Absolute cookie nightmare...can anyone help? :(

Question

I'm trying to write a program in java that will log onto this page: (http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/uwcn). However, the cookies on this page are proving an impossible task to handle. When I go there in my browser, it sets an intial cookie (alteonP=blahblah) and then two further cookies (Ctemp & Cperm).
However, when I connect to the URL using an HttpURLConnection object as follows:
URL url = new URL("http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/uwcn");
HttpURLConnection http = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
String cookie=http.getHeaderField("Set-Cookie");
System.out.print(cookie);
I get no cookies sent by the server ? the program returns null! I've tried turning off redirection, but the response code is always 200 OK, which means its not trying to redirect me is it?
If I create an input stream from the above connection and output the HTTP Body returned by the server on the above request, I get the error message:
<CENTER><H2>We are unable to recognize you as having access to this Gale Group Product</H2></CENTER>
The best information we have about this problem is: <CENTER><FONT COLOR="#FF4500">Temporary cookie support must be enabled in your browser in order to use this product.</FONT></CENTER>
So somehow I am missing the cookie!?!?!
I've tried printing out the entire header returned by the server, which returns the following every time:
null HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date Wed, 29 Jan 2003 12:17:56 GMT
Content-Type text/html
Connection close
Server Netscape-Enterprise/3.6 SP1
Via 1.1 webcacheH10 (NetCache NetApp/5.3.1R2)
And there is no sign of anything that resembles a cookie or any other identifiable information, so can anyone help me understand where I am missing the cookie support? I've tried turning off redirection and cacheing, tried connecting and reconnecting and also tried changing the user agent, but nothing makes a blind bit of difference!
I ultimately want to log onto the site, which requires passing the connection to the following URL http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/uwcn?id=100117976 but seeing as I can't even get the site to send me a cookie, I'm a long way from achieving this I think :( I'm beginning to think the HttpURLConnection object isn't the way to go about this, given the grief its caused, but it must be possible mustn't it?
So, if anyone can offer some support on the above, it would really be appreciated.

Answer 1

Curious...
I run a tool that I have developed to analyze http/https sessions and I get the following:
Requesting : [http://infotrac.galegroup.com:80/itweb/uwcn] (1) times.
<----------- Server Response ----------->
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Set-Cookie : AlteonP=5b2cd03b5b2cd0fa; path=/
Server : Netscape-Enterprise/3.6 SP1
Date : Wed, 29 Jan 2003 20:47:48 GMT
Content-type : text/html
Connection : close
<--------------------------------------->
using another utility in the same tool I send 20 requests
looking for the cookie field and I get the following:
Set-Cookie : 5b2cd03b5b2cd0f8
Set-Cookie : 5b2cd03b5b2cd0fa
Set-Cookie : 5b2cd03b5b2cd0fc
Set-Cookie : 5b2cd03b5b2cd0fe
Set-Cookie : 5b2cd03b5b2cd0fb
Set-Cookie : 5b2cd03b5b2cd0fd
Set-Cookie : 5b2cd03b5b2cd0ff
....(rest of responses were truncated) ...
here is the section of my code:
URLpathClearText = new URL( "http",
               targetHost,
               targetPort,
               path
                                   targetURLClearText = (HttpURLConnection) URLpathClearText.openConnection();
targetURLClearText.setRequestMethod("GET");
// get the cookie value cookiestring="Set-Cookie"
targetURLClearText.getHeaderField(cookieString)
I hope this helps.
If not I may be able to send you the tool to test it your self.
Let me know (I'm at [email protected])
Peter