Adding HTTP Request Header in SolrJ

[Andrew Doyle <ad...@clearedgeit.com>]

Our web services are using PKI authentication so we have a user DN, however
we're querying an external Solr which is managed via a proxy which is
expecting our server DN proxying the user DN. My question is, how do we add
an HTTP header to the request being made by SolrJ?

I looked through the source code and I see that we can specify an
HttpClient when we create a new instance of an HttpSolrServer. I can set
the header there, but that seems slightly hackey to me. I'd prefer to use a
servlet filter if possible.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks!


*-- Andrew Doyle*
Software Engineer II

 <http://www.clearedgeit.com/news/2013/baltimore-sun-top-workplace/>

10620 Guilford Road, Suite 200
Jessup, MD 20794
direct: 410 854 5560
cell: 410 440 8478

*adoyle@clearedgeit.com <ad...@clearedgeit.com>*
* www.ClearEdgeIT.com <http://www.ClearEdgeIT.com>*

Re: Adding HTTP Request Header in SolrJ

[Shawn Heisey <so...@elyograg.org>]

On 2/3/2014 3:40 PM, Andrew Doyle wrote:
> Our web services are using PKI authentication so we have a user DN, however
> we're querying an external Solr which is managed via a proxy which is
> expecting our server DN proxying the user DN. My question is, how do we add
> an HTTP header to the request being made by SolrJ?
>
> I looked through the source code and I see that we can specify an
> HttpClient when we create a new instance of an HttpSolrServer. I can set
> the header there, but that seems slightly hackey to me. I'd prefer to use a
> servlet filter if possible.
>
> Do you have any other suggestions?

I don't think there's any servlet information (like the filters you 
mentioned) available in SolrJ.  There is in Solr itself, which uses 
SolrJ, but unless you're writing a servlet or custom server side code 
for Solr, you won't have access to any of that.  If you are writing a 
servlet or custom server-side code, then they'll be available -- but not 
from SolrJ.

I could be wrong about what I just said, but just now when I looked 
through the code for HttpSolrServer and SolrServer, I did not see 
anything about servlets or filters.

In my own SolrJ application, I create an HttpClient instance that is 
used across dozens of HttpSolrServer instances. The following is part of 
the constructor code for my custom "Core" class.

         /*
          * If this is the first time a Core has been created, create 
the shared
          * httpClient with some increased connection properties. 
Synchronized to
          * ensure thread safety.
          */
         synchronized (firstInstance)
         {
             if (firstInstance)
             {
                 ModifiableSolrParams params = new ModifiableSolrParams();
params.add(HttpClientUtil.PROP_MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_HOST, "200");
params.add(HttpClientUtil.PROP_MAX_CONNECTIONS, "5000");
                 httpClient = HttpClientUtil.createClient(params);
                 firstInstance = false;
             }
         }

These are the static class members used in the above code:

     /**
      * A static boolean value indicating whether this is the first 
instance of
      * this object. Also used for thread synchronization.
      */
     private static Boolean firstInstance = true;

     /**
      * A static http client to use on all Solr server objects.
      */
     private static HttpClient httpClient = null;

Just so you know, the deprecations introduced by the recent upgrade to 
HttpClient 4.3 might complicate things further when it comes to user 
code.  See SOLR-5604.  I have some ideas about how to proceed on that 
issue, but haven'thad a lot of time to look into it, and before I do 
anything, I need to discuss it with people who are smarter than me.

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SOLR-5604

Thanks,
Shawn