HTTP Connector
The Anypoint Connector for HTTP (HTTP Connector) sends and receives HTTP or HTTPS requests using a host, port, and address.
Depending on which type of HTTP connector you use, you can either:
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Listen for HTTP requests that arrive at a certain address and provide an HTTP response to these
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Send HTTP requests to a certain address and receive the returned response
Through additional configuration, the connector allows you to:
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Use TLS encryption to send or receive HTTPS requests
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Send Authenticated Requests, through Basic Authentication, Digest and OAuth
Studio Visual Editor
In Studio, the HTTP Connector can work in one of two ways, depending on where it’s placed on a flow:
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As an HTTP Listener Connector
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As an HTTP Request Connector
To instance the connector as an HTTP Listener Connector, you must place it into the Source section of a flow (ie: as the first element in the flow):
To instance the connector as an HTTP Request Connector, you must place it into the Process section of a flow (ie: anywhere except the beginning of it):
XML Editor
When writing Mule projects in XML, the HTTP Connector can work in one of two ways, depending on how you create it:
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As an HTTP Listener Connector
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As an HTTP Request Connector
To instance the connector as an HTTP Listener Connector, add the following XML tag at the start of a flow:
<http:listener config-ref="HTTP_Listener_Configuration" path="/"/>
This element must reference a global configuration element of the following type:
<http:listener-config name ="HTTP_Listener_Configuration"host ="localhost"port/>`="8081"`
To instance the connector as an HTTP Listener Connector, add the following XML tag in any part of a flow:
`<``http:request` `config-ref``=``"HTTP_Request_Configuration"` `path``=``"/"` `method``=``"GET"``/>`
This element must reference a global configuration element of the following type:
<http:request-config name="HTTP_Request_Configuration" host="example.com" port="8081"/>For information about migrating a project that uses instances of the old HTTP endpoint-based Connector to the new HTTP operation-based Connector, see Migrating to the New HTTP Connector. The old HTTP endpoint-based Connector still does work with Mule 3.6 Runtime, but it’s deprecated and will be eventually removed.
Tip: You can edit the log4j2 configuration file to make the logging of the HTTP connector’s activity verbose. See Logging in Mule for instructions.
Debugging
Gaining greater visibility into HTTP inbound and outbound behavior can be achieved by enabling underlying library loggers with log4j2. This section assumes you’re comfortable adjusting log levels with log4j2. If you have not adjusted logging levels in the past, read configuring custom logging settings before continuing.
Logging Listener and Request Activity
By enabling the DEBUG level on org.mule.module.http.internal.HttpMessageLogger, activity coming from all HTTP Listener and Request components will be logged. This includes the HTTP Listener Connector’s inbound request, HTTP Request Connector’s outbound request, and each connector’s response body. An example of each can be found below.
Listener Log Output
The log output of the Listener will display metadata of the inbound request.
DEBUG 2016-02-10 10:55:03,234 [[hello].HTTP_Listener_Configuration.worker.01] org.mule.module.http.internal.HttpMessageLogger: LISTENER
GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:8081
User-Agent: curl/7.43.0
Accept: */*It will also display information about the response being sent back.
LISTENER
HTTP/1.1 200
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2016 18:55:03 GMT
2000
{
"message" : "hello, world"
}| Chunked encoding will produce a separate log record for each chunk. |
Request Log Output
The log output of the Request will display metadata of the outbound request.
DEBUG 2016-02-10 11:29:18,647 [[hello].http.requester.HTTP_Request_Configuration(1) SelectorRunner] org.mule.module.http.internal.HttpMessageLogger: REQUESTER
GET /v3/hello HTTP/1.1
Host: mocker-server.cloudhub.io:80
User-Agent: AHC/1.0
Connection: keep-alive
Accept: */*It will also display information about the response sent back from the target.
DEBUG 2016-02-10 11:29:18,729 [[hello].http.requester.HTTP_Request_Configuration.worker(1)] org.mule.module.http.internal.HttpMessageLogger: REQUESTER
HTTP/1.1 200
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2016 19:29:18 GMT
Server: nginx
Content-Length: 10940
Connection: keep-alive
{
"message" : "Hello, world"
}Logging Packet Metadata
At a lower level, it can be desirable to log the actual request and response packets transmitted over HTTP. This is achieved by enabling the DEBUG level on com.ning.http.client.providers.grizzly. This will log the metadata of the request packets from AsyncHTTPClientFilter and the response packets from AhcEventFilter. Unlike the HttpMessageLogger, this will not log request or response bodies.
Request Log Output
The log output of the request packet’s metadata is as follows.
DEBUG 2016-02-10 11:16:29,421 [[hello].http.requester.HTTP_Request_Configuration(1) SelectorRunner] com.ning.http.client.providers.grizzly.AsyncHttpClientFilter: REQUEST: HttpRequestPacket (
method=GET
url=/v3/hello
query=null
protocol=HTTP/1.1
content-length=-1
headers=[
Host=mocker-server.cloudhub.io:80
User-Agent=AHC/1.0
Connection=keep-alive
Accept=*/*]
)Response Log Output
The log output of the response packet’s metadata is as follows.
DEBUG 2016-02-10 11:16:29,508 [[hello].http.requester.HTTP_Request_Configuration.worker(1)] com.ning.http.client.providers.grizzly.AhcEventFilter: RESPONSE: HttpResponsePacket (
status=200
reason=
protocol=HTTP/1.1
content-length=10940
committed=false
headers=[
content-type=application/json
date=Wed, 10 Feb 2016 19:16:29 GMT
server=nginx
content-length=10940
connection=keep-alive]
)