REST

The REST component communicates with the HTTP server by using specified http method.
When transporting using a SSL protocol, the certificates registered by a management console are used, then the data will be transported following a public key infrastructure.

Stream Information

Input	Format	Binary,Text,HTML,ParameterList,CSV,FixedString,MIME,XML
	Number of Inputs	1
	Description	If HTTPMethod != GET or DELETE, It becomes transmission data. if GET or DELETE, it is not used. In the case of a ParameterList input stream, each parameter is sent as a separate form field.
Output	Format	XML,CSV,FixedLength,Text,HTML,Binary,MIME

Output Stream Variables

Name	Data Type	Description
StatusCode	int	Status code of HTTP response.

Component Properties

Name

Data Type

Mapping

Description

UseConnection

boolean

Specifies if the Connection property is used to specify the HTTP server information.

true [true]	-	Uses Connection specified connnection.
false [false]	-	Uses the information under ConnectionInfo.

Connection

connection

If UseConnection=true, specifies the HTTP connection to use. The connections are defined in the Connection Pane of Flow Designer or the Flow Service Management Console.

ConnectionInfo

group

The HTTP server connection property settings' place holder displayed when UseConnection is set to false.

URL

string

In & Out

Specifies the URL of the HTTP server.
The full URL in the form "http(s)://..." must be specified. If UseConnection=false, this is used.

URLEncoding

choice

In & Out

Specifies the character encoding set in the Body. if the input stream is a ParameterList.
If UseConnection=false, this is used.

Timeout

int

In & Out

Specifies the timeout value, in seconds, for connection, communication with the HTTP server.
If UseConnection=false, this is used.

BasicAuth

group

The authentication properties' place holder if UseConnection=false, this is used. Supporting authentication is as follows.

Basic authentication
Digest authentication
WSSE authentication

Username

string

In & Out

Specifies the username to use if the server performs authentication.
If UseConnection=false, this is used.

Password

password

In & Out

Specifies the password to use if the server performs authentication.
If UseConnection=false, this is used.

UseProxy

boolean

Specifies whether the proxy server settings defined in the Flow Service Managenemt Console are to be used.
If UseConnection=false, this is used.

true [true]	-	Use the proxy server
false [false]	-	Do not use the proxy server

Path

string

In & Out

Specifies the URL location from which to Get data. This value is appended to the end of the URL defined by the selected Connection. If UseConnection=false, this is used.

HTTPMethod

choice

Specifies the HTTP method to use for the request. Other methods can use if you input a method name.

GET	-	Uses GET method.
POST	-	Uses POST method.
PUT	-	Uses PUT method.
DELETE	-	Uses DELETE method.

HTTP body

choice

Specifies the HTTP message body.

Input Stream [Stream]	-	Input Stream
None [None]	-	No Body

HTTPVersion

choice

Specifies the HTTP version to use for the request. When HTTP/1.1 , component sets Connection:close header field.

HTTP/1.0	-	Uses HTTP/1.0
HTTP/1.1	-	Uses HTTP/1.1

RetryCount

int

In & Out

Number of times to retry the request if it fails. If no retry attempts are to be made, set this value to zero ("0").

RetryInterval

int

In & Out

Number of seconds to wait between retry attempts.

FollowRedirects

boolean

Specifies if redirects or not when the server returns rediretion information.

true [true]	-	Any redirections returned from the server are followed automatically.
false [false]	-	redirections are not followed.

URLParameters

Transaction

Commit	Do nothing
Rollback	Do nothing

Exceptions

Type

Parameter

Stream for error handling flow

Error
Code

Description

Exception

None

This component's input stream

The specified Connection could not be found.

The HTTP server could not be contacted.

HTTPException

No.	Name	Description
1	HTTPStatusLine	The HTTP Status-Line returned by the server.
2	HTTPBody	The HTTP Response-Body returned by the server.

The MIME content contained in the HTTP response returned by the server.

Status code of HTTP response

The HTTP server returned an error.

Difference between REST and HTTPGet(or HTTPPost)

This component contains all functions of HTTPGet and the HTTPPost component, and can substitute it. The difference point with those components is as follows.

It can select the HTTP method, and can send the request of PUT or DELETE.
It can specify the URL parameters.
It can convert JSON to XML.
It can execute test.

The HTTPPost component can completely replace by the "Replace component" of right click menu, but the HTTPGet component that uses input stream is necessary to set the input stream field to the URLParameters property.

Cancel of the flow

When flow is canceled, the flow usually aborts after the execution of that component is ends. However, the execution of this component is forced to be ended, then it aborts.

URL Encoding

For example, if the "param" field of PrameterList is set to "(abc)" and URLEncoding is set to UTF-8, the POST data will be as follows.

	param=%28abc%29

For further information on URLEncoding refer to RFC1738.

Using Connection

When not using connection, all the information must be specified in the component. But, URL can be generated with the value of Path property and the basic information defined in the connection. For example, URL of the connection definition is set to :

	http://SERVERNAME

and, the Path property is set to "/page1.html", then requests to

	http://SERVERNAME/page1.html

When multiple HTTP components connect to the same web server and following condition is met, it is convenient to use connections.

Web server requires authentication
Web server may change to another server

Topic

As for the value set in the Timeout property, the time-out that OS manages even if the value that rises time until the time-out that OS manages is set is given to priority.
For example, it becomes a time-out at 30 seconds even if 60 seconds are set to Timeout when time until the time-out that OS manages is 30 seconds.

The test of HTTP request

Click the "Execute test" from right click menu of this component, or double-click this component, then the test dialog is displayed.

The test dialog consists of the following elements.

Inspector
At first, the values of component properties are set.
The change of here is not set to the component as long as "Import properties" button is not clicked.
Body tab
The body sent with POST or PUT method can be input as the text.
Request tab
The MIME of request is displayed.
Response tab
The MIME of response is displayed.
Execute test button
The HTTP request is executed according to the inspector setting.
The result is displayed on Request tab and Response tab.
Import properties button
The change of the inspector is set to the component.
Set POST parameters button
It is enabled when HTTPMethod property is POST and the output stream of previous component is ParameterList.
The input dialog is shown and its values are set to Body tab.
Import XML Field definition button
If the response is XML, import its structure to the output stream definition as XML.
If the response is JSON, it is converted to the XML and imported.
Close button
Close this dialog.

Notes of test

If the "Content-Type" header is not exist in RequestHeaders, the "Content-Type" of test execution becomes to one of followings.
- text/xml; charset=utf-8 (The value of Body tab is XML)
- application/x-www-form-urlencoded (HTTPMethod property is POST and the output stream of previous component is ParameterList)
- text/plain; charset=utf-8 (Others)
On the other hand, the "Content-Type" of runtime is set according to the type of the input stream automatically. Therefore, it is necessary to specify the "Content-Type" in RequestHeaders, if you want to send the same request.
A part of header such as Cookie might be different for the test execution and runtime.
The test cannnot use the property formula.