Getting the Requesting URL in a Servlet

Getting the Requesting URL in a Servlet

A servlet container breaks up the requesting URL into convenientcomponents for the servlet. The standard API does not require theoriginal requesting URL to be saved and therefore it is not possibleto get the requesting URL exactly as the client sent it. However, afunctional equivalent of the original URL can be constructed. Thefollowing example assumes the original requesting URL is:

COPY

http://hostname.com/mywebapp/servlet/MyServlet/a/b;c=123?d=789

The most convenient method for reconstructing the original URL is touse ServletRequest.getRequestURL(), which returns all but thequery string. Adding the query string reconstructs an equivalent ofthe original requesting URL:

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// http://hostname.com/mywebapp/servlet/MyServlet/a/b;c=123?d=789
public static String getUrl(HttpServletRequest req) {
    String reqUrl = req.getRequestURL().toString();
    String queryString = req.getQueryString();   // d=789
    if (queryString != null) {
        reqUrl += "?"+queryString;
    }
    return reqUrl;
}

If the hostname is not needed, ServletRequest.getRequestURI()should be used:

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// /mywebapp/servlet/MyServlet/a/b;c=123?d=789
public static String getUrl2(HttpServletRequest req) {
    String reqUri = req.getRequestURI().toString();
    String queryString = req.getQueryString();   // d=789
    if (queryString != null) {
        reqUri += "?"+queryString;
    }
    return reqUri;
}

The original URL can also be reconstructed from more basic componentsavailable to the servlet:

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// http://hostname.com:80/mywebapp/servlet/MyServlet/a/b;c=123?d=789
public static String getUrl3(HttpServletRequest req) {
    String scheme = req.getScheme();             // http
    String serverName = req.getServerName();     // hostname.com
    int serverPort = req.getServerPort();        // 80
    String contextPath = req.getContextPath();   // /mywebapp
    String servletPath = req.getServletPath();   // /servlet/MyServlet
    String pathInfo = req.getPathInfo();         // /a/b;c=123
    String queryString = req.getQueryString();          // d=789

    // Reconstruct original requesting URL
    String url = scheme+"://"+serverName+":"+serverPort+contextPath+servletPath;
    if (pathInfo != null) {
        url += pathInfo;
    }
    if (queryString != null) {
        url += "?"+queryString;
    }
    return url;
}