OkHttp3 Scripting

Postman can help you generate HTTP call code in Java, cURL, and many other languages. This is a fast way to perform scripting in Java, especially for batch processing requirements.

One use case I encountered involved firing 50,000+ HTTP calls while reading input from a CSV file. While such use cases are often better suited for SQL or PL/SQL, you may not always have access to the persistence layer.

Example: Using Public APIs

Let's test with a public API, such as URLhaus Recent URLs API.

Dependencies

Add okhttp3 and commons-lang3 (for ExceptionUtils) to your pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.squareup.okhttp3</groupId>
    <artifactId>okhttp</artifactId>
    <version>4.12.0</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Optional -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
    <version>3.12.0</version>
</dependency>

Code Snippet from Postman

You can generate the following OkHttp3 code snippet using Postman:

OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient().newBuilder()
        .build();
MediaType mediaType = MediaType.parse("text/plain");
RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(mediaType, "");
Request request = new Request.Builder()
        .url("https://urlhaus-api.abuse.ch/v1/urls/recent/")
        .method("GET", body)
        .build();
Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

Processing a File with `Files.lines`

Let's process a file in the format A;B;C, where we only need columns B and C. Here's an example input:

xxxx;B0;C0
xxxx;B1;C1
xxxx;B2;C2
xxxx;B3;C3

Batch Processing Code

// Append to output file names to distinguish multiple runs
LocalDateTime ldt = LocalDateTime.now();
DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd--HH-mm-ss");

public void batch() throws IOException, URISyntaxException {
    Files.lines(Path.of(getClass().getResource("/input.txt").toURI()))
            .parallel()
            .forEach(l -> {
                try {
                    this.process(l.split(";")[1], l.split(";")[2]);
                } catch (URISyntaxException | IOException ex) {
                    log.info("IO exception trace: " + ExceptionUtils.getStackTrace(ex));
                    ex.printStackTrace();
                }
            });
}

`process` Method

void process(String x, String y) {
    log.info("Processing x: " + x + ", y: " + y);

    try {
        OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient().newBuilder()
                .build();
        MediaType mediaType = MediaType.parse("text/plain");
        RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(mediaType, "");
        Request request = new Request.Builder()
                .url("https://urlhaus-api.abuse.ch/v1/urls/recent/")
                .method("GET", body)
                .addHeader("x", x)
                .addHeader("y", y)
                .build();

        try (Response response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
            log.info("Current response: " + response);
            String respBody = response.body() == null ? "" : response.body().string();

            if (response.isSuccessful()) {
                String str = "xxxx;" + x + ";" + y + ";" + response + ";" + respBody + System.lineSeparator();
                log.info("Operation succeeded for x: " + x + ", y: " + y);
                Files.writeString(Paths.get("logs", "success-" + formatter.format(ldt) + ".txt"), str, StandardOpenOption.APPEND, StandardOpenOption.CREATE);
            } else {
                String str = "xxxx;" + x + ";" + y + ";" + response + ";" + respBody + System.lineSeparator();
                log.info("Operation failed for x: " + x + ", y: " + y);
                Files.writeString(Paths.get("logs", "failure-" + formatter.format(ldt) + ".txt"), str, StandardOpenOption.APPEND, StandardOpenOption.CREATE);
            }
        }
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        log.info("Operation failed for x: " + x + ", y: " + y + ", exception: " + ex.getMessage());
        log.info("Exception trace: " + ExceptionUtils.getStackTrace(ex));
        String str = "xxxx;" + x + ";" + y + ";" + ex.getMessage() + System.lineSeparator();
        Files.writeString(Paths.get("logs", "failure-" + formatter.format(ldt) + "-" + ".txt"), str, StandardOpenOption.APPEND, StandardOpenOption.CREATE);
        ex.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Best Practices

Calculating Queries Per Second (QPS)

Assuming:

An average query duration of 400ms.
Your laptop has 10 cores.

Each thread in the common thread pool can handle 2.5 queries per second (1s / 400ms). With 10 cores, you can send approximately 25 QPS (2.5 * 10).

To process 50,000 queries at 25 QPS:

50,000 queries / 25 QPS = 2,000 seconds ≈ 34 minutes

Ensure your system can handle this load!

01 October 2025