Alternative Java Clients - RESTful Java with JAX-RS 2.0 - page 245

public public static static SSLSocketFactory

getFactory ( File pKeyFile , String pKeyPassword )
throws

throws Exception {

KeyManagerFactory keyManagerFactory =
KeyManagerFactory . getInstance ( "SunX509" );
KeyStore keyStore = KeyStore . getInstance ( "PKCS12" );

InputStream keyInput = new new FileInputStream ( pKeyFile );

keyStore . load ( keyInput , pKeyPassword . toCharArray ());
keyInput . close ();

keyManagerFactory . init ( keyStore , pKeyPassword . toCharArray ());

SSLContext context = SSLContext . getInstance ( "TLS" );
context . init ( keyManagerFactory . getKeyManagers (), null

null

, new new SecureRandom ());

return return context . getSocketFactory ();

}

This code loads the truststore into memory and creates an SSLSocketFactory . The factory
can then be registered with a java.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection :

public public static static void void main ( String args []) throws throws Exception {

URL url = new new URL ( "https://someurl" );

HttpsURLConnection con = ( HttpsURLConnection ) url . openConnection ();
con . setSSLSocketFactory ( getFactory ( new new File ( "cacerts.jks" ),

"changeit" ));

}

}

You may then make invocations to the URL, and the client certificate will be used for au-
thentication.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The biggest advantage of using the java.net package as a RESTful client is that it is built in
to the JDK. You don't need to download and install a different client framework.

There are a few disadvantages to the java.net API. First, it is not JAX-RS-aware. You will
have to do your own stream processing and will not be able to take advantage of any of the
MessageBodyReaders and MessageBodyWriters that come with your JAX-RS implementa-
tion.