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JSON not returning on HTTPPost on Android

I am having problems calling a simple JSON web service from an Android app. The .execute() completes successfully with an 200-OK Status however I am unable to read any JSON output or text.
For the record, if I HttpPost a regular webpage, like Google.com, I can read and parse all the markup. Also, I am able to call the complete urlWithParams string from the device's browser and I see JSON output in the browser. This works in device's browser:
http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json?origins=Seattle&destinations=San+Francisco&mode=bicycling&language=fr-FR&sensor=false
When the code runs, the reader is always blank and reader.readLine() never runs. Returns an empty string. If I change the URL to Google.com, it works and returns 17,000 characters. Thanks!
protected String doInBackground(String... uri) {
String responseString = null;
try {
//String urlGoogle = "http://google.com";
//String urlWithParams = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json?origins=Seattle&destinations=San+Francisco&mode=bicycling&language=fr-FR&sensor=false";
String urlOnly = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json";
HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(urlOnly);
httpPost.setHeader("Accept", "application/json");
httpPost.setHeader("Content-type", "application/json");
List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(2);
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("origins", "Seattle"));
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("destinations", "Cleveland"));
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("sensor", "false"));
httpPost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));
HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpPost);
int status = response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode();
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
InputStream is = entity.getContent();
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8"));
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
String line = null;
try {
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
sb.append((line + "\n"));
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
is.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
responseString = sb.toString();
}}
catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return responseString;
}

Maybe you should test other mime types instead of application/json.

1 - Check in your manifest file having INTENET Permission or not.
2 - Use this code its returning data
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8"));
try {
String inputLine;
while ((inputLine = reader.readLine()) != null) {
responseString += inputLine;
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
is.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}

Solved! The blank return when calling the JSON page was due to not having the proxy settings defined. Proxy settings were setup on the device however per this post, HttpClient does NOT inherit them.
Adding the following line resolved my issue. The code is now returning JSON.
HttpHost proxy = new HttpHost("172.21.31.239", 8080);
httpclient.getParams().setParameter(ConnRoutePNames.DEFAULT_PROXY, proxy);

Java application terminates at getOutputStream()

I'm creating an application for our Android devices. The aim of this section is to post a username and password (currently just assigned as a string) to a web service and to receive a login token. When running the code, at the getOutputStream() line, my code terminates and will no progress any further.
I have assigned the android emulator GSM access and also set the proxy and DNS server within Eclipse. I'm not sure where to go with it now!
This is within my onHandleIntent():
protected void onHandleIntent(Intent i) {
try{
HttpURLConnection http_conn = (HttpURLConnection) new URL("http://www.XXXXX.com").openConnection();
http_conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
http_conn.setDoInput(true);
http_conn.setDoOutput(true);
http_conn.setRequestProperty("Content-type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
String login = URLEncoder.encode("XXXXX", "UTF-8") + "=" + URLEncoder.encode("XX", "UTF-8");
login += "&" + URLEncoder.encode("XXXXX", "UTF-8") + "=" + URLEncoder.encode("XX", "UTF-8");
OutputStreamWriter wr = new OutputStreamWriter(http_conn.getOutputStream());
//TERMINATES HERE
wr.write(login);
wr.flush();
BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(http_conn.getInputStream()));
String line = rd.toString();
wr.close();
rd.close();
http_conn.disconnect();
}
catch (IOException e){
}
}
This is my first go at java and have only been writing it for a few days so bear with me if I've missed something obvious.
Thanks

If you want to POST something using HTTP, why not use HTTP POST? ;-)
Here is an example snippet:
public void postData() {
// Create a new HttpClient and Post Header
HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("http://www.yoursite.com/script.php");
try {
// Add your data
List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(2);
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("id", "12345"));
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("stringdata", "AndDev is Cool!"));
httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));
// Execute HTTP Post Request
HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
} catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
}
}
Source: http://www.androidsnippets.com/executing-a-http-post-request-with-httpclient

