Some time has passed since I asked for help here. Now I'd like not to edit but to add an answer to my previous question, so that the answer remains clear and separate from he original question and comments.
So here goes a complete example.
CONTEXT: An application, acting as a client, that requests an Access Token from an OAuth2 Authorization server. The Access Token is requested asynchronously to avoid blocking the appliction's thread while the token request is processed at the other end and the response arrives.
First, this is a class that serves Access Token to its clients (method getAccessToken): if the Access Token is already initialized and it's valid, it returns the value stored; otherwise fetches a new one calling the internal method fetchAccessTokenAsync:
public class Oauth2ClientBroker {
private static final String OAUHT2_SRVR_TOKEN_PATH= "/auth/realms/oam/protocol/openid-connect/token";
private static final String GRANT_TYPE = "client_credentials";
@Qualifier("oAuth2Client")
private final WebClient oAuth2Client;
private final ConfigurationHolder CfgHolder;
@GuardedBy("this")
private String token = null;
@GuardedBy("this")
private Instant tokenExpireTime;
@GuardedBy("this")
private String tokenUrlEndPoint;
public void getAccessToken(final CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture) {
if (!isTokenInitialized() || isTokenExpired()) {
log.trace("Access Token not initialized or has exired: go fetch a new one...");
synchronized (this) {
this.token = null;
}
fetchAccessTokenAsync(completableFuture);
} else {
log.trace("Reusing Access Token (not expired)");
final String token;
synchronized (this) {
token = this.token;
}
completableFuture.complete(token);
}
}
...
}
Next, we will see that fetchAccessTokenAsync does:
private void fetchAccessTokenAsync(final CompletableFuture<String> tokenReceivedInFuture) {
Mono<String> accessTokenResponse = postAccessTokenRequest();
accessTokenResponse.subscribe(tr -> processResponseBodyInFuture(tr, tokenReceivedInFuture));
}
Two things happen here:
- The method
postAccessTokenRequest() builds a POST request and declares how the reponse will be consumed (when WebFlux makes it available once it is received), by using exchangeToMono:
private Mono postAccessTokenRequest() {
log.trace("Request Access Token for OAuth2 client {}", cfgHolder.getClientId());
final URI uri = URI.create(cfgHolder.getsecServiceHostAndPort().concat(OAUHT2_SRVR_TOKEN_PATH));
} else {
uri = URI.create(tokenUrlEndPoint);
}
}
log.debug("Access Token endpoint OAuth2 Authorization server: {}", uri.toString());
return oAuth2Client.post().uri(uri)
.body(BodyInserters.fromFormData("client_id", cfgHolder.getEdaClientId())
.with("client_secret", cfgHolder.getClientSecret())
.with("scope", cfgHolder.getClientScopes()).with("grant_type", GRANT_TYPE))
.exchangeToMono(resp -> {
if (resp.statusCode().equals(HttpStatus.OK)) {
log.info("Access Token successfully obtained");
return resp.bodyToMono(String.class);
} else if (resp.statusCode().equals(HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST)) {
log.error("Bad request sent to Authorization Server!");
return resp.bodyToMono(String.class);
} else if (resp.statusCode().equals(HttpStatus.UNAUTHORIZED)) {
log.error("OAuth2 Credentials exchange with Authorization Server failed!");
return resp.bodyToMono(String.class);
} else if (resp.statusCode().is5xxServerError()) {
log.error("Authorization Server could not generate a token due to a server error");
return resp.bodyToMono(String.class);
} else {
log.error("Authorization Server returned an unexpected status code: {}",
resp.statusCode().toString());
return Mono.error(new Exception(
String.format("Authorization Server returned an unexpected status code: %s",
resp.statusCode().toString())));
}
}).onErrorResume(e -> {
log.error(
"Access Token could not be obtained. Process ends here");
return Mono.empty();
});
}
The exchangeToMono method does most of the magic here: tells WebFlux to return a Mono that will asynchronously receive a signal as soon as the response is received, wrapped in a ClientResponse, the parameter resp consumed in the lambda. But it is important to keep in mind that NO request has been sent out yet at this point; we are just passing in the Function that will take the ClientResponse when it arrives and will return a Mono<String> with the part of the body of our interest (the Access Token, as we will see).
- Once the POST is built and the Mono returned, then the real thing starts when we subscribe to the
Mono<String> returned before. As the Reacive mantra says: nothing happens until you subscribe or, in our case, the request is not actually sent until something attempts to read or wait for the response. There are other ways in WebClient fluent API to implicitly subscribe, but we have chosen here the explicit way of returing the Mono -which implements the reactor Publisher interface- and subscribe to it. Here we blocking the thread no more, releasing CPU for other stuff, probably more useful than just waiting for an answer.
So far, so good: we have sent out the request, released CPU, but where the processing will continue whenever the response comes? The subscribe() method takes as an argument a Consumer parameterized in our case with a String, being nothing less than the body of the response we are waiting for, wrapped in Mono. When the response comes, WebFlux will notify the event to our Mono, which will call the method processResponseBodyInFuture, where we finally receive the response body:
private void processResponseBodyInFuture(final String body, final CompletableFuture<String> tokenReceivedInFuture) {
DocumentContext jsonContext = JsonPath.parse(body);
try {
log.info("Access Token response received: {}", body);
final String aTkn = jsonContext.read("$.access_token");
log.trace("Access Token parsed: {}", aTkn);
final int expiresIn = jsonContext.read("$.expires_in");
synchronized (this) {
this.token = aTkn;
this.tokenExpireTime = Instant.now().plusSeconds(expiresIn);
}
log.trace("Signal Access Token request completion. Processing will continue calling client...");
tokenReceivedInFuture.complete(aTkn);
} catch (PathNotFoundException e) {
try {
log.error(e.getMessage());
log.info(String.format(
"Could not extract Access Token. The response returned corresponds to the error %s: %s",
jsonContext.read("$.error"), jsonContext.read("$.error_description")));
} catch (PathNotFoundException e2) {
log.error(e2.getMessage().concat(" - Unexpected json content received from OAuth2 Server"));
}
}
}
The invocation of this method happens as soon as the Mono is signalled about the reception of the response. So here we try to parse the json content with an Access Token and do something with it... In this case call complete() onto the CompletableFuture passed in by the caller of the initial method getAccessToken, that hopefully will know what to do with it. Our job is done here... Asynchronously!
Summary:
To summarize, these are the basic considerations to have your request sent out and the responses processed when you ise reactive WebClient:
- Consider having a method in charge of preparing the request by means of the WebClient fluent API (to set http method, uri, headers and body). Remember: by doing this you are not sending any request yet.
- Think on the strategy you will use to obtain the
Publisher that will be receive the http client events (response or errors). retreive() is the most straight forward, but it has less power to manipulate the response than exchangeToMono.
- Subscribe... or nothing will happen.
Many examples you will find around will cheat you: they claim to use WebClient for asyncrhony, but then they "forget" about subscribing to the Publisher and call
block() instead. Well, while this makes things easier and they seem to work (you will see responses received and passed to your application), the thing is that this is not asynchronous anymore: your Mono (or Flux, whatever you use) will be blocking until the response arrives. No good.
- Have a separate method (being the Consumer passed in the
subscribe() method) where the response body is processed.
