Chapter 5 HTTP and HTTPS Protocols

Chapter 5 HTTP and HTTPS Protocols

If your application requires authentication, caching, cookies, or proxy support, you need to configure the ICEsoft HTTP protocol handler (ICEhttp). If it requires NT challenge/response authentication, you need to configure NTLM support, which requires the optional ICEntml module. For more information on NTLM, see Supporting NTLM. If it requires SSL, you also need to configure HTTPS support, which requires the optional ICEssl module.

The HTTP protocol handler supports the HTTP1.1 standard, RFC 2616, as well as RFC 2617 and RFC 2109. It can handle non-standard HTTP, such as broken status lines and redirection. It supports proxies, user authentication, basic and digest proxy authentication, cookies, caching to memory or the file system, persistent connections, and automatic redirection. The module is located in the ice.net package.

The following managers provide the HTTP and HTTPS functionality:

Manager

Description

AuthenticationManager

The authentication manager handles both proxy and Web authentication. For more information, see Authentication Manager.

CacheManager

The cache manager handles caching, if it is enabled. For more information on caching, see Cache Manager and Optimizing for Performance.

ConnectionManager

The connection manager creates the required connections or sockets. For more information, see Connection Manager.

CookieManager

The cookie manager handles all cookies. For more information, see Cookie Manager.

ProxyManager

The proxy manager supports proxies for single domains, global proxies, and domain exclusions. For more information, see Proxy Management.

To set instances of these classes for the HTTP protocol you use methods with the following syntax:
ice.net.HttpURLConnection.setGlobal<manager_class_name> 
 
Only one instance of each of these managers exists. The managers govern both the HTTP and HTTPS protocols. Therefore, all changes made in the HTTP protocol can be made in the HTTPS protocol using the same manager objects in the ice.net.HttpsURLConnection class.

Manager	Description
AuthenticationManager	The authentication manager handles both proxy and Web authentication. For more information, see Authentication Manager.
CacheManager	The cache manager handles caching, if it is enabled. For more information on caching, see Cache Manager and Optimizing for Performance.
ConnectionManager	The connection manager creates the required connections or sockets. For more information, see Connection Manager.
CookieManager	The cookie manager handles all cookies. For more information, see Cookie Manager.
ProxyManager	The proxy manager supports proxies for single domains, global proxies, and domain exclusions. For more information, see Proxy Management.