This may not be the appropriate answer, but will certainly be helpful to you. I have used this code for sending and receiving the request and reply resp, to a webservice.
This code is working, but will need some Refactoring, as i have used some extra variable, which are not needed.
I have used the NameValuePair here for Post
public String postData(String url, String xmlQuery) {
final String urlStr = url;
final String xmlStr = xmlQuery;
final StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
Thread t1 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost(urlStr);
try {
List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(
1);
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("xml", xmlStr));
httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));
HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
Log.d("Vivek", response.toString());
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
InputStream i = entity.getContent();
Log.d("Vivek", i.toString());
InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(i);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
String s = null;
while ((s = br.readLine()) != null) {
Log.d("YumZing", s);
sb.append(s);
}
Log.d("Check Now",sb+"");
} catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} /*
* catch (ParserConfigurationException e) { // TODO
* Auto-generated catch block e.printStackTrace(); } catch
* (SAXException e) { // TODO Auto-generated catch block
* e.printStackTrace(); }
*/
}
});
t1.start();
try {
t1.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Getting from Post Data Method "+sb.toString());
return sb.toString();
}

String line = rd.toString();
should be
String line = rd.readLine();
that might do the trick. rd.toString() gives you a String representation of your BufferedReader. It does not trigger the HTTP operation. I did not test your code, so there might be other errors as well, this was just the obvious one.

How to HTTPS post in Android

I have looked at the following links, but nothing seems concrete.
Secure HTTP Post in Android
This one does not work anymore, I have tested it and there are comments from other people saying it does not work.
I also checked this out: DefaultHttpClient, Certificates, Https and posting problem! This seems it could work but the blogger just leaves you hanging. More step by step instructions would be helpful. I managed to get my certificate by I have not been able to follow through his second step.
http://www.makeurownrules.com/secure-rest-web-service-mobile-application-android.html This one seem good, but again, I loose the author at the last step: "Back to our original rest client code." He too is all over the place, I have no clue which libraries he is using. He is not explaining his code and with the
RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
it's another cliffhanger. Because that class has not been provided. So, if someone could explain how to do HTTPS post request in detail that would be great. I do need to accept the self signed certificate.

I hope it would help. This is the code i used and worked perfectly fine.
private HttpClient createHttpClient()
{
HttpParams params = new BasicHttpParams();
HttpProtocolParams.setVersion(params, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);
HttpProtocolParams.setContentCharset(params, HTTP.DEFAULT_CONTENT_CHARSET);
HttpProtocolParams.setUseExpectContinue(params, true);
SchemeRegistry schReg = new SchemeRegistry();
schReg.register(new Scheme("http", PlainSocketFactory.getSocketFactory(), 80));
schReg.register(new Scheme("https", SSLSocketFactory.getSocketFactory(), 443));
ClientConnectionManager conMgr = new ThreadSafeClientConnManager(params, schReg);
return new DefaultHttpClient(conMgr, params);
}
Then create an HttpClient like this: -
HttpClient httpClient = createHttpClient();
and use it with HttpPost.
Cheers!!
EDIT
And i did not used RestTemplate in my code. I made a simple post request. If you need more help just let me know. It seems like i recently have done something similar to what you are looking for.

This is the method i used for HTTPS Post and Here i used Custom Certificate, So change the HttpClient assignment with yours own...
public String postData(String url, String xmlQuery) {
final String urlStr = url;
final String xmlStr = xmlQuery;
final StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
Thread t1 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
HttpClient httpclient = MySSLSocketFactory.getNewHttpClient();
HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost(urlStr);
try {
List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(
1);
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("xml", xmlStr));
httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));
HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
Log.d("Vivek", response.toString());
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
InputStream i = entity.getContent();
Log.d("Vivek", i.toString());
InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(i);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
String s = null;
while ((s = br.readLine()) != null) {
Log.d("YumZing", s);
sb.append(s);
}
Log.d("Check Now",sb+"");
} catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} /*
* catch (ParserConfigurationException e) { // TODO
* Auto-generated catch block e.printStackTrace(); } catch
* (SAXException e) { // TODO Auto-generated catch block
* e.printStackTrace(); }
*/
}
});
t1.start();
try {
t1.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Getting from Post Data Method "+sb.toString());
return sb.toString();
}

