Apache HttpClient GET with body

Question

I am trying to send an HTTP GET with a json object in its body. Is there a way to set the body of an HttpClient HttpGet? I am looking for the equivalent of HttpPost#setEntity.

Almost duplicate: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/978061/http-get-with-request-body — Mikita Belahlazau, Sep 21 '12 at 17:10
Nikita - My question is similar to the one you post, however I am asking specifically how to do so via the Apache HttpClient API. Thank you though. — Scott Swank, Sep 21 '12 at 17:14
The answer is oficially it's not possible. GET requests can't contain body according to specification. You need to use POST requests. — Mikita Belahlazau, Sep 21 '12 at 17:15
Please note that in the question you linked to it is indicated that a GET may have a body. The spec allows this. My question is simply whether this is possible via Apache's HttpClient. — Scott Swank, Sep 21 '12 at 17:19
Yes, you're right it's not prohibited by spec. But I'd say it's not possible. — Mikita Belahlazau, Sep 21 '12 at 17:27

score 46 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 07 '15 at 11:35

46

From what I know, you can't do this with the default HttpGet class that comes with the Apache library. However, you can subclass the HttpEntityEnclosingRequestBase entity and set the method to GET. I haven't tested this, but I think the following example might be what you're looking for:

import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpEntityEnclosingRequestBase;

public class HttpGetWithEntity extends HttpEntityEnclosingRequestBase {
    public final static String METHOD_NAME = "GET";

    @Override
    public String getMethod() {
        return METHOD_NAME;
    }
}

Edit:

You could then do the following:

...
HttpGetWithEntity e = new HttpGetWithEntity();
...
e.setEntity(yourEntity);
...
response = httpclient.execute(e);

edited Sep 07 '15 at 11:35

Nayan

1,521
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answered Sep 21 '12 at 18:03

torbinsky

1,450
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Seems to work, that's actually the only way I've found so far to send a body using a get request with any java library! – javanna Nov 22 '13 at 18:11
+1; @ScottSwank please accept the answer as it does indeed seem to work – mkl Jan 10 '14 at 08:48

icapurro · Answer 2 · 2014-09-20T18:26:16.180

10

Using torbinsky's answer I created the above class. This lets me use the same methods for HttpPost.

import java.net.URI;

import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;

public class HttpGetWithEntity extends HttpPost {

    public final static String METHOD_NAME = "GET";

    public HttpGetWithEntity(URI url) {
        super(url);
    }

    public HttpGetWithEntity(String url) {
        super(url);
    }

    @Override
    public String getMethod() {
        return METHOD_NAME;
    }
}

edited Sep 20 '14 at 18:26

answered Jul 29 '14 at 15:44

icapurro

348
3
9

I tried the above code with a web service that I need to talk to on my project and no go. I just receive on the service daemon log "Internal application error, closing connection.". Jersey offered a HttpGet with entities (called differently), but sadly apache does not. This particular web service truly expects a GET request and not a POST. – Sarah Weinberger Jan 15 '15 at 16:17

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 08 '22 at 07:41

My approach is to use a RequestBuilder (from org.apache.http.client.methods package).

It doesn't conform the same API as just using HttpPost but is much simpler than the one provided above.

HttpUriRequest request = RequestBuilder.get(uri)
        .setEntity(new StringEntity(entity))
        .setHeader(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_TYPE, "application/json")
        .build();

Brandon Lyday · Answer 4 · 2019-07-31T20:51:39.913

2

In addition torbinsky's answer, you can add these constructors to the class to make it easier to set the uri:

public HttpGetWithEntity(String uri) throws URISyntaxException{
    this.setURI(new URI(uri));
}

public HttpGetWithEntity(URI uri){
    this.setURI(uri);
}

The setURI method is inherited from HttpEntityEnclosingRequestBase and can also be used outside the constructor.

edited Jul 31 '19 at 20:51

answered Jul 31 '19 at 18:23

Brandon Lyday

21
2

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 22 '17 at 14:29

How we can send request uri in this example just like HttpGet & HttpPost ???

 public class HttpGetWithEntity extends HttpEntityEnclosingRequestBase
 {
    public final static String METHOD_NAME = "GET";
    @Override
     public String getMethod() {
         return METHOD_NAME;
     } 

        HttpGetWithEntity e = new HttpGetWithEntity(); 
        e.setEntity(yourEntity); 
        response = httpclient.execute(e); 
}

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 26 '22 at 01:32

import java.net.URI;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpEntityEnclosingRequestBase;

public class HttpGetWithEntity extends HttpEntityEnclosingRequestBase {

    public final static String METHOD_NAME = "GET";

    public HttpGetWithEntity() {
        super();
    }

    public HttpGetWithEntity(final URI url) {
        super();
        setURI(url);
    }

    public HttpGetWithEntity(final String url) {
        super();
        setURI(URI.create(url));
    }

    @Override
    public String getMethod() {
        return METHOD_NAME;
    }
}

I found @NotThreadSafe not found error https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57472392 — ez2sarang, Apr 26 '22 at 02:10

Apache HttpClient GET with body

6 Answers6

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