| java.lang.Object | |
| ↳ | java.net.URLConnection |
Known Direct Subclasses
|
Known Indirect Subclasses
|
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. |
openConnection method on a URL.
connect method.
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 abouthttp://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt
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.
openConnection()connect()getContent()getContentEncoding()getContentLength()getContentType()getDate()getExpiration()getHeaderField(int)getHeaderField(java.lang.String)getInputStream()getLastModified()getOutputStream()setAllowUserInteraction(boolean)setDefaultUseCaches(boolean)setDoInput(boolean)setDoOutput(boolean)setIfModifiedSince(long)setRequestProperty(java.lang.String, java.lang.String)setUseCaches(boolean)| Fields | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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. |
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| connected | If false, this connection object has not created a
communications link to the specified URL. |
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| doInput | This variable is set by the setDoInput method. |
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| doOutput | This variable is set by the setDoOutput method. |
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| ifModifiedSince | Some protocols support skipping the fetching of the object unless the object has been modified more recently than a certain time. | ||||||||||
| url | The URL represents the remote object on the World Wide Web to which this connection is opened. | ||||||||||
| useCaches | If true, the protocol is allowed to use caching
whenever it can. |
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| Protected Constructors | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Constructs a URL connection to the specified URL.
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| Public Methods | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adds a general request property specified by a
key-value pair.
| |||||||||||
Opens a communications link to the resource referenced by this
URL, if such a connection has not already been established.
| |||||||||||
Returns the value of the
allowUserInteraction field for
this object. | |||||||||||
Returns setting for connect timeout.
| |||||||||||
Retrieves the contents of this URL connection.
| |||||||||||
Retrieves the contents of this URL connection.
| |||||||||||
Returns the value of the
content-encoding header field. | |||||||||||
Returns the value of the
content-length header field. | |||||||||||
Returns the value of the
content-type header field. | |||||||||||
Returns the value of the
date header field. | |||||||||||
Returns the default value of the
allowUserInteraction
field. | |||||||||||
This method is deprecated.
The instance specific getRequestProperty method
should be used after an appropriate instance of URLConnection
is obtained.
| |||||||||||
Returns the default value of a
URLConnection's
useCaches flag. | |||||||||||
Returns the value of this
URLConnection's
doInput flag. | |||||||||||
Returns the value of this
URLConnection's
doOutput flag. | |||||||||||
Returns the value of the
expires header field. | |||||||||||
Loads filename map (a mimetable) from a data file.
| |||||||||||
Returns the value of the named header field.
| |||||||||||
Returns the value for the
nth header field. | |||||||||||
Returns the value of the named field parsed as date.
| |||||||||||
Returns the value of the named field parsed as a number.
| |||||||||||
Returns the key for the
nth header field. | |||||||||||
Returns an unmodifiable Map of the header fields.
| |||||||||||
Returns the value of this object's
ifModifiedSince field. | |||||||||||
Returns an input stream that reads from this open connection.
| |||||||||||
Returns the value of the
last-modified header field. | |||||||||||
Returns an output stream that writes to this connection.
| |||||||||||
Returns a permission object representing the permission
necessary to make the connection represented by this
object.
| |||||||||||
Returns setting for read timeout.
| |||||||||||
Returns an unmodifiable Map of general request
properties for this connection.
| |||||||||||
Returns the value of the named general request property for this
connection.
| |||||||||||
Returns the value of this
URLConnection's URL
field. | |||||||||||
Returns the value of this
URLConnection's
useCaches field. | |||||||||||
Tries to determine the content type of an object, based
on the specified "file" component of a URL.
| |||||||||||
Tries to determine the type of an input stream based on the
characters at the beginning of the input stream.
| |||||||||||
Set the value of the
allowUserInteraction field of
this URLConnection. | |||||||||||
Sets a specified timeout value, in milliseconds, to be used
when opening a communications link to the resource referenced
by this URLConnection.
