Post data to cgi script via Java

Question

What I'm trying to do may seem somewhat confusing (probably not to you pros ;) so let me know if I need to clarify anything:
I have a Java program that processes a transaction. When this transaction is complete I need to post certain data back to our UNIX System. The only way I can talk to this UNIX system is by using a third party software which is a fast-cgi program. I could use a straight HTML form post but it makes some of my pages do wierd things, and often kicks me off my pages to the URL I need to post to.
This is an example of the format of the URL that I would normally have as the form action:
http://www.mywebsite.com/my-bin/myfastcgi?pib.transaction=MYTRAN&cda.text=324234!1!_!System_ok!
Notes: The ! are just delimeters, The cda.text field is what the UNIX box is waiting to accept, the pib.transaction is telling my UNIX box what I'm trying to do
So I want to try to accomplish this with Java. I have tried the following:
URL url = "http://www.mywebsite.com"
URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
urlConnection.setDoInput(true);
urlConnection.setDoOutput(false);
urlConnection.setRequestProperty("content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
urlConnection.setRequestProperty("method", "POST");
String post = "/my-bin/myfastcgi?pib.transaction=MYTRAN&324234!1!_!System_ok!"
DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(conn.getOutputStream());
dos.writeBytes(post);
dos.flush();
dos.close();I have also tried the url = "http://www.mywebsite.com/my-bin/myfastcgi" and the post = ?pib.transaction=MYTRAN&324234!1!_!System_ok!"
What is happening is that the system gets hung up or I get a IOException, and needless to say doesn't update the UNIX system. Can anyone help me understand how to make this work (if it is at all possible??)
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

A little more information for anyone willing to look into this. I added in some echo printing and a stack trace. It seems that my connectin is timing out on the getOutputStream(). This is pretty urgent so I really appreciate some help - if I had duke dollars I would award them - but not exactly sure how to earn them :( ... This is whats happening:
Start
URL created: http://test.parkingticketpayment.com
Connection opened
DoOutput = true ... method = Post
Bad io.
java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(PlainSocketImpl.java:305)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(PlainSocketImpl.java:171)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:158)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:426)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:376)
at sun.net.NetworkClient.doConnect(NetworkClient.java:139)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(HttpClient.java:386)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(HttpClient.java:602)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.<init>(HttpClient.java:303)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.<init>(HttpClient.java:264)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(HttpClient.java:336)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(HttpClient.java:317)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(HttpClient.java:312)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect(HttpURLConnection.java:481)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.connect(HttpURLConnection.java:472)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getOutputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:528)
at testPWDONE.main(testPWDONE.java:26)