Adding an HTTP Header to the request in a servlet filter

Question

I'm integrating with an existing servlet that pulls some properties out of the HTTP header. Basically, I'm implementing an interface that doesn't have access to the actual request, it just has access to a map of k->v for the HTTP headers.

I need to pass in a request parameter. The plan is to use a servlet filter to go from parameter to header value but of course the HttpServletRequest object doesn't have an addHeader() method.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Extend HttpServletRequestWrapper, override the header getters to return the parameters as well:

public class AddParamsToHeader extends HttpServletRequestWrapper {
    public AddParamsToHeader(HttpServletRequest request) {
        super(request);
    }

    public String getHeader(String name) {
        String header = super.getHeader(name);
        return (header != null) ? header : super.getParameter(name); // Note: you can't use getParameterValues() here.
    }

    public Enumeration getHeaderNames() {
        List<String> names = Collections.list(super.getHeaderNames());
        names.addAll(Collections.list(super.getParameterNames()));
        return Collections.enumeration(names);
    }
}

..and wrap the original request with it:

chain.doFilter(new AddParamsToHeader((HttpServletRequest) request), response);

---

That said, I personally find this a bad idea. Rather give it direct access to the parameters or pass the parameters to it.

Answer 2

You'll have to use an HttpServletRequestWrapper:

public void doFilter(final ServletRequest request, final ServletResponse response, final FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException {
    final HttpServletRequest httpRequest = (HttpServletRequest) request;
    HttpServletRequestWrapper wrapper = new HttpServletRequestWrapper(httpRequest) {
        @Override
        public String getHeader(String name) {
            final String value = request.getParameter(name);
            if (value != null) {
                return value;
            }
            return super.getHeader(name);
        }
    };
    chain.doFilter(wrapper, response);
}

Depending on what you want to do you may need to implement other methods of the wrapper like getHeaderNames for instance. Just be aware that this is trusting the client and allowing them to manipulate any HTTP header. You may want to sandbox it and only allow certain header values to be modified this way.