| |||||||||||
Sets the
ContentHandlerFactory of an
application. | |||||||||||
Sets the default value of the
allowUserInteraction field for all future
URLConnection objects to the specified value. | |||||||||||
This method is 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 the
useCaches field to the
specified value. | |||||||||||
Sets the value of the
doInput field for this
URLConnection to the specified value. | |||||||||||
Sets the value of the
doOutput field for this
URLConnection to the specified value. | |||||||||||
Sets the FileNameMap.
| |||||||||||
Sets the value of the
ifModifiedSince field of
this URLConnection to the specified value. | |||||||||||
Sets the read timeout to a specified timeout, in
milliseconds.
| |||||||||||
Sets the general request property.
| |||||||||||
Sets the value of the
useCaches field of this
URLConnection to the specified value. | |||||||||||
Returns a
String representation of this URL connection. | |||||||||||
|
[Expand]
Inherited Methods | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
From class
java.lang.Object
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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.
If false, this connection object has not created a
communications link to the specified URL. If true,
the communications link has been established.
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.
The default value of this field is true.
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.
The default value of this field is false.
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.
If true, the protocol is allowed to use caching
whenever it can. If false, the protocol must always
try to get a fresh copy of the object.
This field is set by the setUseCaches method. Its
value is returned by the getUseCaches method.
Its default value is the value given in the last invocation of the
setDefaultUseCaches method.
Constructs a URL connection to the specified URL. A connection to the object referenced by the URL is not created.
| url | the specified URL. |
|---|
Adds a general request property specified by a key-value pair. This method will not overwrite existing values associated with the same key.
| key | the keyword by which the request is known
(e.g., "accept"). |
|---|---|
| value | the value associated with it. |
| IllegalStateException | if already connected |
|---|---|
| NullPointerException | if key is null |
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.
| SocketTimeoutException | if the timeout expires before the connection can be established |
|---|---|
| IOException | if an I/O error occurs while opening the connection. |
Returns the value of the allowUserInteraction field for
this object.
allowUserInteraction field for
this object.Returns setting for connect timeout.
0 return implies that the option is disabled (i.e., timeout of infinity).
int that indicates the connect timeout
value in millisecondsRetrieves the contents of this URL connection.
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:
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.
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.
instanceof operator
should be used to determine the specific kind of object
returned.| IOException | if an I/O error occurs while getting the content. |
|---|---|
| UnknownServiceException | if the protocol does not support the content type. |
Retrieves the contents of this URL connection.
| classes | the Class array
indicating the requested types |
|---|
instanceof operator should be used to
determine the specific kind of object returned.| IOException | if an I/O error occurs while getting the content. |
|---|---|
| UnknownServiceException | if the protocol does not support the content type. |
Returns the value of the content-encoding header field.
null if not known.Returns the value of the content-length header field.
-1 if the content length is
not known.
Returns the value of the content-type header field.
null if not known.Returns the value of the date header field.
0 if not known. The value returned is the
number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970 GMT.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.
allowUserInteraction
field.
This method is deprecated.
The instance specific getRequestProperty method
should be used after an appropriate instance of URLConnection
is obtained.
Returns the value of the default request property. Default request properties are set for every connection.
| key | the keyword by which the request is known (e.g., "accept"). |
|---|
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.
URLConnection's
useCaches flag.Returns the value of this URLConnection's
doInput flag.
URLConnection's
doInput flag.Returns the value of this URLConnection's
doOutput flag.
URLConnection's
doOutput flag.Returns the value of the expires header field.
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.
Returns the value of the named header field.
If called on a connection that sets the same header multiple times with possibly different values, only the last value is returned.
| name | the name of a header field. |
|---|
null
if there is no such field in the header.
Returns the value for the nth header field.
It returns null if there are fewer than
n+1fields.
