Adding custom HTTP headers to Axis 1.4 web service responses

Question

I'm trying to add custom HTTP headers to Axis 1.4 web servers.

I've created a handler which extends BasicHandler:

public class HttpHeaderHandler extends BasicHandler {

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  @Override
  public void invoke(org.apache.axis.MessageContext arg0) throws AxisFault {  
    LOG.trace("invoke called");     
    Hashtable ht = (Hashtable)ctx.getProperty(HTTPConstants.RESPONSE_HEADERS);
    if(ht == null) {
      ht = new Hashtable();
    }
    ht.put("custom-header", "Hello");
    ctx.setProperty(HTTPConstants.RESPONSE_HEADERS, ht);     
  }

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}

I've added the following to server-config.wsdd:

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<transport name="http">
    <requestFlow>
        <handler type="URLMapper" />
        <handler type="java:org.apache.axis.handlers.http.HTTPAuthHandler" />
    </requestFlow>
    <responseFlow>
        <handler type="java:com.my.package.HttpHeaderHandler" />
    </responseFlow>
</transport>

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    .

I can see that the invoke method is being called as the logging is appearing in the log file but the custom header is not being added to the response.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Answer 1

I was able to do this on a org.apache.axis.Stub instance by doing the following:

private Stub setHeaders(Stub stub, Hashtable<String, String> headers){
    stub._setProperty(HTTPConstants.REQUEST_HEADERS, headers);
    return stub;
}

Note that it is REQUIRED that the value argument to _setProperty() be a java.util.Hashtable (it gets cast later on by Axis when the Stub is used)