Android: how can I make an HTTP HEAD request? - android

I would like to make a simple HTTP HEAD request, without keep-alive.
How can I do that in Android?

using HttpClient:
As njzk2 suggested, with HttpClient() it's very straightforward:
HttpResponse response = new HttpClient().execute(new HttpHead(myUrl));
However there is a problem with not being able to close the connection. Usually on the HttpClient, you would get the entity using:
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
and then you would get the input stream from the entity
InputStream instream = entity.getContent();
...
instream.close();
and by closing the input stream, the connection would close.
However, in the case of a HEAD request, the entity appears to be null (possibly because HEAD requests don't return the body in the response), so the input stream cannot be fetched and closed and the connection doesn't close either.
In the last edit to his answer, njzk2 is suggesting to use AndroidHttpClient, which is a more recent implementation (API 8) of HttpClient and it actually has a close() method. I haven't used it but I guess it will work fine. However, as the Android development team suggests, the HttpUrlConnection should be the preferred Android client to use.
using HttpUrlConnection:
Actually it seems quite easy to make HEAD requests using HttpUrlConnection and make sure that the connection closes:
HttpURLConnection urlConnection = null;
System.setProperty("http.keepAlive", "false");
try {
URL url = new URL(stringUrl);
urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
urlConnection.setRequestMethod("HEAD");
urlConnection.getInputStream().close();
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
if (urlConnection != null) {
urlConnection.disconnect();
}
}

Trivially :
HttpResponse response = new AndroidHttpClient().execute(new HttpHead(myUrl));
Typically you'll use the same AndroidHttpClient for several connections, then call close on it.

For ordinary Java and Android
I am using some standard Java code to test the existence of a resource and in the same time to check whether a resource has been changed, provided the parameter if_modified_since is non-zero.
URL url = new URL(adr);
try {
URLConnection con = url.openConnection();
con.setIfModifiedSince(if_modified_since);
if (con instanceof HttpURLConnection) {
/* Workaround for https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=61013 */
con.addRequestProperty("Accept-Encoding", "identity");
((HttpURLConnection) con).setRequestMethod("HEAD");
int response = ((HttpURLConnection) con).getResponseCode();
if (response == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_UNAVAILABLE)
return false;
if (response == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_NOT_MODIFIED)
return false;
}
if (if_modified_since != 0) {
long modified = OpenOpts.getLastModified(con);
if (modified != 0 && if_modified_since >= modified)
return false;
}
InputStream in = con.getInputStream();
in.close();
return true;
} catch (FileNotFoundException x) {
return false;
} catch (UnknownHostException x) {
return false;
} catch (SocketException x) {
return false;
}
Interestingly the code needs a con.getInputStream() and I don't get some errors here. But I needed some helper code, to also cater for URIs that point to JARs. The helper code is:
private static long getLastModified(URLConnection con)
throws IOException {
if (con instanceof JarURLConnection) {
return ((JarURLConnection) con).getJarEntry().getTime();
} else {
return con.getLastModified();
}
}
The code can be further optimized by some specialization if the
URI is schema file: , one can then directly do File.exists() and File.getLastModified().
We do not throw a ServiceUnvailable exception here, we basically assume that the outer code would catch an IOException and then assume a false
result of the getHead().

Related

URLConnection - Cannot write request body after response has been read [duplicate]