HttpPost works in Java project, but not on Android

I've written some code for my Android device to login to a web site over HTTPS and parse some data out of the resulting pages. An HttpGet happens first to get some info needed for login, then an HttpPost to do the actual login process.
The code below works great in a Java project within Eclipse which has the following JAR files on the build path: httpcore-4.1-beta2.jar, httpclient-4.1-alpha2.jar, httpmime-4.1-alpha2.jar, and commons-logging-1.1.1.jar.
public static MyBean gatherData(String username, String password) {
MyBean myBean = new MyBean();
try {
HttpResponse response = doHttpGet(URL_PAGE_LOGIN, null, null);
System.out.println("Got login page");
String content = EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity());
String token = ContentParser.getToken(content);
String cookie = getCookie(response);
System.out.println("Performing login");
System.out.println("token = "+token +" || cookie = "+cookie);
response = doLoginPost(username,password,cookie, token);
int respCode = response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode();
if (respCode != 302) {
System.out.println("ERROR: not a 302 redirect!: code is \""+ respCode+"\"");
if (respCode == 200) {
System.out.println(getHeaders(response));
System.out.println(EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity()).substring(0, 500));
}
} else {
System.out.println("Logged in OK, loading account home");
// redirect handler and rest of parse removed
}
}catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("ERROR in gatherdata: "+e.toString());
e.printStackTrace();
}
return myBean;
}
private static HttpResponse doHttpGet(String url, String cookie, String referrer) {
try {
HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
client.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.PROTOCOL_VERSION, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);
client.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.HTTP_CONTENT_CHARSET, "UTF-8");
HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url);
httpGet.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.PROTOCOL_VERSION, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);
httpGet.setHeader(HEADER_USER_AGENT,HEADER_USER_AGENT_VALUE);
if (referrer != null && !referrer.equals("")) httpGet.setHeader(HEADER_REFERER,referrer);
if (cookie != null && !cookie.equals("")) httpGet.setHeader(HEADER_COOKIE,cookie);
return client.execute(httpGet);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
throw new ConnectException("Failed to read content from response");
}
}
private static HttpResponse doLoginPost(String username, String password, String cookie, String token) throws ClientProtocolException, IOException {
try {
HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
client.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.PROTOCOL_VERSION, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);
client.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.HTTP_CONTENT_CHARSET, "UTF-8");
HttpPost post = new HttpPost(URL_LOGIN_SUBMIT);
post.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.PROTOCOL_VERSION, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);
post.setHeader(HEADER_USER_AGENT,HEADER_USER_AGENT_VALUE);
post.setHeader(HEADER_REFERER, URL_PAGE_LOGIN);
post.setHeader(HEADER_COOKIE, cookie);
post.setHeader("Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
List<NameValuePair> formParams = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
formParams.add(new BasicNameValuePair("org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN", token));
formParams.add(new BasicNameValuePair("showLogin", "true"));
formParams.add(new BasicNameValuePair("upgrade", ""));
formParams.add(new BasicNameValuePair("username", username));
formParams.add(new BasicNameValuePair("password", password));
formParams.add(new BasicNameValuePair("submit", "Secure+Log+in"));
UrlEncodedFormEntity entity = new UrlEncodedFormEntity(formParams,HTTP.UTF_8);
post.setEntity(entity);
return client.execute(post);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
throw new ConnectException("ERROR in doLoginPost(): "+e.getMessage());
}
}
The server (which is not under my control) returns a 302 redirect when the login was successful, and 200 if it fails and re-loads the login page. When run with the above JAR files I get the 302 redirect, however if I run the exact same code from an Android project with the 1.6 Android JAR file on the build path I get the 200 response from the server. I get the same 200 response when running the code on my 2.2 device.
My android application has internet permissions, and the HttpGet works fine. I'm assuming that the problem lies in the fact that HttpPost (or some other class) is different in some significant way between the Android JAR version and the newer Apache versions.
I've tried adding the Apache libraries to the build path of the Android project, but due to the duplicate classes I get messages like: INFO/dalvikvm(390): DexOpt: not resolving ambiguous class 'Lorg/apache/http/impl/client/DefaultHttpClient;' in the log. I've also tried using a MultipartEntity instead of the UrlEncodedFormEntity but I get the same 200 result.
So, I have a few questions:
Can I force the code running under Android to use the newer Apache libraries in preference to the Android versions?
If not, does anyone have any ideas how can I alter my code so that it works with the Android JAR file?
Are there any other, totally different approaches to doing an HttpPost in Android?
Any other ideas?
I've read a lot of posts and code, but I'm not getting anywhere.

