Use the HTTPInput node to receive Web service requests for processing by a message flow.
This topic contains the following sections:
If you use the HTTPInput node with the HTTPReply and HTTPRequest nodes, the broker can act as an intermediary for Web services, and Web service requests can be transformed and routed in the same way as other message formats that are supported by WebSphere® Message Broker. Web service requests can be received either in standard HTTP (1.0 or 1.1) format, or in HTTP over SSL (HTTPS) format. Set the Use HTTPS property to choose to handle either HTTP or HTTPS requests.
If you include an HTTPInput node in a message flow, you must either include an HTTPReply node in the same flow, or pass the message to another flow that includes an HTTPReply node (for example, through an MQOutput node to a second flow that starts with an MQInput node). In the latter case, the request from, and reply to, the client are coordinated by the request identifier stored in the LocalEnvironment.
When the HTTPInput node receives a message from a Web service client, the node starts the appropriate parsers to interpret the headers and the body of the message, and to create the message tree that is used internally by the message flow. The node creates a unique identifier for the input message and stores it as a binary array of 24 bytes in the LocalEnvironment tree at LocalEnvironment.Destination.HTTP.RequestIdentifer. This value is used by the HTTPReply node and must not be modified in any way.
HTTP messages are always non-persistent, and have no associated order.
HTTP messages are non-transactional. However, if the message flow interacts with a database or another external resource, such as a WebSphere MQ queue, these interactions are performed in a transaction. The HTTPInput node provides commit or rollback, depending on how the message flow has ended, and how it is configured for error handling (how failure terminals are connected, for example). If the message flow is rolled back by this node, a fault message is generated and returned to the client. The format of the fault is defined by the Fault format property.
If an exception occurs downstream in this message flow, and it is not caught but is returned to this node, the node constructs an error reply to the client. This error is derived from the exception, and the format of the error is defined by the Fault format property.
If you include an output node in a message flow that starts with an HTTPInput node, the output node can be any of the supported output nodes (including user-defined output nodes). You can create a message flow that receives messages from Web service clients, and generates messages for clients that use all of the supported transports to connect to the broker. You can configure the message flow to request the broker to provide any conversion that is necessary.
If you create a message flow to use as a subflow, you cannot use a standard input node; you must use an Input node as the first node to create an In terminal for the subflow.
If your message flow does not receive Web service requests, use any of the other input nodes.
The HTTPInput node is contained in the HTTP drawer of the palette, and is represented in the workbench by the following icon:
You can use the HTTPInput node in any message flow that accepts HTTP or HTTPS messages. The most common example is a message flow that implements a Web service.
For more information about Web service applications, see Working with Web service applications.
The HTTPInput node supports HTTP POST and HTTP GET. For more information about enabling HTTP GET, see HTTPRequest node.
/Joe /Joe/Mary /Joe/* /*this format gets the message if no other node matches the request. So for the request: http://localhost:777/Joe/Sally, it matches Joe/*. If the request does not match any URL selector, and you do not have an input node with /* specified, the HTTPInput node returns a response to the originator. For example:
<html> <head> <title>WebSphere MQ Integrator error report </title> </head> <body> <h1>HTTP Status 404 - Resource Not Found</h1> URI /soap does not map to any message flow in broker VCP1BRK <h3>WebSphere MQ Integrator 500</h3> </body> </html>
You can use a URL of /* to catch any requests that failed to match the URLs in the HTTPInput nodes, so that you can send a reply message and take other actions as appropriate.
The
broker must be configured to use a port (the default is 7080). The HTTP listener is started
by the broker when a message flow that includes HTTP
nodes or Web Services support is started.
When a request comes
in, the listener sends the request to the HTTPInput node through a WebSphere MQ message.
The HTTP listener listens on Internet Protocol Version
6 (IPv6) and Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) addresses where supported
by the operating system. To enable IPv6 listening on Windows® and HPUX platforms, set the environment
variable _JAVA_OPTIONS to -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=false.
You can use the mqsichangetrace command to collect trace information for the HTTP listener. To process the log, use the mqsireadlog command with qualifier set to httplistener.
The HTTPInput node routes each message that it retrieves successfully to the Out terminal. If message validation fails, the message is routed to the Failure terminal; you can connect nodes to this terminal to handle this condition. If you have not connected the Failure terminal, the message is discarded, the Maximum client wait time expires, and the TCP/IP listener returns an error to the client. No other situations exist in which the message is routed to the Failure terminal.
If the message is caught by this node after an exception has been thrown further on in the message flow, the message is routed to the Catch terminal. If you have not connected the Catch terminal, the message is discarded, the Maximum client wait time expires, and the TCP/IP listener returns an error to the client.
When you have put an instance of the HTTPInput node into a message flow, you can configure it; see Configuring a message flow node. The properties of the node are displayed in the Properties view. To display the properties of the node in the Properties dialog, either double-click the node, or right-click the node and click Properties.
The terminals of the HTTPInput node are described in the following table.
Terminal | Description |
---|---|
Failure | The output terminal to which the message is routed if an error occurs. |
Out | The output terminal to which the message is routed if it is successfully retrieved. |
Catch | The output terminal to which the message is routed if an exception is thrown downstream and caught by this node. |
The following tables describe the node properties. The column headed M indicates whether the property is mandatory (marked with an asterisk if you must enter a value when no default is defined); the column headed C indicates whether the property is configurable (you can change the value when you add the message flow to the BAR file to deploy it).