I'm writing a program that connects to a servlet thanks to a HttpURLConnection but I stuck while checking the url
public void connect (String method) throws Exception {
server = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection ();
server.setDoInput (true);
server.setDoOutput (true);
server.setUseCaches (false);
server.setRequestMethod (method);
server.setRequestProperty ("Content-Type", "application / xml");
server.connect ();
/*if (server.getResponseCode () == 200)
{
System.out.println ("Connection OK at the url:" + url);
System.out.println ("------------------------------------------- ------- ");
}
else
System.out.println ("Connection failed");
}*/
I got the error :
java.net.ProtocolException: Cannot write output after reading input.
if i check the url with the code in comments but it work perfectly without it
unfortunately, I need to check the url so i think the problem comes from the getResponseCode method but i don t know how to resolve it
Thank you very much
The HTTP protocol is based on a request-response pattern: you send your request first and the server responds. Once the server responded, you can't send any more content, it wouldn't make sense. (How could the server give you a response code before it knows what is it you're trying to send?)
So when you call server.getResponseCode(), you effectively tell the server that your request has finished and it can process it. If you want to send more data, you have to start a new request.
Looking at your code you want to check whether the connection itself was successful, but there's no need for that: if the connection isn't successful, an Exception is thrown by server.connect(). But the outcome of a connection attempt isn't the same as the HTTP response code, which always comes after the server processed all your input.
I think the exception is not due toprinting url. There should some piece of code which is trying to write to set the request body after the response is read.
This exception will occur if you are trying to get HttpURLConnection.getOutputStream() after obtaining HttpURLConnection.getInputStream()
Here is the implentation of sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getOutputStream:
public synchronized OutputStream getOutputStream() throws IOException {
try {
if (!doOutput) {
throw new ProtocolException("cannot write to a URLConnection"
+ " if doOutput=false - call setDoOutput(true)");
}
if (method.equals("GET")) {
method = "POST"; // Backward compatibility
}
if (!"POST".equals(method) && !"PUT".equals(method) &&
"http".equals(url.getProtocol())) {
throw new ProtocolException("HTTP method " + method +
" doesn't support output");
}
// if there's already an input stream open, throw an exception
if (inputStream != null) {
throw new ProtocolException("Cannot write output after reading
input.");
}
if (!checkReuseConnection())
connect();
/* REMIND: This exists to fix the HttpsURLConnection subclass.
* Hotjava needs to run on JDK.FCS. Do proper fix in subclass
* for . and remove this.
*/
if (streaming() && strOutputStream == null) {
writeRequests();
}
ps = (PrintStream)http.getOutputStream();
if (streaming()) {
if (strOutputStream == null) {
if (fixedContentLength != -) {
strOutputStream =
new StreamingOutputStream (ps, fixedContentLength);
} else if (chunkLength != -) {
strOutputStream = new StreamingOutputStream(
new ChunkedOutputStream (ps, chunkLength), -);
}
}
return strOutputStream;
} else {
if (poster == null) {
poster = new PosterOutputStream();
}
return poster;
}
} catch (RuntimeException e) {
disconnectInternal();
throw e;
} catch (IOException e) {
disconnectInternal();
throw e;
}
}
I have this problem too, what surprises me is that the error is caused by my added code System.out.println(conn.getHeaderFields());
Below is my code:
HttpURLConnection conn=(HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
configureConnection(conn);
//System.out.println(conn.getHeaderFields()); //if i comment this code,everything is ok, if not the 'Cannot write output after reading input' error happens
conn.connect();
OutputStream os = conn.getOutputStream();
os.write(paramsContent.getBytes());
os.flush();
os.close();
I had the same problem.
The solution for the problem is that you need to use the sequence
openConnection -> getOutputStream -> write -> getInputStream -> read
That means..:
public String sendReceive(String url, String toSend) {
URL url = new URL(url);
URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
connection.setDoInput(true);
connection.setDoOutput(true);
connection.sets...
OutputStreamWriter out = new OutputStreamWriter(conn.getOutputStream());
out.write(toSend);
out.close();
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
String receive = "";
do {
String line = in.readLine();
if (line == null)
break;
receive += line;
} while (true);
in.close();
return receive;
}
String results1 = sendReceive("site.com/update.php", params1);
String results2 = sendReceive("site.com/update.php", params2);
...

