HTTP proxy servlet operation

Before you deploy the HTTP proxy servlet, ensure that you understand how the HTTP proxy servlet manages the communication between IBM App Connect Enterprise applications and web services clients in a number of supported configurations.

The HTTP proxy servlet is a Java™ Web Application Archive (.war) file that is part of the runtime environment, and can be found in the following directory:

install_dir/tools

where install_dir is the name of your App Connect Enterprise runtime installation directory.

The HTTP proxy servlet is a Java servlet that receives HTTP requests. The HTTP proxy servlet matches the received web address with the web address that the HTTP or SOAP input nodes are monitoring, then passes the HTTP request message to the correct HTTP or SOAP input node flow by using IBM MQ.

The HTTP proxy servlet receives response messages from the HTTP or SOAP reply nodes and sends them back to the client applications over HTTP or HTTPS. The integration node has several internal IBM MQ queues (SYSTEM.BROKER.WS.* queues), which are used for the communication between the HTTP proxy servlet and the HTTP or SOAP input and reply nodes.

The HTTP proxy servlet is deployed in a servlet container. A servlet container (or web container) is the runtime environment for servlets and Java Server Pages (JSP). Apache Tomcat is an example of a servlet container. WebSphere® Application Server is an example of an application server, which includes the functions of a servlet container. The HTTP proxy servlet can be deployed in a local servlet container that is running on the same machine as IBM App Connect Enterprise or on a remote servlet container that is running on a different machine to IBM App Connect Enterprise. The servlet container must allow the HTTP proxy servlet to configure and call the IBM MQ classes for Java.

After the HTTP proxy servlet is deployed and running on the servlet container, it uses the HTTP listener of the servlet container to receive HTTP requests. If the servlet container is configured to support SSL (HTTPS), web services requests are received by the message flows by using SSL.