I have now given up on getting the HttpClient route to give the expected response from the server when run on Android. Instead I rewrote the doPost method above to use an HttpsURLConnection instead. Here's the new (working) version in the hope that it's useful to someone.
private static LoginBean altPost(String username, String password, String cookie, String token){
LoginBean loginBean = new LoginBean();
HttpsURLConnection urlc = null;
OutputStreamWriter out = null;
DataOutputStream dataout = null;
BufferedReader in = null;
try {
URL url = new URL(URL_LOGIN_SUBMIT);
urlc = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();
urlc.setRequestMethod("POST");
urlc.setDoOutput(true);
urlc.setDoInput(true);
urlc.setUseCaches(false);
urlc.setAllowUserInteraction(false);
urlc.setRequestProperty(HEADER_USER_AGENT, HEADER_USER_AGENT_VALUE_FF);
urlc.setRequestProperty("Cookie", cookie);
urlc.setRequestProperty("Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
String output = "org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN="+ URLEncoder.encode(token, HTTP.UTF_8)
+"&showLogin=true&upgrade=&username="+ URLEncoder.encode(username, HTTP.UTF_8)
+"&password="+ URLEncoder.encode(password, HTTP.UTF_8)+"&submit="
+URLEncoder.encode("Secure+Log+in", HTTP.UTF_8);
dataout = new DataOutputStream(urlc.getOutputStream());
// perform POST operation
dataout.writeBytes(output);
// get response info
loginBean.setResponseCode(urlc.getResponseCode());
// get required headers
String headerName = null;
StringBuffer newCookie = new StringBuffer(100);
String redirectLocation = "";
for (int i=1; (headerName = urlc.getHeaderField(i)) != null;i++) {
if (headerName.indexOf(COOKIE_VALUE_SESSION) > -1) {
if (newCookie.length() > 0) {newCookie.append("; ");}
newCookie.append(headerName);
}
if (headerName.indexOf(COOKIE_VALUE_AUTH) > -1) {
if (newCookie.length() > 0) {newCookie.append("; ");}
newCookie.append(headerName);
}
if (headerName.indexOf("https://") > -1) {
redirectLocation = headerName;
}
}
loginBean.setCookie(newCookie.toString());
loginBean.setRedirectUrl(redirectLocation);
in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(urlc.getInputStream()),8096);
String response;
// write html to System.out for debug
while ((response = in.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println(response);
}
in.close();
} catch (ProtocolException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
if (out != null) {
try {
out.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
if (in != null) {
try {
in.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
return loginBean;
}
I still have no idea why the HttpClient way didn't work properly.

To avoid the collisions, use this JAR file for httpclient:
httplib
And this post would also be very useful:
An answer to Stack Overflow question Apache HTTP client or URLConnection

Is it possible that this website does user-agent detection and actually returns different results because it's Android? Given that 200 implies success, why must it give a 302 instead of a 200? Have you printed out the result that you get when it returns a 200, and does it give any additional information?

Check the RedirectHandler, override the default one and do some logging in it, I had problems with that when going to Android...

Set cookie from HTTP Request

I have get a correct login using HttpRequest to work. It prints the correct html form of the logn page in my toast (just for testing). Now I want to set a cookie from that request. How is this possible?
If it necessary I can provide some code.
I already know about the CookieManager class, but how can I successfully do it?
Thanks in advance!
My code:
public String getPostRequest(String url, String user, String pass) {
HttpClient postClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(url);
HttpResponse response;
try {
List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(2);
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("login", user));
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("pass", pass));
httpPost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs, HTTP.UTF_8));
response = postClient.execute(httpPost);
if(response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() == 200) {
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
if (entity != null) {
InputStream instream = entity.getContent();
String result = convertStreamToString(instream);
instream.close();
return result;
}
}
} catch (Exception e) {}
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),
"Connection failed",
Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
return null;
}
private String convertStreamToString(InputStream is) {
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
String line = null;
try {
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
sb.append(line);
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
is.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
return sb.toString();
}
Well, this is pretty much it. convertStreamToString() function converts the InputStream into a String (plain HTML code), which I "toast" out to just test it (so it work), so the code is working though. Now to set the cookie. :-)
This is what I've reached for now:
// inside my if (entity != null) statement
List<Cookie> cookies = postClient.getCookieStore().getCookies();
String result = cookies.get(1).toString();
return result;
When I have logged in, the CookieList id 1 contains a value, otherwise the value is standard. So for now I know the difference in value, but how can I continue?

I think Android ships with Apache HttpClient 4.0.
You can check Chapter 3. HTTP state management topic from HttpClient Tutorial.
You can also refer similar questions on SO:
Android project using httpclient --> http.client (apache), post/get method
How do I manage cookies with HttpClient in Android and/or Java?
Also Check this example for usage: http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/httpcomponents/httpclient/branches/4.0.x/httpclient/src/examples/org/apache/http/examples/client/ClientFormLogin.java