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I have a web service that accepts POST requests. This is a network internal service where internet attacks are not a concern at this layer. However, it's not always fast. The user doesn't need the entity info of the POST response. I'd like to put in place a proxy that accepts any POST, returns 202 status, and forwards the request asynchronously to the real service.

I can't find a proxy that does this! Either it's a message queue of some sort, where the destination needs to poll, or its a proxy like squid or nginx that waits for the remote service to complete.

What am I missing? Is there one somewhere? Does nobody else have the need to asynchronize POST processing?

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I don't think a proxy can do this for you, as its job is to proxy requests, not take them and shut down.

I have had a few thoughts on tackling the problem -

I recon the best bet would be to knock something up yourself, for example using PHP and Curl. (ie Accept the request and generate a new request with the same parameters, optionally adding an X-Forwarded-For header).

I have not looked at it in this kind of depth, but you could also look at mod_security - I believe it has the ability to mangle packets going through the server, so you could possibly force this into doing your bidding.

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  • A proxy can intercept requests and send its own replies. As a frequent example, if you provide incorrect login/password, the proxy sends its own "Authentication failed" reply. There is no technical reason that it could not send its own replies to ordinary POST requests. Mar 12, 2013 at 14:36
  • An interesting reply @grawity (although I don't entirely agree, you could be on to something)- I look forward to you advising how a proxy might be configured to do this.
    – davidgo
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:35
  • I really don't want to roll my own if I can avoid it. It seems WebSphere and WebLogic have these kinds of proxies as part of their SoA enterprise suites, so it seems like it can be done -- just not on a budget or technology stack I'm comfortable with :-)
    – Jon Watte
    Mar 12, 2013 at 22:24

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