Simple HTTP Request in Java

By Syed Wahaj

Introduction

In modern applications, making HTTP requests is a common task for accessing APIs, fetching data from web services, or interacting with remote resources. In Java, there are several libraries and APIs available to perform HTTP requests. In this article, we will explore how to do a simple HTTP request in Java using the java.net.HttpURLConnection class.

Using `HttpURLConnection` for HTTP Requests

The HttpURLConnection class is part of the Java standard library and provides a simple way to create and send HTTP requests. It supports both GET and POST requests, as well as other HTTP methods. To use HttpURLConnection, follow these steps:

Step 1: Import the Necessary Classes

First, import the necessary classes for working with URLs and connections:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;

Step 2: Create the HTTP Connection

Next, create an HttpURLConnection object and specify the URL for the request:

URL url = new URL("https://api.example.com/data");
HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();

Replace "https://api.example.com/data" with the actual URL you want to request data from.

Step 3: Set Request Properties (Optional)

You can set additional request properties, such as request method, headers, or timeouts:

conn.setRequestMethod("GET");
conn.setRequestProperty("User-Agent", "Mozilla/5.0");
conn.setConnectTimeout(5000);
conn.setReadTimeout(5000);

In this example, we set the request method to GET, specify a User-Agent header, and set both the connect and read timeouts to 5 seconds.

Step 4: Send the Request and Receive the Response

Now, send the request and receive the response from the server:

int responseCode = conn.getResponseCode();

if (responseCode == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
    BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
    String inputLine;
    StringBuilder response = new StringBuilder();

    while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
        response.append(inputLine);
    }
    in.close();

    System.out.println("Response: " + response.toString());
} else {
    System.out.println("HTTP request failed with response code: " + responseCode);
}

Step 5: Handle Exceptions

Don’t forget to handle exceptions that may occur during the HTTP request:

try {
    // ... perform HTTP request ...
} catch (IOException e) {
    System.out.println("Error occurred during the HTTP request: " + e.getMessage());
}

Complete Example

Putting it all together, here’s a complete example of a simple HTTP GET request in Java:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;

public class SimpleHttpRequest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            URL url = new URL("https://api.example.com/data");
            HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();

            conn.setRequestMethod("GET");
            conn.setRequestProperty("User-Agent", "Mozilla/5.0");
            conn.setConnectTimeout(5000);
            conn.setReadTimeout(5000);

            int responseCode = conn.getResponseCode();

            if (responseCode == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
                BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
                String inputLine;
                StringBuilder response = new StringBuilder();

                while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
                    response.append(inputLine);
                }
                in.close();

                System.out.println("Response: " + response.toString());
            } else {
                System.out.println("HTTP request failed with response code: " + responseCode);
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.out.println("Error occurred during the HTTP request: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}

Making POST Requests

In the previous example, we demonstrated how to make a simple HTTP GET request. However, in real-world scenarios, you may often need to send data to the server using an HTTP POST request. Let’s explore how to modify the code to perform an HTTP POST request.

To make a POST request, you need to set the request method to “POST” and provide the data to be sent in the request body.

Here’s how you can modify the previous example to perform a POST request:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.DataOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

public class SimpleHttpPostRequest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            String url = "https://api.example.com/data";
            URL obj = new URL(url);
            HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) obj.openConnection();

            // Set the request method to POST
            conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
            conn.setRequestProperty("User-Agent", "Mozilla/5.0");
            conn.setConnectTimeout(5000);
            conn.setReadTimeout(5000);

            // Data to be sent in the request body
            String postData = "key1=value1&key2=value2";

            // Set the Content-Type header for POST requests
            conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");

            // Enable output (sending data to the server)
            conn.setDoOutput(true);

            // Write the data to the request body
            try (DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(conn.getOutputStream())) {
                out.write(postData.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
                out.flush();
            }

            int responseCode = conn.getResponseCode();

            if (responseCode == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
                BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
                String inputLine;
                StringBuilder response = new StringBuilder();

                while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
                    response.append(inputLine);
                }
                in.close();

                System.out.println("Response: " + response.toString());
            } else {
                System.out.println("HTTP request failed with response code: " + responseCode);
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.out.println("Error occurred during the HTTP request: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}

In this example, we set the request method to “POST” using conn.setRequestMethod("POST"), and we provide the data to be sent in the postData string. We set the “Content-Type” header to “application/x-www-form-urlencoded” to indicate that we are sending form data in the request body.

The data is then written to the request body using a DataOutputStream, which is created by calling conn.getOutputStream(). The out.write() method is used to write the data in UTF-8 encoding.

By following these steps, you can make HTTP POST requests and send data to the server from your Java application.

Conclusion

In this article, we learned how to perform both simple HTTP GET and POST requests in Java using the java.net.HttpURLConnection class. HTTP requests are essential for interacting with web services and APIs, and Java provides a built-in mechanism to handle these requests. By modifying the request method and setting request headers and the request body, you can perform various types of HTTP requests and communicate effectively with remote servers.