I am trying to make an authenticated connection to a web server (well, more accurately, to a java application on a Tomcat server).

The task is to connect to a script protected by a simple http Basic Authentication, and give it a .zip file to process.

((For those who really want to know, I'm trying to make a SWORD deposit into a DSpace server))

I can do the connection using curl:

curl -i --data-binary "@./myFile.zip" -H "Content-Disposition: filenam
+e=myFile.zip" -H "Content-Type:application/zip" -H "X-Packaging:http:
+//purl.org/net/sword-types/METSDSpaceSIP" -H "X-No-Op:false" -H "X-Ve
+rbose:true" http://myUsername:myPassword@my.host:port/path/to/script
[download]

This works.

However, I need to be able to do the web call from within a mod_perl application, so I want a perl-based transfer.... enter LWP::UserAgent. I'm starting by writing a straight script first, and then I'll tweek it to run under mod_perl.

Roughly speaking, my script equivalent is:

use LWP::UserAgent;

my $host = 'my.host:port';
my $username = 'myUsername';
my $password = 'myPassword';
my $realm = 'theRealm';
my $sword_url = "http://$host/path/to/script";
my $filename = "myFile.zip";

my $file = "";
open(FILE, "$filename" ) or die('cant open input file');
binmode FILE;
while(<FILE>) { $file .= $_; }
close FILE;

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();

$ua->credentials(
    "$host",
    "$realm",
    "$username" => "$password"
);

my $req = HTTP::Request->new( POST => $sword_url );
my $length = do {use bytes; length $file};

# Header information needed by the application
$req->header( 'X-Packaging' => 'http://purl.org/net/sword-types/METSDS
+paceSIP',
              'X-No-Op' => 'false',
              'X-Verbose' => 'true',
              'Content-Disposition' => "filename=$filename"
 );

$req->content_type( 'application/zip' );
$req->content( $file );
$req->content_length($length);

my $res = $ua->request($req);    
if ($res->is_success) 
{
    print $res->content;
}
else 
{
    print $res->status_line, "\n";
}
[download]

This works fine when I'm talking to a Mod_perl based application, but fails when talking to the java application (and I've tried two now) - and the failure is "401: Unauthorised"

There are two possibilities:

1. The java application does not recognise the basic authentication defined by LWP::UserAgent, whereas it does recognise the authentication given in the URL when using the curl client
2. The LWP::UserAgent has a problem when username contains an '@' (which is a basic requirement of the java application.)

So: does anyone know if LWP::UserAgent has issues with usernames containing '@' characters, and does anyone have a suggestion for an alternative method of connecting to the target server?

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