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How to Close HttpsURLConnection Java

I am trying to request data from the server using HttpsURLConnection; I currently have the server requiring the user to enter a username and password via a prompt. In a web browser after you enter the correct username and password, the browser would save the username and password as a session cookie in your browser so you can visit other pages within site without being prompted for your credentials. But for the client which is in Java, it does not save the username and password. I am trying to use .disconnect() to close the connection, but I keep getting the following error:
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Already connected
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.setRequestProperty(HttpURLConnection.java:3053)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.setRequestProperty(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:316)
My Java Code:
private static void sendPost(String _url) throws Exception {
String url = _url;
URL obj = new URL(url);
HttpsURLConnection con = (HttpsURLConnection) obj.openConnection();
con.setRequestMethod("POST");
int responseCode = con.getResponseCode();
Auth(con);
if (responseCode == 200) {
label.setText("Sucssesfully Scanned: " + StudID.getText());
} else {
label.setText("Error, please scan again");
}
con.disconnect();
}
private static ArrayList<String> Get(String _url) throws Exception {
ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
JsonParser parser = new JsonParser();
String url = _url;
URL obj = new URL(url);
HttpsURLConnection con = (HttpsURLConnection) obj.openConnection();
Auth(con);
con.setRequestMethod("GET");
con.setRequestProperty("Accept", "application/json");
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(con.getInputStream()));
String inputLine;
StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer();
while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
response.append(inputLine);
}
in.close();
con.disconnect();
JsonElement element = parser.parse(response.toString());
if (element.isJsonObject()) {
JsonObject data = element.getAsJsonObject();
for (int i = 0; i < data.get("chapels").getAsJsonArray().size(); i++) {
JsonObject jObj = (JsonObject) data.get("chapels").getAsJsonArray().get(i);
list.add(jObj.get("Name").toString().replaceAll("\"", "") + " - " + jObj.get("Loc").toString().replaceAll("\"", ""));
}
}
return (list);
}
private static void Auth(HttpsURLConnection con){
String encodedBytes = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString((BCrypt.hashpw("swheeler17", BCrypt.gensalt(10)) + ":" + BCrypt.hashpw("Trinity", BCrypt.gensalt(10))).getBytes());
con.setRequestProperty("authorization", "Basic " + encodedBytes);
}
Example of username and password prompt: https://chapel-logs.herokuapp.com/chapel

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Already connected
That exception means that you have attempted to set the property giving the authorization for the request after it has been sent.
This is probably where it happens:
int responseCode = con.getResponseCode();
Auth(con);
and Auth calls setRequestProperty.
Asking for the response code causes the request to be sent if if hasn't already been sent. (Obviously ... you can't get the response code until you get the response, and the server can't give you one unless the request is sent.)
To answer your question, calling disconnect on the connection will disconnect the connection.
But that's not what is causing your problem. The stacktrace shows clearly that the exception is happening when something is calling setRequestProperty.

Based off of Stephen C's answer I determined the swap the order of:
int responseCode = con.getResponseCode();
Auth(con);
So the working solution is:
Auth(con);
int responseCode = con.getResponseCode();
I'm assuming ResponseCode() creates a request to the server if a request has not already been made, otherwise ResponseCode() uses the pre-existing request. Upon further testing, I concluded there is no need to call .disconnect().

Passing value from applet to PHP

I want to send values of two variables to a PHP file from a Java applet), and I tried the following code.
try {
URL url = new URL(getCodeBase(),"abc.php");
URLConnection con = url.openConnection();
con.setDoOutput(true);
PrintStream ps = new PrintStream(con.getOutputStream());
ps.print("score="+score);
ps.print("username="+username);
con.getInputStream();
ps.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
g.drawString(""+e, 200,100);
}
I got the following error:
java.net.UnknownServiceException:protocol doesn't support output

java.net.UnknownServiceException:protocol doesn't support output
Means that you are using a protocol that doesn't support output.
getCodeBase() refers to a file url, so something like
file:/path/to/the/applet
The protocol is file, which doesn't support outout. You are looking for a http protocol, which supports output.
Maybe you wanted getDocumentBase(), which actually returns the web page where the applet is, i.e.
http://www.path.to/the/applet

