Retrieving a gif from a URL

Question

hello,
I need help on this topics. I don't know how to start... What I want to do is to connect to a url of the form "http://www.someplace.com/image/pic.gif" and save the file pic.gif to my harddisk.
Here how I started up:
package cartoonextractor;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.net.*;
public class Extractor {
  private final static String imageUrl = "www.someplace.com";
  private Socket connection;  //Our communication Socket
  private DataInputStream input;   //The input Stream from the Socket
  private DataOutputStream output; //The output stream from the Socket
  public Extractor() {
    byte bArrData[] = new byte[1000];
    String filepath = "/image/pic.gifgif";
    URL fileUrl = new URL("http", imageUrl, filepath);
    //The input stream from the url...
    input = new DataInputStream(fileUrl.openStream());
    //The file output stream
    FileWriter output = new FileWriter("pic.gif");
    //Now read from the URL until the end of the file and write what was read
    //to the file using the FileWriter
    int i = 0;
    while ( (i=input.read(bArrData)) !=-1){
      output.write(bArrData);
    //Close the Stream and the Socket
    output.close();
    input.close();
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Extractor extractor1 = new Extractor();
}When compile I get the following error: "Extractor.java": Error #: 300 : method write(byte[]) not found in class java.io.FileWriter at line 36, column 14
Now I know what the error mean and why it says that, but what should I use for retrieving a datafile (later on I will need to retrieve other kind of data file.. such as zip, etc...) and writing it to my local disk?
I check DataOutputStream, but it's only for Java primitive type...
I you anybody could tell me how, or put a link for somekind of tutorial on the subject I would really apreciate it.
Thanks

Answer 1

You seem to be a little confused
URL url = yourURL; // whatever you want
URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
byte[] buf;
buf = new byte[conn.getLength()];
int spot=0;
InputStream in = conn.getInputStream();
while (spot!=buf.length) {
buf[spot++] = in.read();
in.read(buf,spot,in.available());
Then print the buf[] array to a file using a fileoutputstream, which takes byte data.
DO NOT use a reader or writer. These will convert your 8 bit bytes into 7 bit characters.