Cookie managment in java

Question

I'm trying to make a little application that logs onto an account I have on a server. I finally figured out how to POST data to a HttpURLConnection last night, but the prblm is the page requires cookies to be enabled. Does anybody know how to accept cookies using the HttpURLConnection class? My knowledge of HTTP isn't that great and the RFC documentaion neglects to mention anything about cookies (i'm guess HTTP wasn't designed with cookies in mind).
Any help would be apreciated.

Answer 1

Hi,
You might be in luck. Here is a small example. You'll have to adapt it to your needs!
               URL url = new URL("http://www.somesite.com/yup.asp");
               HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
               connection.setRequestMethod("POST");
               connection.setInstanceFollowRedirects( true );
               connection.setDoOutput( true );
               connection.setDoInput( true );
               connection.setFollowRedirects( true );
               connection.setUseCaches( true );
               connection.setRequestProperty( "Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded" );
               connection.setRequestProperty( "Connection","close" );
               connection.setRequestProperty( "Keep-Alive","300" );
               PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(
                                        connection.getOutputStream());
               //////transmit username and password
               out.println("username=user&pwd=password");
               out.close();
               BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
                              new InputStreamReader(
                              connection.getInputStream()));
               String cookie1 = connection.getHeaderField("set-cookie");
               firstcookie="";
               if(cookie1!=null)
               { int index = cookie1.indexOf(";");
                    if(index > 0)
                         firstcookie = cookie1.substring(0, index);
               }Then when you login to the site again all you do is something like this:
               url = new URL("http://www.somesite.com/yup.asp");
               connection = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
               connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded" );
               connection.setRequestProperty( "Connection","close" );
               connection.setRequestProperty( "Keep-Alive","300" );
               connection.setRequestProperty( "Referer","somesite" );
                       //Notice this!!!!
               connection.setRequestProperty("Cookie", firstcookie);
               connection.setRequestMethod("POST");
               connection.setInstanceFollowRedirects( true );
               connection.setDoOutput( true );
               connection.setDoInput( true );
               connection.setFollowRedirects( true );
               connection.setUseCaches( true );There you go! Like i said, you'll have to adapt it to your needs.
GCS584