Here's some code I used with my own applet, to send values (via POST) to a PHP script on my server:
I would use it like this:
String content = "";
content = content + "a=update&gid=" + gid + "&map=" + getMapString();
content = content + "&left_to_deploy=" + leftToDeploy + "&playerColor=" + playerColor;
content = content + "&uid=" + uid + "&player_won=" + didWin;
content = content + "&last_action=" + lastActionCode + "&appletID=" + appletID;
String result = "";
try {
result = requestFromDB(content);
System.out.println("Sending - " + content);
} catch (Exception e) {
status = e.toString();
}
As you can see, I am adding up all my values to send into a "content" string, then calling my requestFromDB method (which posts my "request" values, and returns the server's response) :
public String requestFromDB(String request) throws Exception
{
// This will accept a formatted request string, send it to the
// PHP script, then collect the response and return it as a String.
URL url;
URLConnection urlConn;
DataOutputStream printout;
DataInputStream input;
// URL of CGI-Bin script.
url = new URL ("http://" + siteRoot + "/globalconquest/applet-update.php");
// URL connection channel.
urlConn = url.openConnection();
// Let the run-time system (RTS) know that we want input.
urlConn.setDoInput (true);
// Let the RTS know that we want to do output.
urlConn.setDoOutput (true);
// No caching, we want the real thing.
urlConn.setUseCaches (false);
// Specify the content type.
urlConn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
// Send POST output.
printout = new DataOutputStream (urlConn.getOutputStream ());
printout.writeBytes (request);
printout.flush ();
printout.close ();
// Get response data.
input = new DataInputStream (urlConn.getInputStream ());
String str;
String a = "";
while (null != ((str = input.readLine())))
{
a = a + str;
}
input.close ();
System.out.println("Got " + a);
if (a.trim().equals("1")) {
// Error!
mode = "error";
}
return a;
} // requestFromDB
In my PHP script, I would only need to look at $_POST for my values. Then I would just print a response.
Note! Your PHP script MUST be on the same server as the applet for security reasons, or this will not work.

Effective measurement of dns lookup and site content download duration

I am implementing a Java method that measures a number of metrics while loading a webpage. The metrics include : resolve time, the connect time and download time.
The challenge seems to be the name resolution, since the code should never trigger two NS look-ups by any means (even when DNS caching is disabled).
My first thought was to trigger the name resolution before connecting to the server, and then prevent java from running a second one upon connect.
Using InetAddress.getByName() for the name lookup and then HttpURLConnection and it's setRequestProperty method to set the a host header seemed to do the trick.
So here is my question: Do those two snippets below have the same effect? Do they always give the exact same result for all possible hosts? If not, what other options do I have?
VERSION 1: Implicit name resolution
/**
* Site content download Test
*
* #throws IOException
*/
public static void testMethod() throws IOException {
String protocol = "http";
String host = "stackoverflow.com";
String file = "/";
// create a URL object
URL url = new URL(protocol, host, file);
// create the connection object
HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
// connect
conn.connect();
// create a stream reader
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
String inputLine;
// read contents and print on std out
while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println(inputLine);
}
// close the stream
in.close();
}
VERSION 2: Explicit name resolution
/**
* Enhanced Site content download Test
*
* #throws IOException
*/
public static void testMethod2() throws IOException {
String protocol = "http";
String host = "stackoverflow.com";
String file = "/";
// Do a name lookup.
// If a literal IP address is supplied, only the validity of the address format is checked.
InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName(host);
// create a URL object
URL url = new URL(protocol, address.getHostAddress(), file);
// create the connection object
HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
// allow overriding Host and other restricted headers
System.setProperty("sun.net.http.allowRestrictedHeaders", "true");
// set the host header
conn.setRequestProperty("Host", host);
// connect
conn.connect();
// create a stream reader
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
String inputLine;
// read contents and print on std out
while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println(inputLine);
}
// close the stream
in.close();
}
TIA for the help.
-Dimi

