How to intercept and tamper HTTP responses with Java?

Question

I have a Java application performing different http requests which I don't control directly (SOAP requests via Jaxws generated client). I have some difficulties with BOM flags in front of the XML prolog which I want to avoid currently. I would like to intercept the HTTP response and tamper with it before I let javax.xml parse the correct SOAP envelope.

Now to my question: How can I elegantly intercept any HTTP response with Java without the need of Fiddler or any other proxy?
Can I implement something like a proxy class and register it in the HTTP connection factory?
Would it be possible to implement a "real" http proxy doing the cleaning work for me?

I'm using org.codehaus.mojo:jaxws-maven-plugin:2.4.1 with Maven to create the stubs from WSDL.

Important: I only control the client, not the server. Therefore I can only make Java accept/parse the BOM flag in front of the response envelope or filter it out so that javax.xml can parse it normally.

Answer 1

You may use cxf interceptors. They should allow you to process the message in any phase of the input chain. They are well described here .