HttpRequest req = null;
try {
final org.expath.httpclient.model.Sequence b = new EXistSequence(bodies, getContext());
final Element r = new EXistElement(request, getContext());
final RequestParser parser = new RequestParser();
req = parser.parse(r, b, href);
// override anyway it href exists
if (href != null && ! "".equals(href) ) {
req.setHref(href);
}