This method can be used in conjunction with the
getHeaderFieldKey method to iterate through all
the headers in the message.
| n | an index, where n>=0 |
|---|
nth header field
or null if there are fewer than n+1 fieldsReturns 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.
| name | the name of the header field. |
|---|---|
| Default | a default value. |
Default argument is returned if the field is
missing or malformed.
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.
| name | the name of the header field. |
|---|---|
| Default | the default value. |
Default value is returned if the field is
missing or malformed.
Returns the key for the nth header field.
It returns null if there are fewer than n+1 fields.
| n | an index, where n>=0 |
|---|
nth header field,
or null if there are fewer than n+1
fields.
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 the value of this object's ifModifiedSince field.
ifModifiedSince field.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.
| IOException | if an I/O error occurs while creating the input stream. |
|---|---|
| UnknownServiceException | if the protocol does not support input. |
Returns the value of the last-modified header field.
The result is the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970 GMT.
URLConnection was last modified, or 0 if not known.Returns an output stream that writes to this connection.
| IOException | if an I/O error occurs while creating the output stream. |
|---|---|
| UnknownServiceException | if the protocol does not support output. |
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.
| IOException | if the computation of the permission requires network or file I/O and an exception occurs while computing it. |
|---|
Returns setting for read timeout. 0 return implies that the option is disabled (i.e., timeout of infinity).
int that indicates the read timeout
value in millisecondsReturns 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.
| IllegalStateException | if already connected |
|---|
Returns the value of the named general request property for this connection.
| key | the keyword by which the request is known (e.g., "accept"). |
|---|
| IllegalStateException | if already connected |
|---|
Returns the value of this URLConnection's URL
field.
URLConnection's URL
field.Returns the value of this URLConnection's
useCaches field.
URLConnection's
useCaches field.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.
| fname | a filename. |
|---|
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.
| is | an input stream that supports marks. |
|---|
null if none
can be determined.| IOException | if an I/O error occurs while reading the input stream. |
|---|
Set the value of the allowUserInteraction field of
this URLConnection.
| allowuserinteraction | the new value. |
|---|
| IllegalStateException | if already connected |
|---|
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().
| timeout | an int that specifies the connect
timeout value in milliseconds |
|---|
| IllegalArgumentException | if the timeout parameter is negative |
|---|
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.
| fac | the desired factory. |
|---|
| Error | if the factory has already been defined. |
|---|---|
| SecurityException | if a security manager exists and its
checkSetFactory method doesn't allow the operation. |
Sets the default value of the
allowUserInteraction field for all future
URLConnection objects to the specified value.
| defaultallowuserinteraction | the new value. |
|---|
This method is 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.
| key | the keyword by which the request is known
(e.g., "accept"). |
|---|---|
| value | the value associated with the key. |
Sets the default value of the useCaches field to the
specified value.
| defaultusecaches | the new value. |
|---|
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.
| doinput | the new value. |
|---|
| IllegalStateException | if already connected |
|---|
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.
| dooutput | the new value. |
|---|
| IllegalStateException | if already connected |
|---|
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.
| map | the FileNameMap to be set |
|---|
| SecurityException | if a security manager exists and its
checkSetFactory method doesn't allow the operation. |
|---|
Sets the value of the ifModifiedSince field of
this URLConnection to the specified value.
| ifmodifiedsince | the new value. |
|---|
| IllegalStateException | if already connected |
|---|
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().
| timeout | an int that specifies the timeout
value to be used in milliseconds |
|---|
| IllegalArgumentException | if the timeout parameter is negative |
|---|
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.
| key | the keyword by which the request is known
(e.g., "accept"). |
|---|---|
| value | the value associated with it. |
| IllegalStateException | if already connected |
|---|---|
| NullPointerException | if key is null |
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.
| usecaches | a boolean indicating whether
or not to allow caching |
|---|
| IllegalStateException | if already connected |
|---|
Returns a String representation of this URL connection.
URLConnection.