I've browsed through Java's source code to see what happens when you pass a domain name to HttpURLConnection and it eventually ends up in NetworkClient.doConnect:
if (connectTimeout >= 0) {
s.connect(new InetSocketAddress(server, port), connectTimeout);
} else {
if (defaultConnectTimeout > 0) {
s.connect(new InetSocketAddress(server, port), defaultConnectTimeout);
} else {
s.connect(new InetSocketAddress(server, port));
}
}
As you see, the domain resolution is always handled by InetSocketAddress:
public InetSocketAddress(String hostname, int port) {
if (port < 0 || port > 0xFFFF) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("port out of range:" + port);
}
if (hostname == null) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("hostname can't be null");
}
try {
addr = InetAddress.getByName(hostname);
} catch(UnknownHostException e) {
this.hostname = hostname;
addr = null;
}
this.port = port;
}
As you can see, InetAddress.getByName is called everytime. I think that you method is safe.

Using Java to send data to a form on a website hosted locally

I have a program in Java where I retrieve contents from a database.
Now I have a form in the program, and what I want to do is, on the press of a button, some string (text) content retrieved from the database, should be sent over to a website that I'm hosting locally. The content so sent, should be displayed on the website when refreshed.
Can someone guide me as to how I can achieve this (the sending of data to be displayed over the website)?
Will appreciate a lot, if you could kindly show some sample snippets or give me a reference to some tutorial that can help.
---- Okay so i found a link to a snippet that's supposed to do this, but im unable to understand at this stage as to how exactly this snippet works...can someone please guide me into knowing this better ?
here's the code
try {
// Construct data
String data = URLEncoder.encode("key1", "UTF-8") + "=" + URLEncoder.encode("value1", "UTF-8");
data += "&" + URLEncoder.encode("key2", "UTF-8") + "=" + URLEncoder.encode("value2", "UTF-8");
// Send data
URL url = new URL("http://hostname:80/cgi");
URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
conn.setDoOutput(true);
OutputStreamWriter wr = new OutputStreamWriter(conn.getOutputStream());
wr.write(data);
wr.flush();
// Get the response
BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
String line;
while ((line = rd.readLine()) != null) {
// Process line...
}
wr.close();
rd.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
}

I'm not sure on how you store and manage any of the records but from Java you can send a HTTP Post to the Url (In your case http://localhost/, probably).
Have a look at http://www.exampledepot.com/egs/java.net/post.html for a snippet on how to do this.
Your Website could then store the received information in a database and display it when you refresh.
Update heres the function
Just a side not this is by no means the best way to do this and I have no idea on how this scales but for simple solutions this has worked for me in the past.
/**
* Posts a Set of forms variables to the Remote HTTP Host
* #param url The URL to post to and read
* #param params The Parameters to post to the remote host
* #return The Content of the remote page and return null if no data was returned
*/
public String post(String url, Map<String, String> params) {
//Check if Valid URL
if(!url.toLowerCase().contains("http://")) return null;
StringBuilder bldr = new StringBuilder();
try {
//Build the post data
StringBuilder post_data = new StringBuilder();
//Build the posting variables from the map given
for (Iterator iter = params.entrySet().iterator(); iter.hasNext();) {
Map.Entry entry = (Map.Entry) iter.next();
String key = (String) entry.getKey();
String value = (String)entry.getValue();
if(key.length() > 0 && value.length() > 0) {
if(post_data.length() > 0) post_data.append("&");
post_data.append(URLEncoder.encode(key, "UTF-8"));
post_data.append("=");
post_data.append(URLEncoder.encode(value, "UTF-8"));
}
}
// Send data
URL remote_url = new URL(url);
URLConnection conn = remote_url.openConnection();
conn.setDoOutput(true);
OutputStreamWriter wr = new OutputStreamWriter(conn.getOutputStream());
wr.write(post_data.toString());
wr.flush();
// Get the response
BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
String inputLine;
while ((inputLine = rd.readLine()) != null) {
bldr.append(inputLine);
}
wr.close();
rd.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
//Handle Error
}
return bldr.length() > 0 ? bldr.toString() : null;
}
You would then use the function as follows:
Map<String, String> params = new HashMap<String, String>();
params.put("var_a", "test");
params.put("var_b", "test");
params.put("var_c", "test");
String reponse = post("http://localhost/", params);
if(reponse == null) { /* error */ }
else {
System.out.println(reponse);
}

