HTTP and SOAP Header Handlers

To use a vCenter Single Sign-On token to login to a
vCenter Server
instance, the example uses header handlers to manipulates the HTTP and SOAP header elements of the login request.
After establishing a handler, subsequent requests automatically invoke the handler.
  • An extraction handler obtains the HTTP session cookie provided by the
    vCenter Server
    instance. After setting up the handler, a call to the
    RetrieveServiceContent
    method will invoke the handler to extract the cookie from the Server response.
  • Insertion handlers put the vCenter Single Sign-On token and a timestamp into the SOAP header and the session cookie into the HTTP header of the login request.
The following figure shows the use of handlers to manipulate header elements when establishing a vCenter Single Sign-On session with a
vCenter Server
instance.
Starting a vCenter Session
Shows request traffic to open a vCenter Server session.
Every call to the
vCenter Server
instance will invoke any message handlers that have been established. The overhead involved in using the SOAP and HTTP message handlers is not necessary after the session has been established. The example saves the default message handler before setting up the SOAP and HTTP handlers. After establishing the session, the example will reset the handler chain and restore the default handler.
The example code also uses multiple calls to the
VimPortType.getVimPort method
to manage the request context. The
getVimPort
method clears the HTTP request context. After each call to the
getVimPort
method, the client resets the request context endpoint address to the
vCenter Server
URL. After the client has obtained the session cookie, it will restore the cookie in subsequent requests.