11.14. SSL

Problem

You need to execute a method using HTTP over Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

Solution

If you are working with a server that has a certificate signed by a certificate authority included in the Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE), HttpClient automatically handles HTTP over SSL; just use a URL that starts with https. The following example retrieves Amazon.com’s sign-in page using HTTP over SSL:

               import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpException;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethod;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.GetMethod;

HttpClient client = new HttpClient( );
String url = "https://www.amazon.com/gp/flex/sign-in.html";

HttpMethod method = new GetMethod( url );
client.executeMethod( method );

String response = method.getResponseBodyAsString( );
System.out.println( response );

method.releaseConnection( );
method.recycle( );

This example executes a simple GetMethod constructed with a URL starting with https. The output of this example is:

0    WARN  [main] org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodBase     - Response 
content length is not known
297  WARN  [main] org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodBase     - Response 
content length is not known
<html>
<head><title>Amazon.com Sign In</title>
</head>
.......... Content ..................
</html>

Discussion

HttpClient handles SSL automatically, if it can verify the authenticity of a certificate against an authority; this is why this recipe is so similar to Recipe 11.3 ...

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