpURLConnection)connection).setRequestMethod("POST");
connection.setDoOutput(true);
connection.setDoInput(true);
connection.setUseCaches(false);
connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "text/plain");

String msg =3D "test message";
PrintWriter output =3D new PrintWriter(new
OutputStreamWriter(connection.getOutputStream()));
output.print(msg);
output.flush();
output.close();

I expect this to be a usable POST request. Is that the case?

Later in the process, the RequestLog implementation receives the logging =
request. It
then sends it to my Appenders, one of them trying to output the content o=
f the POST
request (i.e the "test message" String), to the console.

To access the post content, I take the inputStream of the HttpRequest and=
 a create a
String from its content.

Now to the part that I don't understand: if, after the ouput.close() stat=
ement, I add
this:

String result =3D Util.readToString(connection.getInputStream());

Then everything goes well, and the ouput in the console displays the "tes=
t message".
If this line is not used, then the output is complete except for the POST=
 content.
Does that mean that the HttpRequest's InputStream is filled only if the C=
onnection's
InputStream is read?


Could anybody help me understand that?

Thanks,
--=20
S=E9bastien Pennec
seb...@qo...

Logback: The reliable, generic, fast and flexible logging framework for J=
ava.
http://logback.qos.ch/