CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javahttp
Jimmy
Jimmy

Reputation: 10341

Does the server send response only when its HTTP 200?

im writing a java application that sends a post request to a server and expect a json from the server. Now when i need to get the response from the server do i only need to get it from the inputStream when the http code is 200 (HTTP OK) or is there any other cases ? , example : 

//...
if (urlConn.getResponseCode() == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
// only here try to get the response 
}
//...

Upvotes: 1

Views: 613

Answers (3)

Lionel Port
Lionel Port

Reputation: 3542

If the server your communicating with is following the spec then either 200 or 201 responses are valid to contain an entity. A 204 response is successful but has no data in the response.

See section 9.5 here: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec9.html#sec9.5 for details of acceptable responses to a POST. Extract below:

The action performed by the POST method might not result in a resource that can be identified by a URI. In this case, either 200 (OK) or 204 (No Content) is the appropriate response status, depending on whether or not the response includes an entity that describes the result.

If a resource has been created on the origin server, the response SHOULD be 201 (Created) and contain an entity which describes the status of the request and refers to the new resource, and a Location header (see section 14.30).

Upvotes: 2

biziclop
biziclop

Reputation: 49764

There are three things to consider:

  1. All 2xx codes denote success of some sort. But depending on the exact code, your reading code might be different. (204 for example means success but no content.)
  2. There are redirecting codes (3xx). These are usually automatically followed by the http client library but you can also set them not to, in which case you need to have custom code that handles these cases.
  3. There can be valuable information returned in the stream even if you get a code that denotes an error. Whether you want to process it depends on your exact needs.

Upvotes: 1

Cody S
Cody S

Reputation: 4824

It depends on how the server is implemented. Check the API, if the server has one. If it's internal, ask your server guy.

Generally speaking, if your response code is either 2xx or 3xx, I would check the response anyway...

Upvotes: 3

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