Response handling examples

Check response headers, body, and content type

In this example, we will create several tests to verify the following:

• The request is executed successfully, that is, the response status is 200.

• Headers are received within the response body.

• The response's content type is application/json.

To create a test, we call the test method of the client object. Inside the test, we can assert a specific condition by calling the assert method of the client object and refer to various properties of the response object to validate them.

Use global variables

In this example, we will capture a value from the received response into a global variable, which can be then used in subsequent requests.

The first request involves a response handler script, which saves an authentication token from the received response body into the auth_token variable under client.global. To achieve this, we use the client.global.set(VariableName, VariableValue) construction. As the VariableValue argument, we use the value of the token field from the response body returned by the server. This value is then assigned to the "auth_token" variable.

After the request is executed, the auth_token variable can be accessed from subsequent requests (in the {{auth_token}} variable) and response handler scripts (by means of the client.global.get("auth_token") construction).

To obtain a value from a response header, use the valueOf method of the headers object. If several headers with the same name are received, use the valuesOf method instead. This will return an array of all response header values.

Save a cookie as a global variable

In this example, we will send a request that returns a cookie, extract that cookie from the response using a response handler script, save its value as a global variable, and then reuse it in a subsequent request.

Suppose an endpoint returns a SOCS cookie in the response. We use the response.cookiesByName("SOCS") method to find and extract this cookie from the response.

Saving the cookie value as a global variable (client.global.set()) allows us to reuse it in subsequent requests. In the next request, we reference {{SOCS_COOKIE}} in the Cookie header to send the extracted value.

Process each line of an event stream

If you subscribe to an event stream, a server will automatically send events to your client when new data becomes available. This data can be in the form of Server-Sent Events or newline-delimited JSON (NDJSON). In IntelliJ IDEA, you can use the HTTP Client response.body.onEachLine method to call a function on each line of this event stream.

Suppose you have a server that regularly sends information on the gold price. In this example, let's write a response handler script, which does the following:

1. Takes each chunk of data (JSON object) received from the server and logs the price value. When you run the request, you can view the logged info in the Response Handler tab of the Services tool window.

2. Stops processing the received data when the number of events exceeds 10. Note that this does not unsubscribe you from the event stream – you'll keep receiving events as long as the HTTP connection is open (check the Console tab of the Services tool window).

3. Tests the obtained chunks of data: if the price is less than 45, the test fails. You can view the test results in the Tests tab of the Services tool window.

Handle XML responses using DOM APIs

If the Content-Type of a response is XML (for example, application/xml or text/xml) the HTTP Client exposes response.body as a DOM Document. To parse and validate the response, you can use the supported DOM methods directly. If you want to apply string operations or regex, you can serialize a DOM Document to a string using new XMLSerializer().serializeToString(response.body).