API call far faster on iOs and browser than on android

I have a trouble with my HttpsConnection on android.
First of all, no it is not a duplicate. I try almost all the solutions on SO, like changing the keep-alive option or the timeout ( and some of them indeed optimized a part of my code a little bit ) but it is still 5 to 10 times ( probably more ) slower on android than on iOS.
Sending a request to my server takes several seconds on android while it's almost instant on iOS and from a browser. I am sure that the server is not in cause. But it seems that getting the inputstream is terribly slow!
This line:
in=conn.getInputStream();
is the most delaying one, taking several seconds by itself.
My aim is to get a JSON from my server. My code is supposed to be technically as optimized as possible ( and it can probably help some people with HttpsConnection on the same time ):
protected String getContentUrl(String apiURL)
{
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
String line=null;
String result="";
HttpsURLConnection conn= null;
InputStream in= null;
try {
URL url;
// get URL content
url = new URL(apiURL);
System.setProperty("http.keepAlive", "false");
trustAllHosts();
conn = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();
conn.setHostnameVerifier(DO_NOT_VERIFY);
conn.setRequestMethod("GET");
conn.setRequestProperty(MainActivity.API_TOKEN, MainActivity.ENCRYPTED_TOKEN);
conn.setRequestProperty("Connection", "close");
conn.setConnectTimeout(1000);
in=conn.getInputStream();
// open the stream and put it into BufferedReader
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
while ((line=br.readLine())!= null) {
builder.append(line);
}
result=builder.toString();
//System.out.print(result);
br.close();
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
result=null;
} catch (IOException e) {
result=null;
} catch (Exception e) {
result=null;
}
finally {
try {
in.close();
}catch(Exception e){}
try {
conn.disconnect();
}catch(Exception e){}
return result;
}
}
However, it keeps taking several seconds.
So I would like to know: is there a way to improve the speed of this API call? The problem is not the server or the JSON parsing but for sure the function above. Thanks a lot.

Android: Quick web requests

For my application I need to have the latest data from an webpage that is hosted on a server on my local network.
So I request the latest page with a HTTP GET and when the data is received, I send another request.
With my current implementation I reach around the 100 - 120 ms per request. Is there a possibility to make this quicker because it's the same url that is requested.
For example keep the connection open to the page and grep the latest data without setting up a new connection?
This page is around the 900-1100 bytes.
HTTP get code:
public static String makeHttpGetRequest(String stringUrl) {
try {
URL url = new URL(stringUrl);
HttpURLConnection con = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
con.setReadTimeout(300);
con.setConnectTimeout(300);
con.setDoOutput(false);
con.setDoInput(true);
con.setChunkedStreamingMode(0);
con.setRequestMethod("GET");
return readStream(con.getInputStream());
} catch (IOException e) {
Log.e(TAG, "IOException when setting up connection: " + e.getMessage());
}
return null;
}
Reading inputstream
private static String readStream(InputStream in) {
BufferedReader reader = null;
StringBuilder total = new StringBuilder();
try {
String line = "";
reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
total.append(line);
}
} catch (IOException e) {
Log.e(TAG, "IOException when reading InputStream: " + e.getMessage());
} finally {
if (reader != null) {
try {
reader.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
return total.toString();
}
As I know there isn't an implementation like you are asking for. I've been dealing a lot with http requests and the best thing you can do is your code. There is another thing which need some attention...your connection maybe slow and depending on that connection time can be more or in some cases which I've been dealing a lot the connection's timeout isn't enough big, but that's server problem.
In my opinion you should use what you have now.

