HTTP Connection

Shared Configuration

The HTTP Connection resource describes the characteristics of the connection used to receive incoming HTTP requests. This resource is used when ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks expects to receive an HTTP request on a specific port where a process engine is running. For example, the process starters HTTP Receiver and SOAP Event Source and the signal-in activity Wait for HTTP Request receive HTTP requests.

Note: There can be at most one process with an HTTP Receiver or Wait for HTTP Request that uses the same HTTP Connection resource. This restriction allows the HTTP server listening for incoming requests to dispatch the request to the correct process. There can be more than one SOAP Event Source that uses the same HTTP Connection. Also, SOAP Event Source and HTTP activities can use the same HTTP Connection resource and the HTTP server correctly dispatches the incoming request to the correct process.

Two types of servers are available for the HTTP Connection resource: Tomcat and HTTPComponent.

Tomcat has a synchronous request response paradigm and can be used in scenarios where high throughput is important. To achieve a good throughput with Tomcat, the maxprocessor value should be almost equal to the number of concurrent requests the server can handle. Note that increasing the maxprocessor count also increases the memory footprint.

HTTPComponent is a light-weight and scalable server based on NIO which can be useful in scenarios where handling thousands of requests in a resource efficient manner is more important than the throughput. HTTPComponent server gives a consistent throughput for any number of concurrent requests with little or no increase in its worker thread (maxprocessor thread).

Note: You can choose the server type at runtime by setting the global property bw.plugin.http.server.serverType in the file bwengine.tra. Using this property, you can use the HTTPComponent server at run-time for older projects without having to modify the server type at design-time. The value set for this property in the bwengine.tra file overrides the value that is set in design-time.

The HTTP Connection resource can specify that the HTTPS (secure sockets layer or SSL) protocol must be used by clients. If this is enabled, you can configure the SSL parameters for the HTTP server using the Configure SSL Button. For more information, see Configure SSL Button.

Warning: If you have multiple HTTP Connection resources specified by multiple HTTP Receiver process starters, the HTTP servers require that all of the connections must be valid to initialize all HTTP Receivers. Therefore, make certain that all HTTP Connection resources have valid configurations before testing or deploying the project.