diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/utils/HttpUtil.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/utils/HttpUtil.java
index 3bd4033..e433c02 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/utils/HttpUtil.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/utils/HttpUtil.java
@@ -38,7 +38,9 @@
 import java.util.stream.Stream;
 
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+import org.apache.http.NameValuePair;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.CloseableHttpResponse;
+import org.apache.http.client.utils.URLEncodedUtils;
 import org.apache.hyracks.http.api.IServletRequest;
 import org.apache.hyracks.http.api.IServletResponse;
 import org.apache.hyracks.http.server.BaseRequest;
@@ -252,6 +254,23 @@
                 ? HttpScheme.HTTPS : HttpScheme.HTTP;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * @return the first parameter value of the supplied parameter name, or {@link Optional#empty()}
+     */
+    public static Optional<String> extractQueryParameter(String uri, String parameterName) {
+        return extractQueryParameters(uri, parameterName).map(values -> values[0]);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @return all parameter values of the supplied parameter name, or {@link Optional#empty()}
+     */
+    public static Optional<String[]> extractQueryParameters(String uri, String parameterName) {
+        String[] values = URLEncodedUtils.parse(uri, StandardCharsets.UTF_8, '?', '&').stream()
+                .filter(pair -> pair.getName().equals(parameterName)).map(NameValuePair::getValue)
+                .toArray(String[]::new);
+        return values.length == 0 ? Optional.empty() : Optional.of(values);
+    }
+
     public static class ContentType {
         public static final String ADM = "adm";
         public static final String JSON = "json";