The big question is how will you authenticate the "update" from your Java program to your website?
You could easily write a handler on your website, say "/update" which saves the POST body (or value of a request parameter) to a file or other persistent store but how will you be sure that only you can set that value, instead of anybody who discovers it?

HttpsURLConnection and POST

some time ago i wrote this program in python, that logged in a website using https, took some info and logged out.
The program was quite simple:
class Richiesta(object):
def __init__(self,url,data):
self.url = url
self.data = ""
self.content = ""
for k, v in data.iteritems():
self.data += str(k)+"="+str(v)+"&"
if(self.data == ""):
self.req = urllib2.Request(self.url)
else:
self.req = urllib2.Request(self.url,self.data)
self.req.add_header('User-Agent', 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b6) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b6')
self.req.add_header('Referer', baseurl+'/www/')
self.req.add_header('Cookie', cookie )
def leggi(self):
while(self.content == ""):
try:
r = urllib2.urlopen(self.req)
except urllib2.HTTPError, e:
print("Errore del server, nuovo tentativo tra 15 secondi")
time.sleep(15)
except urllib2.URLError, e:
print("Problema di rete, proverò a riconnettermi tra 20 secondi")
time.sleep(20)
else:
self.content = r.read().decode('utf-8')
def login(username,password):
global cookie
print("Inizio la procedura di login")
url = "https://example.com/auth/Authenticate"
data = {"login":"1","username":username,"password":password}
f = Richiesta(url,data)
f.leggi()
Now, for some reason, I have to translate it in java. Untill now, this is what i've writte:
import java.net.*;
import java.security.Security.*;
import java.io.*;
import javax.net.ssl.*;
public class SafeReq {
String baseurl = "http://www.example.com";
String useragent = "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b6) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b6";
String content = "";
public SafeReq(String s, String sid, String data) throws MalformedURLException {
try{
URL url = new URL(s);
HttpsURLConnection request = ( HttpsURLConnection ) url.openConnection();
request.setUseCaches(false);
request.setDoOutput(true);
request.setDoInput(true);
request.setFollowRedirects(true);
request.setInstanceFollowRedirects(true);
request.setRequestProperty("User-Agent",useragent);
request.setRequestProperty("Referer","http://www.example.com/www/");
request.setRequestProperty("Cookie","sid="+sid);
request.setRequestProperty("Origin","http://www.example.com");
request.setRequestProperty("Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
request.setRequestProperty("Content-length",String.valueOf(data.length()));
request.setRequestMethod("POST");
OutputStreamWriter post = new OutputStreamWriter(request.getOutputStream());
post.write(data);
post.flush();
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(request.getInputStream()));
String inputLine;
while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
content += inputLine;
}
post.close();
in.close();
} catch (IOException e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public String leggi(){
return content;
}
}
The problem is, the login doesn't work, and when i try to get a page that require me to be logged, i get the "Login Again" message.
The two classes seems quite the same, and i can't understand why i can't make the second one to work ... any idea?

Where do you get your sid from? From the symptoms, I would guess that your session cookie is not passed correctly to the server.
See this question for possible solution: Cookies turned off with Java URLConnection.
In general, I recommend you to use HttpClient for implementing HTTP conversations in Java (anything more complicated than a simple one-time GET or POST). See code examples (I guess "Form based logon" example is appropriate in your case).

Anyone looking for this in the future, take a look at HtmlUnit.
This answer has a nice example.