The abstract class URLConnection is the superclass
of all classes that represent a communications link between the
application and a URL. Instances of this class can be used both to
read from and to write to the resource referenced by the URL. In
general, creating a connection to a URL is a multistep process:
openConnection()
connect()
Manipulate parameters that affect the connection to the remote
resource.
Interact with the resource; query header fields and
contents.
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time
The connection object is created by invoking the
openConnection method on a URL.
The setup parameters and general request properties are manipulated.
The actual connection to the remote object is made, using the
connect method.
The remote object becomes available. The header fields and the contents
of the remote object can be accessed.
The setup parameters are modified using the following methods:
setAllowUserInteraction
setDoInput
setDoOutput
setIfModifiedSince
setUseCaches
and the general request properties are modified using the method:
setRequestProperty
Default values for the AllowUserInteraction and
UseCaches parameters can be set using the methods
setDefaultAllowUserInteraction and
setDefaultUseCaches.
Each of the above set methods has a corresponding
get method to retrieve the value of the parameter or
general request property. The specific parameters and general
request properties that are applicable are protocol specific.
The following methods are used to access the header fields and
the contents after the connection is made to the remote object:
getContent
getHeaderField
getInputStream
getOutputStream
Certain header fields are accessed frequently. The methods:
getContentEncoding
getContentLength
getContentType
getDate
getExpiration
getLastModifed
provide convenient access to these fields. The
getContentType method is used by the
getContent method to determine the type of the remote
object; subclasses may find it convenient to override the
getContentType method.
In the common case, all of the pre-connection parameters and
general request properties can be ignored: the pre-connection
parameters and request properties default to sensible values. For
most clients of this interface, there are only two interesting
methods: getInputStream and getContent,
which are mirrored in the URL class by convenience methods.
More information on the request properties and header fields of
an http connection can be found at:
Note about fileNameMap: In versions prior to JDK 1.1.6,
field fileNameMap of URLConnection was public.
In JDK 1.1.6 and later, fileNameMap is private; accessor
and mutator methods getFileNameMap and
setFileNameMap are added
to access it. This change is also described on the
Compatibility page.
Invoking the close() methods on the InputStream or OutputStream of an
URLConnection after a request may free network resources associated with this
instance, unless particular protocol specifications specify different behaviours
for it.
allowUserInteraction
If true, this URL is being examined in
a context in which it makes sense to allow user interactions such
as popping up an authentication dialog.
protected boolean
connected
If false, this connection object has not created a
communications link to the specified URL.
protected boolean
doInput
This variable is set by the setDoInput method.
protected boolean
doOutput
This variable is set by the setDoOutput method.
protected long
ifModifiedSince
Some protocols support skipping the fetching of the object unless
the object has been modified more recently than a certain time.
getDefaultRequestProperty(String key) Deprecated.The instance specific getRequestProperty method
should be used after an appropriate instance of URLConnection
is obtained.
boolean
getDefaultUseCaches()
Returns the default value of a URLConnection's
useCaches flag.
boolean
getDoInput()
Returns the value of this URLConnection's
doInput flag.
boolean
getDoOutput()
Returns the value of this URLConnection's
doOutput flag.
long
getExpiration()
Returns the value of the expires header field.
guessContentTypeFromStream(InputStream is)
Tries to determine the type of an input stream based on the
characters at the beginning of the input stream.
void
setAllowUserInteraction(boolean allowuserinteraction)
Set the value of the allowUserInteraction field of
this URLConnection.
void
setConnectTimeout(int timeout)
Sets a specified timeout value, in milliseconds, to be used
when opening a communications link to the resource referenced
by this URLConnection.
setDefaultAllowUserInteraction(boolean defaultallowuserinteraction)
Sets the default value of the
allowUserInteraction field for all future
URLConnection objects to the specified value.
static void
setDefaultRequestProperty(String key,
String value) Deprecated.The instance specific setRequestProperty method
should be used after an appropriate instance of URLConnection
is obtained. Invoking this method will have no effect.
void
setDefaultUseCaches(boolean defaultusecaches)
Sets the default value of the useCaches field to the
specified value.
void
setDoInput(boolean doinput)
Sets the value of the doInput field for this
URLConnection to the specified value.
void
setDoOutput(boolean dooutput)
Sets the value of the doOutput field for this
URLConnection to the specified value.
This variable is set by the setDoInput method. Its
value is returned by the getDoInput method.
A URL connection can be used for input and/or output. Setting the
doInput flag to true indicates that
the application intends to read data from the URL connection.
This variable is set by the setDoOutput method. Its
value is returned by the getDoOutput method.
A URL connection can be used for input and/or output. Setting the
doOutput flag to true indicates
that the application intends to write data to the URL connection.
If true, this URL is being examined in
a context in which it makes sense to allow user interactions such
as popping up an authentication dialog. If false,
then no user interaction is allowed.
The value of this field can be set by the
setAllowUserInteraction method.
Its value is returned by the
getAllowUserInteraction method.
