Access URL with Java

Question

I am writing an Android program that needs to access a URL with GET variables which will be logged into a database. All I need to do is open a URL so the web server will log the data! How should I go about this?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can also use HttpUrlConnection. Sample code -

// Given a URL, establishes an HttpUrlConnection and retrieves
// the web page content as a InputStream, which it returns as
// a string.

private String downloadUrl(String myurl) throws IOException {
    InputStream is = null;
    // Only display the first 500 characters of the retrieved
    // web page content.
    int len = 500;

try {
    URL url = new URL(myurl);
    HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
    conn.setReadTimeout(10000 /* milliseconds */);
    conn.setConnectTimeout(15000 /* milliseconds */);
    conn.setRequestMethod("GET");
    conn.setDoInput(true);
    // Starts the query
    conn.connect();
    int response = conn.getResponseCode();
    Log.d(DEBUG_TAG, "The response is: " + response);
    is = conn.getInputStream();

    // Convert the InputStream into a string
    String contentAsString = readIt(is, len);
    return contentAsString;

// Makes sure that the InputStream is closed after the app is
// finished using it.
} finally {
    if (is != null) {
        is.close();
    } 
}
}

// Reads an InputStream and converts it to a String.
public String readIt(InputStream stream, int len) throws IOException, UnsupportedEncodingException {
    Reader reader = null;
    reader = new InputStreamReader(stream, "UTF-8");        
    char[] buffer = new char[len];
    reader.read(buffer);
    return new String(buffer);
}

And obviously since it is a netowork call you cannot do it in main/UI thread. So you can do it in async task. More details and Source

Answer 2

Use this.

Intent browserIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("URL HERE"));
startActivity(browserIntent);

Hope this helps.

EDIT:

Ok, use this. It calls the URL without opening a browser

HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpContext localContext = new BasicHttpContext();
HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet("URL HERE");
HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpGet, localContext);

Answer 3

// default HTTP Client
            DefaultHttpClient  httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
            HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url);
        try {
            HttpResponse httpResponse = httpClient.execute(httpGet);
            HttpEntity httpEntity = httpResponse.getEntity();
            is = httpEntity.getContent();           

        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }