HttpEntity

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org.apache.http
Interface HttpEntity

public interface HttpEntity

An entity that can be sent or received with an HTTP message. Entities can be found in some requests and in responses, where they are optional.

In some places, the JavaDoc distinguishes three kinds of entities, depending on where their content 55 originates:

streamed: The content is received from a stream, or generated on the fly. In particular, this category includes entities being received from a connection. Streamed 55 entities are generally not repeatable 55 .
self-contained: The content is in memory or obtained by means that are independent from a connection or other entity. Self-contained entities are generally repeatable 55 .
wrapping: The content is obtained from another entity.

This distinction is important for connection management with incoming entities. For entities that are created by an application and only sent using the HTTP components framework, the difference between streamed and self-contained is of little importance. In that case, it is suggested to consider non-repeatable entities as streamed, and those that are repeatable (without a huge effort) as self-contained.

Since:: 4.0
Version:: $Revision: 376961 $

Method Summary

void consumeContent()
          Consumes the remaining content of a streamed entity.

java.io.InputStream getContent()
          Creates a new InputStream object of the entity.

Header getContentEncoding()
          Obtains the Content-Encoding header, if known.

long getContentLength()
          Tells the length of the content, if known.

Header getContentType()
          Obtains the Content-Type header, if known.

boolean isChunked()
          Tells about chunked encoding for this entity.

boolean isRepeatable()
          Tells if the entity is capable to produce its data more than once.

boolean isStreaming()
          Tells whether this entity depends on an underlying stream.

void writeTo(java.io.OutputStream outstream)
          Writes the entity content to the output stream.

Method Detail

isRepeatable

public boolean isRepeatable()

Tells if the entity is capable to produce its data more than once. A repeatable entity's getContent() and writeTo(OutputStream) methods can be called more than once whereas a non-repeatable entity's can not.

isChunked

public boolean isChunked()

Tells about chunked encoding for this entity. The primary purpose of this method is to indicate whether chunked encoding should be used when the entity is sent. For entities that are received, it can also indicate whether the entity was received with chunked encoding.
The behavior of wrapping entities is implementation dependent, but should respect the primary purpose.

getContentLength

public long getContentLength()

Tells the length of the content, if known.

getContentType

public Header getContentType()

Obtains the Content-Type header, if known. This is the header that should be used when sending the entity, or the one that was received with the entity. It can include a charset attribute.

getContentEncoding

public Header getContentEncoding()

Obtains the Content-Encoding header, if known. This is the header that should be used when sending the entity, or the one that was received with the entity. Wrapping entities that modify the content encoding should adjust this header accordingly.

getContent

public java.io.InputStream getContent()
                               throws java.io.IOException,
                                      java.lang.IllegalStateException

Creates a new InputStream object of the entity. It is a programming error to return the same InputStream object more than once. Entities that are not repeatable 55 will throw an exception if this method is called multiple times.

writeTo

public void writeTo(java.io.OutputStream outstream)
             throws java.io.IOException

Writes the entity content to the output stream.

isStreaming

public boolean isStreaming()

Tells whether this entity depends on an underlying stream. Streamed entities should return true until the content has been consumed, false afterwards. Self-contained entities should return false. Wrapping entities should delegate this call to the wrapped entity.
The content of a streamed entity is consumed when the stream returned by getContent 55 has been read to EOF, or after consumeContent 55 has been called. If a streamed entity can not detect whether the stream has been read to EOF, it should return true until consumeContent 55 is called.

consumeContent

public void consumeContent()
                    throws java.io.IOException

Consumes the remaining content of a streamed entity. This method is called to indicate that the content of this entity is no longer required. Streamed entities should dispose of the remaining content, if any. Self-contained entities can release allocated resources, but are not required to do anything. Wrapping entities should delegate this call to the wrapped entity.
This method is of particular importance for entities being received from a connection. The entity needs to be consumed completely in order to re-use the connection with keep-alive.