Its default value is the value of the argument in the last invocation
of the setDefaultAllowUserInteraction method.
Some protocols support skipping the fetching of the object unless
the object has been modified more recently than a certain time.
A nonzero value gives a time as the number of milliseconds since
January 1, 1970, GMT. The object is fetched only if it has been
modified more recently than that time.
This variable is set by the setIfModifiedSince
method. Its value is returned by the
getIfModifiedSince method.
The default value of this field is 0, indicating
that the fetching must always occur.
Loads filename map (a mimetable) from a data file. It will
first try to load the user-specific table, defined
by "content.types.user.table" property. If that fails,
it tries to load the default built-in table at
lib/content-types.properties under java home.
public static void setFileNameMap(FileNameMap map)
Sets the FileNameMap.
If there is a security manager, this method first calls
the security manager's checkSetFactory method
to ensure the operation is allowed.
This could result in a SecurityException.
Parameters:
map - the FileNameMap to be set
Throws:
SecurityException - if a security manager exists and its
checkSetFactory method doesn't allow the operation.
Opens a communications link to the resource referenced by this
URL, if such a connection has not already been established.
If the connect method is called when the connection
has already been opened (indicated by the connected
field having the value true), the call is ignored.
URLConnection objects go through two phases: first they are
created, then they are connected. After being created, and
before being connected, various options can be specified
(e.g., doInput and UseCaches). After connecting, it is an
error to try to set them. Operations that depend on being
connected, like getContentLength, will implicitly perform the
connection, if necessary.
Throws:
SocketTimeoutException - if the timeout expires before
the connection can be established
IOException - if an I/O error occurs while opening the
connection.
Sets a specified timeout value, in milliseconds, to be used
when opening a communications link to the resource referenced
by this URLConnection. If the timeout expires before the
connection can be established, a
java.net.SocketTimeoutException is raised. A timeout of zero is
interpreted as an infinite timeout.
Some non-standard implmentation of this method may ignore
the specified timeout. To see the connect timeout set, please
call getConnectTimeout().
Parameters:
timeout - an int that specifies the connect
timeout value in milliseconds
Sets the read timeout to a specified timeout, in
milliseconds. A non-zero value specifies the timeout when
reading from Input stream when a connection is established to a
resource. If the timeout expires before there is data available
for read, a java.net.SocketTimeoutException is raised. A
timeout of zero is interpreted as an infinite timeout.
Some non-standard implementation of this method ignores the
specified timeout. To see the read timeout set, please call
getReadTimeout().
Parameters:
timeout - an int that specifies the timeout
value to be used in milliseconds
the sending date of the resource that the URL references,
or 0 if not known. The value returned is the
number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970 GMT.
Returns an unmodifiable Map of the header fields.
The Map keys are Strings that represent the
response-header field names. Each Map value is an
unmodifiable List of Strings that represents
the corresponding field values.
Returns:
a Map of header fields
Since:
1.4
getHeaderFieldInt
public int getHeaderFieldInt(String name,
int Default)
Returns the value of the named field parsed as a number.
This form of getHeaderField exists because some
connection types (e.g., http-ng) have pre-parsed
headers. Classes for that connection type can override this method
and short-circuit the parsing.
Parameters:
name - the name of the header field.
Default - the default value.
Returns:
the value of the named field, parsed as an integer. The
Default value is returned if the field is
missing or malformed.
getHeaderFieldDate
public long getHeaderFieldDate(String name,
long Default)
Returns the value of the named field parsed as date.
The result is the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970 GMT
represented by the named field.
This form of getHeaderField exists because some
connection types (e.g., http-ng) have pre-parsed
headers. Classes for that connection type can override this method
and short-circuit the parsing.
Parameters:
name - the name of the header field.
Default - a default value.
Returns:
the value of the field, parsed as a date. The value of the
Default argument is returned if the field is
missing or malformed.
This method first determines the content type of the object by
calling the getContentType method. If this is
the first time that the application has seen that specific content
type, a content handler for that content type is created:
If the application has set up a content handler factory instance
using the setContentHandlerFactory method, the
createContentHandler method of that instance is called
with the content type as an argument; the result is a content
handler for that content type.
If no content handler factory has yet been set up, or if the
factory's createContentHandler method returns
null, then the application loads the class named:
sun.net.www.content.<contentType>
where <contentType> is formed by taking the
content-type string, replacing all slash characters with a
period ('.'), and all other non-alphanumeric characters
with the underscore character '_'. The alphanumeric
characters are specifically the 26 uppercase ASCII letters
'A' through 'Z', the 26 lowercase ASCII
letters 'a' through 'z', and the 10 ASCII
digits '0' through '9'. If the specified
class does not exist, or is not a subclass of
ContentHandler, then an
UnknownServiceException is thrown.
Returns:
the object fetched. The instanceof operator
should be used to determine the specific kind of object
returned.
Throws:
IOException - if an I/O error occurs while
getting the content.
classes - the Class array
indicating the requested types
Returns:
the object fetched that is the first match of the type
specified in the classes array. null if none of
the requested types are supported.
