Which compression (is GZIP the most popular) servlet filter would you suggest?

Question

I am looking for a GZIP servlet filter to be used in a high volume web-app. I doesn't want to use the container specific options.

Requirement

1. Ability to compress response payload (XML)
2. Faster
3. Proven in production for high volume applications
4. Should properly set appropriate Content-Encoding
5. portable across containers
6. Optionally able to decompress request

Thank you.

Answer 1

The GZIP filter that I use to compress resources in my webapps:

public class CompressionFilter implements Filter {

    public void destroy() {
    }

    public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException {
        HttpServletRequest httpRequest = (HttpServletRequest) request;
        HttpServletResponse httpResponse = (HttpServletResponse) response;
        String acceptEncoding = httpRequest.getHeader(HttpHeaders.ACCEPT_ENCODING);
        if (acceptEncoding != null) {
            if (acceptEncoding.indexOf("gzip") >= 0) {
                GZIPHttpServletResponseWrapper gzipResponse = new GZIPHttpServletResponseWrapper(httpResponse);
                chain.doFilter(request, gzipResponse);
                gzipResponse.finish();
                return;
            }
        }
        chain.doFilter(request, response);
    }

    public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) throws ServletException {
    }

}

public class GZIPHttpServletResponseWrapper extends HttpServletResponseWrapper {

    private ServletResponseGZIPOutputStream gzipStream;
    private ServletOutputStream outputStream;
    private PrintWriter printWriter;

    public GZIPHttpServletResponseWrapper(HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException {
        super(response);
        response.addHeader(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_ENCODING, "gzip");
    }

    public void finish() throws IOException {
        if (printWriter != null) {
            printWriter.close();
        }
        if (outputStream != null) {
            outputStream.close();
        }
        if (gzipStream != null) {
            gzipStream.close();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void flushBuffer() throws IOException {
        if (printWriter != null) {
            printWriter.flush();
        }
        if (outputStream != null) {
            outputStream.flush();
        }
        super.flushBuffer();
    }

    @Override
    public ServletOutputStream getOutputStream() throws IOException {
        if (printWriter != null) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("printWriter already defined");
        }
        if (outputStream == null) {
            initGzip();
            outputStream = gzipStream;
        }
        return outputStream;
    }

    @Override
    public PrintWriter getWriter() throws IOException {
        if (outputStream != null) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("printWriter already defined");
        }
        if (printWriter == null) {
            initGzip();
            printWriter = new PrintWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(gzipStream, getResponse().getCharacterEncoding()));
        }
        return printWriter;
    }

    @Override
    public void setContentLength(int len) {
    }

    private void initGzip() throws IOException {
        gzipStream = new ServletResponseGZIPOutputStream(getResponse().getOutputStream());
    }

}

public class ServletResponseGZIPOutputStream extends ServletOutputStream {

    GZIPOutputStream gzipStream;
    final AtomicBoolean open = new AtomicBoolean(true);
    OutputStream output;

    public ServletResponseGZIPOutputStream(OutputStream output) throws IOException {
        this.output = output;
        gzipStream = new GZIPOutputStream(output);
    }

    @Override
    public void close() throws IOException {
        if (open.compareAndSet(true, false)) {
            gzipStream.close();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void flush() throws IOException {
        gzipStream.flush();
    }

    @Override
    public void write(byte[] b) throws IOException {
        write(b, 0, b.length);
    }

    @Override
    public void write(byte[] b, int off, int len) throws IOException {
        if (!open.get()) {
            throw new IOException("Stream closed!");
        }
        gzipStream.write(b, off, len);
    }

    @Override
    public void write(int b) throws IOException {
        if (!open.get()) {
            throw new IOException("Stream closed!");
        }
        gzipStream.write(b);
    }

}

You also need to define the mapping in your web.xml:

<filter>
    <filter-name>CompressionFilter</filter-name>
    <filter-class>com.my.company.CompressionFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>CompressionFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>*.js</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>CompressionFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>*.css</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>CompressionFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>*.html</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>CompressionFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>*.jsp</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>