Custom HTTP Headers with GWT RPC

Prior to GWT 2.0, there was no easy way to add custom HTTP headers when making remote procedure calls. The new RpcRequestBuilder in GWT 2.0 makes it easy to add custom headers.

// start with a custom RpcRequestBuilder
RpcRequestBuilder reqBuilder = new RpcRequestBuilder() {
  @Override
  protected RequestBuilder doCreate(String serviceEntryPoint) {
    RequestBuilder rb = super.doCreate(serviceEntryPoint);
    rb.setHeader("username", "sookie_stackhouse");
    return rb;
  }
};

// as with any other RPC, use GWT.create(...) to generate the client proxy
MyServiceAsync service = (MyServiceAsync) GWT.create(MyService.class);

// all client proxies also implement ServiceDefTarget
((ServiceDefTarget) service).setRpcRequestBuilder(reqBuilder);

// make calls as normal
service.doFunAndInterestingThings();

Posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 3:09 pm in GWT, HOWTO.