The instanceof operator should be used to
determine the specific kind of object returned.
Throws:
IOException - if an I/O error occurs while
getting the content.
Returns a permission object representing the permission
necessary to make the connection represented by this
object. This method returns null if no permission is
required to make the connection. By default, this method
returns java.security.AllPermission. Subclasses
should override this method and return the permission
that best represents the permission required to make a
a connection to the URL. For example, a URLConnection
representing a file: URL would return a
java.io.FilePermission object.
The permission returned may dependent upon the state of the
connection. For example, the permission before connecting may be
different from that after connecting. For example, an HTTP
sever, say foo.com, may redirect the connection to a different
host, say bar.com. Before connecting the permission returned by
the connection will represent the permission needed to connect
to foo.com, while the permission returned after connecting will
be to bar.com.
Permissions are generally used for two purposes: to protect
caches of objects obtained through URLConnections, and to check
the right of a recipient to learn about a particular URL. In
the first case, the permission should be obtained
after the object has been obtained. For example, in an
HTTP connection, this will represent the permission to connect
to the host from which the data was ultimately fetched. In the
second case, the permission should be obtained and tested
before connecting.
Returns:
the permission object representing the permission
necessary to make the connection represented by this
URLConnection.
Throws:
IOException - if the computation of the permission
requires network or file I/O and an exception occurs while
computing it.
Returns an input stream that reads from this open connection.
A SocketTimeoutException can be thrown when reading from the
returned input stream if the read timeout expires before data
is available for read.
Returns:
an input stream that reads from this open connection.
Throws:
IOException - if an I/O error occurs while
creating the input stream.
Sets the value of the doInput field for this
URLConnection to the specified value.
A URL connection can be used for input and/or output. Set the DoInput
flag to true if you intend to use the URL connection for input,
false if not. The default is true.
Sets the value of the doOutput field for this
URLConnection to the specified value.
A URL connection can be used for input and/or output. Set the DoOutput
flag to true if you intend to use the URL connection for output,
false if not. The default is false.
public static boolean getDefaultAllowUserInteraction()
Returns the default value of the allowUserInteraction
field.
Ths default is "sticky", being a part of the static state of all
URLConnections. This flag applies to the next, and all following
URLConnections that are created.
Returns:
the default value of the allowUserInteraction
field.
Sets the value of the useCaches field of this
URLConnection to the specified value.
Some protocols do caching of documents. Occasionally, it is important
to be able to "tunnel through" and ignore the caches (e.g., the
"reload" button in a browser). If the UseCaches flag on a connection
is true, the connection is allowed to use whatever caches it can.
If false, caches are to be ignored.
The default value comes from DefaultUseCaches, which defaults to
true.
Parameters:
usecaches - a boolean indicating whether
or not to allow caching
Returns the default value of a URLConnection's
useCaches flag.
Ths default is "sticky", being a part of the static state of all
URLConnections. This flag applies to the next, and all following
URLConnections that are created.
Returns:
the default value of a URLConnection's
useCaches flag.
public void setRequestProperty(String key,
String value)
Sets the general request property. If a property with the key already
exists, overwrite its value with the new value.
NOTE: HTTP requires all request properties which can
legally have multiple instances with the same key
to use a comma-seperated list syntax which enables multiple
properties to be appended into a single property.
Parameters:
key - the keyword by which the request is known
(e.g., "accept").
Returns an unmodifiable Map of general request
properties for this connection. The Map keys
are Strings that represent the request-header
field names. Each Map value is a unmodifiable List
of Strings that represents the corresponding
field values.
Returns:
a Map of the general request properties for this connection.
Deprecated.The instance specific setRequestProperty method
should be used after an appropriate instance of URLConnection
is obtained. Invoking this method will have no effect.
Sets the default value of a general request property. When a
URLConnection is created, it is initialized with
these properties.
Parameters:
key - the keyword by which the request is known
(e.g., "accept").
Sets the ContentHandlerFactory of an
application. It can be called at most once by an application.
The ContentHandlerFactory instance is used to
construct a content handler from a content type
If there is a security manager, this method first calls
the security manager's checkSetFactory method
to ensure the operation is allowed.
This could result in a SecurityException.
public static StringguessContentTypeFromName(String fname)
Tries to determine the content type of an object, based
on the specified "file" component of a URL.
This is a convenience method that can be used by
subclasses that override the getContentType method.
Parameters:
fname - a filename.
Returns:
a guess as to what the content type of the object is,
based upon its file name.
Tries to determine the type of an input stream based on the
characters at the beginning of the input stream. This method can
be used by subclasses that override the
getContentType method.
Ideally, this routine would not be needed. But many
http servers return the incorrect content type; in
addition, there are many nonstandard extensions. Direct inspection
of the bytes to determine the content type is often more accurate
than believing the content type claimed by the http server.
Parameters:
is - an input stream that supports marks.
Returns:
a guess at the content type, or null if none
can be determined.
Throws:
IOException - if an I/O error occurs while reading the
input stream.
Submit a bug or feature For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.