web page retrieval

[anonymous]

What is the simplest way to retrieve a web page in Java?
Ideally, I want to pass in a URL and get back a String.

 

[Chris Smith]

What is the simplest way to retrieve a web page in Java?
Ideally, I want to pass in a URL and get back a String.

Since a URL isn't guaranteed to return text data and you don't know the
encoding head of time, it's not that simple. You can certainly create a
URL and get an InputStream, but to convert to characters, you'll need to
use the Content-Type response header to deduce the encoding.
Unfortunately, that's rather complex so I'll wait for you to say you
need it, and then maybe I or someone else will have time to write it for
you. The basics are:

URL url = new URL("http://something");
InputStream stream = url.openStream();

try
{
// read the data from the stream
}
finally
{
stream.close();
}

or, if you want to convert to text with a given character encoding:

URL url = new URL("http://something");
InputStream stream = url.openStream();

try
{
InputStreamReader reader = new InputStreamReader(
stream, "encoding-name");

// read the data from the reader
}
finally
{
stream.close();
}

--
www.designacourse.com
The Easiest Way to Train Anyone... Anywhere.

Chris Smith - Lead Software Developer/Technical Trainer
MindIQ Corporation

 

[Andrew Thompson]

What is the simplest way to retrieve a web page in Java?
Ideally, I want to pass in a URL and get back a String.

Isn't it about time you Bob, that you
found the JavaDocs and tutorials, and
headed over to c.l.j.help?

 

[kaeli]

What is the simplest way to retrieve a web page in Java?
Ideally, I want to pass in a URL and get back a String.

A snippet from code I have that does this very thing...


URL url=null;
String line=null;
InputStream in=null;
BufferedReader input=null;
URLConnection connection=null;
String pageContent="";


url = new URL("http://www.google.com");
connection = url.openConnection();
connection.setDoInput(true);
in = connection.getInputStream();
input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));

while ((line = input.readLine()) != null)
{
// put the whole thing into a string
pageContent += line;
}


--
--
~kaeli~
The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully
recovered.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

 

[Roedy Green]

What is the simplest way to retrieve a web page in Java?
Ideally, I want to pass in a URL and get back a String.

see http://mindprod.com/fileio.html

tell it you want to learn to do a CGI get. This what browsers do to
get webpages.

 

[BlackFoliage]

What is the simplest way to retrieve a web page in Java?
Ideally, I want to pass in a URL and get back a String.

The Jakarta commons HttpClient works great.

http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/httpclient/

-Patrick