The HTTPInput node Description properties are described in the following table.
Property | M | C | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Node name | No | No | The node type, HTTPInput | The name of the node. |
Short description | No | No | A brief description of the node. | |
Long description | No | No | Text that describes the purpose of the node in the message flow. |
The HTTPInput node Basic properties are described in the following table.
Property | M | C | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Path suffix for URL | Yes | Yes | This property identifies the location from where Web service requests are retrieved. Do not use the full URL. If the URL that you want is http://<hostname>[:<port>]/[<path>], specify either /<path> or /<path fragment>/* where * is a wild card that you can use to mean match any. | |
Use HTTPS | No | Yes | Cleared | This property identifies whether the node is to accept secure HTTP. If the node is to accept secure HTTP, select the check box. |
The HTTPInput node Input Message Parsing properties are described in the following table.
Property | M | C | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Message domain | No | No | The domain that is used to parse the incoming
message. Select
the name of the parser that you are using from the list:
|
|
Message set | No | No | The name or identifier of the message set in
which the incoming message is defined. All available message sets
are in the list. If you are using the MRM or IDOC parser, select the Message set that you want to use. This list is populated with available message sets when you select MRM or IDOC as the domain. Leave the Message set field blank for XML, XMLNS, XMLNSC, JMS, MIME, and BLOB parsers. |
|
Message type | No | No | The name of the incoming message. If you are using the MRM parser, select the type of message from the list in Message type. This list is populated with messages that are defined in the Message set that you have selected. Leave Message type blank for XML, XMLNS, XMLNSC, JMS, IDOC, MIME, and BLOB parsers. |
|
Message format | No | No | The name of the physical format of the incoming
message. If you are using the MRM or IDOC parser, select the format of the message from the list in Message format. This list includes all the physical formats that you have defined for this Message set. Leave Message format blank for XML, XMLNS, XMLNSC, JMS, MIME, and BLOB parsers. |
The properties of the Parser Options for the HTTPInput node are described in the following table.
Property | M | C | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Parse timing | No | No | On Demand | This property controls when an input message
is parsed. Valid values are On
Demand, Immediate,
and Complete. By default, this property is set to On Demand, which causes validation to be delayed until it is parsed by partial parsing. If you change this value to Immediate, partial parsing is overridden and everything in the message is parsed and validated, except for those complex types with a composition of Choice or Message that cannot be resolved at the time causing a validation failure. If you change this value to Complete, partial parsing is overridden and everything in the message is parsed and validated. |
Use XMLNSC compact parser for XMLNS domain | No | No | Cleared | This property controls whether the XMLNSC Compact Parser is used for messages in the XMLNS Domain. If you set this property, the message data appears under XMLNSC in nodes that are connected to the output terminal when the input MQRFH2 header or the input message Parsing property Message domain is XMLNS. |
Retain mixed content | No | No | Cleared | This property controls whether the XMLNSC parser creates elements in the message tree when it encounters mixed text in an input message. If you select the check box, elements are created for mixed text. If you clear the check box, mixed text is ignored and no elements are created. |
Retain comments | No | No | Cleared | This property controls whether the XMLNSC parser creates elements in the message tree when it encounters comments in an input message. If you select the check box, elements are created for comments. If you clear the check box, comments are ignored and no elements are created. |
Retain processing instructions | No | No | Cleared | This property controls whether the XMLNSC parser creates elements in the message tree when it encounters processing instructions in an input message. If you select the check box, elements are created for processing instructions. If you clear the check box, processing instructions are ignored and no elements are created. |
The HTTPInput node Error handling properties are described in the following table.
Property | M | C | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Maximum client wait time (sec) | Yes | No | 180 | The length of time, in seconds, for which the TCP/IP listener that received the input message from the Web service client waits for a response from the HTTPReply node in the message flow. If a response is received within this time, the listener propagates the response to the client. If a response is not received in this time, the listener sends a SOAP Fault message to the client indicating that its timeout has expired. The valid range is zero (which means an indefinite wait) to (231)-1. |
Fault format | No | Yes | SOAP 1.1 | The format of any HTTP errors that are returned to the client. Valid values are SOAP 1.1, SOAP 1.2, and HTML. |
The Validation properties of the HTTPInput node are described in the following table. If a message is propagated to the Failure terminal of the node, it is not validated. For more details, see Validating messages and Validation properties.
.
Property | M | C | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validate | No | Yes | None | This property controls whether validation takes place. Valid values are None, Content and Value, and Content. |
Failure action | No | No | Exception | This property controls what happens if validation fails. You can set this property only if you set Validate to Content or Content and Value. Valid values are User Trace, Local Error Log, Exception, and Exception List. |
Include all value constraints | No | No | Selected | This property cannot be edited. Basic value constraint checks are included in Content and Value validation. |
Fix | No | No | None | This property cannot be edited. |
The HTTPInput node Advanced
properties are described in the following table.
Property | M | C | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Set destination list | No | No | Selected | This property specifies whether to add the method binding name to the route to label destination list. If you select this check box, the method binding name is added so that you can use a RouteToLabel node in the message flow after the HTTPInput node. |
Label prefix | No | No | None | The prefix to add to the method name when routing to label. Add a label prefix to avoid a clash of corresponding label nodes when you include multiple WebSphere Message Broker input nodes in the same message flow. By default, there is no label prefix, therefore the method name and label name are identical. |