Embedded Jetty web server not working, handler not invoked

Question

I'm trying to embed Jetty 8 (8.1.18.v20150929) into a Java (jdk1.7.0_67) application. I have the following code:

    public static final String HTTP_PATH = "/session";
    public static final int HTTP_PORT = 9995;
        // Open the HTTP server for listening to requests.
    logger.info("Starting HTTP server, Port: " + HTTP_PORT + ", Path: "
            + "/session");
    httpServer = new Server();
    SelectChannelConnector connector = new SelectChannelConnector();
    connector.setPort(HTTP_PORT);
    connector.setHost("localhost");
    httpServer.addConnector(connector);
    TestHttpHandler handler = new TestHttpHandler(this);
    ContextHandler ch = new ContextHandler();
    ch.setContextPath(HTTP_PATH);
    ch.setHandler(handler);
    httpServer.setHandler(ch);

    try {
        httpServer.start();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

My handler is pretty basic as a test:

    public void handle(String target, Request baseRequest,
        HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
        throws IOException, ServletException {
    logger.debug("Handling");
}

If I run the app and then use CURL to send a GET request to http://localhost:9995/session, then it returns a 200 status but there's no debug output.

If I access http://localhost:9995/session2, I get a 404 error.

I've read many examples online but for some reason I can't seem to get the handler to work properly. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks

Your code example works as-is. There's nothing wrong with it. — Joakim Erdfelt, Mar 21 '16 at 22:57
I thought so too except I never hit a breakpoint in the handler and it doesn't display the debug output. I'll have to get and post the Jetty version. — Mike Stoddart, Mar 21 '16 at 23:08
I added the Jetty and Java JDK versions to the original post. Thanks. — Mike Stoddart, Mar 22 '16 at 12:36
I tried the OneContext example from https://wiki.eclipse.org/Jetty/Tutorial/Embedding_Jetty, but I still get the same problem. The handler is never invoked. — Mike Stoddart, Mar 22 '16 at 13:01
If I submit a request to http://localhost:9995/session/1 the handler gets called and the "target" is "/1". Maybe I just don't understand how ContextHandler paths work. — Mike Stoddart, Mar 22 '16 at 13:17
Sorry to add further comments but I thought readers may be interested to see my progress. Requesting "http://localhost:9995/session/" invokes the handler but not "http://localhost:9995/session". Ignore the semi-colon - the site is adding that for no apparent reason. — Mike Stoddart, Mar 22 '16 at 13:26
I can achieve my requirements by using an HttpServlet instead of an AbstractHandler so I think I will switch. I already have this working. Thanks. — Mike Stoddart, Mar 22 '16 at 14:13
I'm having exactly the same problem, with Jetty v9.4.0.v20161208. Did you ever find a solution for this @MikeStoddart? — Carlos Silva, Dec 21 '16 at 19:11
I figured it out and added an answer below, in case you are still interested @MikeStoddart. — Carlos Silva, Jan 29 '17 at 13:31

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 29 '17 at 13:30

I had exactly the same problem, and this is just a misunderstanding about how the Jetty API works. I was expecting to use ContextHandlers as a minimal implementation of REST services, however ContextHandlers are meant to handle requests to an entire context base (for example http://server:80/context-base, i.e. the equivalent of an app in Tomcat). The correct way to solve this question is to use Servlets:

Server server = new Server(9995);
ServletContextHandler root = new ServletContextHandler(ServletContextHandler.NO_SECURITY | ServletContextHandler.NO_SESSIONS);
root.setContextPath("/");
ServletHolder holder = new ServletHolder(new HttpServlet() {
    public void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) {
        logger.debug("Handling");
    }
});
server.start();
server.join();

Embedded Jetty web server not working, handler not invoked

1 Answers1