sending post data to https without ssl cert verification with apache httpClient client

Question

I need to send post data to an https url using the apache HttpClient package,

after sending the post data I need to retreive the html data.

the post data that I'm sending is an XML string and the post data that I'm receving is an XML string.

any information regarding the issue would be greatly appreciated.

I googled and i found examples on the internet that uses DefaultHttpClient that now in version 4 is deprecated. so I'd like to know how to properly use the new version of the client.

thanks.

update

public String sendPost(final String request, final String postData) throws ClientProtocolException, IOException  {
    String result = null;
    CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.createDefault();
    HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(request);
    CloseableHttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpPost);
    try {
        HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
        result = EntityUtils.toString(entity);
        EntityUtils.consume(entity);
    } finally {
        response.close();
    }
    return result;

}

so far I came up with the this function that sends a request and retrieves a string from the response. I think it should work. the thing I'm missing is that I'm doing nothing with the postData. how do I sent post data with my request ?

Answer 1

public String sendPost(final String request, final String postData) throws ClientProtocolException, IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, KeyManagementException  {
    String result = null;
    SSLContext sslContext = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");

    // set up a TrustManager that trusts everything
    sslContext.init(null, new TrustManager[] { new X509TrustManager() {
                public X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {
                        System.out.println("getAcceptedIssuers =============");
                        return null;
                }

                public void checkClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] certs,
                                String authType) {
                        System.out.println("checkClientTrusted =============");
                }

                public void checkServerTrusted(X509Certificate[] certs,
                                String authType) {
                        System.out.println("checkServerTrusted =============");
                }
    } }, new SecureRandom());

    CloseableHttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.custom().setSSLSocketFactory(new SSLSocketFactory(sslContext)).build();
    HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(request);
    ByteArrayEntity postDataEntity = new ByteArrayEntity(postData.getBytes());
    httpPost.setEntity(postDataEntity);
    CloseableHttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpPost);
    try {
        HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
        result = EntityUtils.toString(entity);
        EntityUtils.consume(entity);
    } finally {
        response.close();
    }
    return result;

}

Answer 2

Here's another method using Apache 4.5:

/////////////////
// Create SSL Client
/////////////////

CloseableHttpClient httpclient = null;
HttpHost target = new HttpHost('www.mysite.com', 443, "https");

SSLContext sslcontext = SSLContexts.createSystemDefault();
SSLConnectionSocketFactory sslConnectionSocketFactory = new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(
        sslcontext, new String[] { "TLSv1", "SSLv3" }, null,
        SSLConnectionSocketFactory.getDefaultHostnameVerifier());

Registry<ConnectionSocketFactory> socketFactoryRegistry = RegistryBuilder.<ConnectionSocketFactory>create()
        .register("http", PlainConnectionSocketFactory.INSTANCE)
        .register("https", sslConnectionSocketFactory)
        .build();
PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager cm = new PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager(socketFactoryRegistry);

httpclient = HttpClients.custom()
.setSSLSocketFactory(sslConnectionSocketFactory)
.setConnectionManager(cm)
.build();

/////////////////
// Send POST
/////////////////

HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost('/mypath');
ByteArrayEntity postDataEntity = new ByteArrayEntity(postData.getBytes());
httpPost.setEntity(postDataEntity);
CloseableHttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(target, httpPost);

/////////////////
// Get RESPONSE
/////////////////

try {
        HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
        result = EntityUtils.toString(entity);
        EntityUtils.consume(entity);
} finally {
        response.close();
}