REST Client Connector vs HTTP Client Connector


Introduction

The REST Client Connector was developed to address specific limitations that the HTTP Client Connector cannot overcome due to the underlying native Java HTTP Client used in the connector. The new REST Client Connector utilizes an Apache library that gives us out-of-the-box behavior that we would have to manually build out, as well as insulates us from some issues we would encounter with java versions or variations in java configurations.

HTTP Verbs

 

Protocol Method

HTTP Client Connector

REST Client Connector

GET

✅

✅

POST

✅

✅

PUT

✅

✅

DELETE

✅

✅

HEAD

❌

✅

PATCH

❌

✅

OPTIONS

❌

✅

TRACE

❌

✅

 

Response Headers

The HTTP Client Connector Response headers are passed onto the rest of the process by “mapping” them to a dynamic document property. These properties often are difficult to keep track of in the rest of your process.

 

The REST Client Connector exposes Response Headers as a tracked property group. This allows you access to the headers coming from the execution of a REST Client Connector call instead of looking through Dynamic Document Properties, which can come from anywhere within the process.. 

Dynamic Operation Properties

Dynamic Operation properties in the REST Client Connector allow for document-level overrides for Path, Query Parameters, and Request Headers. This feature allows for document-by-document access to modify these operation properties on a document-by-document basis. The HTTP Client Connector accomplishes this through Dynamic Document Properties that are sometimes difficult to track and debug when there are issues in your processes.

 

Notable Features Not Available in the REST Client Connector

There are a few features here that are not supported in REST but have general support in the HTTP Client Connector. Items with a star * are planned to be implemented in a later release.

 
  1. OAuth 1.0 Authentication
  2. Kerberos Authentication - The REST Client Connector supports NTLM authentication but does not expose the extra configurations required for Kerberos to work out of the box.
  3. *MIME Request - The REST Client Connector does not have the required utilities needed to support MIME documents in your processes.
  4. *Profile Support - The REST Client Connector at this time does not have an import feature or allow you to select your request and response profile to associate to your operation.
  5. Response headers to subsequent requests isn’t available today. Generally the use of cookies would handle this.