Android: HttpURLConnection redirect - doInBackground

I'm using HttpURLConnection to do communication with a backend server and im doing so in an async task in the doInBackground method as you should.
Now I need to be able to follow 302 redirects, but I'm having some problems with this. The issue is that the new location usually will be on another host, however when doing the redirect request it seem not to change the URL to a new host hence I get a 404 error saying the specified path does not exits.
Now I know I could set HtppURLConnection.setFollowRedirect but I need to have more control over the redirects so they should not just be followed blindly. The Redirect behavour should be controlled by the object who called the asynctask (when an asynctask object is created you pass the object who creates it in a parameter called _callback).
Heres's my current code:
protected HttpResponse doInBackground(String... req) {
HttpURLConnection urlConnection = null;
try {
urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) this._url.openConnection();
urlConnection.setConnectTimeout( (int) this._timeout*1000);
String body = req[0];
// set headers / write information to output stream if request is post
// create the response object
HttpResponse responseObject = null;
try
{
// get status, contenttype, charset...
InputStream in = null;
if (urlConnection.getResponseCode() != -1 && urlConnection.getResponseCode() < 300)
{
in = new BufferedInputStream(urlConnection.getInputStream(), 8192);
}
else
{
in = new BufferedInputStream(urlConnection.getErrorStream(), 8192);
}
responseObject = new HttpResponse(in, status, contentType, charset);
// if redirect
if (status == 302 && this._callback.onRedirect(responseObject) == true)
{
// recall
String url = urlConnection.getHeaderField("location");
Log.v("Async Task", "Redirect location: " + url);
this._url = null;
this._url = new URL(url);
urlConnection.disconnect();
urlConnection = null;
responseObject = this.doInBackground(req);
}
} catch (IOException e)
{
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
// return the response
return responseObject;
}
// catch some other exceptions
finally
{
if (urlConnection != null)
{
urlConnection.disconnect();
} }
}
And as said the problem is that the redirect request seem to change the path of the URL but not the host. The URL object itself seem to contain the right information so I have no idea why this is happening. (I'm getting HTML as response which is an 404 error page that includes the server name of the old server)
Thanks for any help!
Note: HttpResponse is just an object I created for holding the relevant information about the response.
This was caused by the fact that I sent the same headers and did not change the "host" header of the request which caused Apache to be confused it seems.

Do I need to call HttpURLConnection.disconnect after finish using it

The following code basically works as expected. However, to be paranoid, I was wondering, to avoid resource leakage,
Do I need to call HttpURLConnection.disconnect, after finish its usage?
Do I need to call InputStream.close?
Do I need to call InputStreamReader.close?
Do I need to have the following 2 line of code : httpUrlConnection.setDoInput(true) and httpUrlConnection.setDoOutput(false), just after the construction of httpUrlConnection?
The reason I ask so, is most of the examples I saw do not do such cleanup. http://www.exampledepot.com/egs/java.net/post.html and http://www.vogella.com/articles/AndroidNetworking/article.html. I just want to make sure those examples are correct as well.
public static String getResponseBodyAsString(String request) {
BufferedReader bufferedReader = null;
try {
URL url = new URL(request);
HttpURLConnection httpUrlConnection = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
InputStream inputStream = httpUrlConnection.getInputStream();
bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream));
int charRead = 0;
char[] buffer = new char[1024];
StringBuffer stringBuffer = new StringBuffer();
while ((charRead = bufferedReader.read(buffer)) > 0) {
stringBuffer.append(buffer, 0, charRead);
}
return stringBuffer.toString();
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
Log.e(TAG, "", e);
} catch (IOException e) {
Log.e(TAG, "", e);
} finally {
close(bufferedReader);
}
return null;
}
private static void close(Reader reader) {
if (reader != null) {
try {
reader.close();
} catch (IOException exp) {
Log.e(TAG, "", exp);
}
}
}
Yes you need to close the inputstream first and close httpconnection next. As per javadoc.
Each HttpURLConnection instance is used to make a single request but the underlying network connection to the HTTP server may be transparently shared by other instances. Calling the close() methods on the InputStream or OutputStream of an HttpURLConnection after a request may free network resources associated with this instance but has no effect on any shared persistent connection. Calling the disconnect() method may close the underlying socket if a persistent connection is otherwise idle at that time.
Next two questions answer depends on purpose of your connection. Read this link for more details.
I believe the requirement for calling setDoInput() or setDoOutput() is to make sure they are called before anything is written to or read from a stream on the connection. Beyond that, I'm not sure it matters when those methods are called.

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