Make an HTTP request with android

UPDATE

This is a very old answer. I definitely won't recommend Apache's client anymore. Instead use either:

• Retrofit
• OkHttp
• Volley
• HttpUrlConnection

Original Answer

First of all, request a permission to access network, add following to your manifest:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

Then the easiest way is to use Apache http client bundled with Android:

    HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(new HttpGet(URL));
    StatusLine statusLine = response.getStatusLine();
    if(statusLine.getStatusCode() == HttpStatus.SC_OK){
        ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        response.getEntity().writeTo(out);
        String responseString = out.toString();
        out.close();
        //..more logic
    } else{
        //Closes the connection.
        response.getEntity().getContent().close();
        throw new IOException(statusLine.getReasonPhrase());
    }

If you want it to run on separate thread I'd recommend extending AsyncTask:

class RequestTask extends AsyncTask<String, String, String>{

    @Override
    protected String doInBackground(String... uri) {
        HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
        HttpResponse response;
        String responseString = null;
        try {
            response = httpclient.execute(new HttpGet(uri[0]));
            StatusLine statusLine = response.getStatusLine();
            if(statusLine.getStatusCode() == HttpStatus.SC_OK){
                ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
                response.getEntity().writeTo(out);
                responseString = out.toString();
                out.close();
            } else{
                //Closes the connection.
                response.getEntity().getContent().close();
                throw new IOException(statusLine.getReasonPhrase());
            }
        } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
            //TODO Handle problems..
        } catch (IOException e) {
            //TODO Handle problems..
        }
        return responseString;
    }
    
    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
        super.onPostExecute(result);
        //Do anything with response..
    }
}

You then can make a request by:

   new RequestTask().execute("http://stackoverflow.com");

unless you have an explicit reason to choose the Apache HttpClient, you should prefer java.net.URLConnection. you can find plenty of examples of how to use it on the web.

we've also improved the Android documentation since your original post: http://developer.android.com/reference/java/net/HttpURLConnection.html

and we've talked about the trade-offs on the official blog: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/09/androids-http-clients.html

Note: The Apache HTTP Client bundled with Android is now deprecated in favor of HttpURLConnection. Please see the Android Developers Blog for more details.

Add <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" /> to your manifest.

You would then retrieve a web page like so:

URL url = new URL("http://www.android.com/");
HttpURLConnection urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
try {
     InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(urlConnection.getInputStream());
     readStream(in);
}
finally {
     urlConnection.disconnect();
}

I also suggest running it on a separate thread:

class RequestTask extends AsyncTask<String, String, String>{

@Override
protected String doInBackground(String... uri) {
    String responseString = null;
    try {
        URL url = new URL(myurl);
        HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
        if(conn.getResponseCode() == HttpsURLConnection.HTTP_OK){
            // Do normal input or output stream reading
        }
        else {
            response = "FAILED"; // See documentation for more info on response handling
        }
    } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
        //TODO Handle problems..
    } catch (IOException e) {
        //TODO Handle problems..
    }
    return responseString;
}

@Override
protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
    super.onPostExecute(result);
    //Do anything with response..
}
}

See the documentation for more information on response handling and POST requests.

The most simple way is using the Android lib called Volley

Volley offers the following benefits:

Automatic scheduling of network requests. Multiple concurrent network connections. Transparent disk and memory response caching with standard HTTP cache coherence. Support for request prioritization. Cancellation request API. You can cancel a single request, or you can set blocks or scopes of requests to cancel. Ease of customization, for example, for retry and backoff. Strong ordering that makes it easy to correctly populate your UI with data fetched asynchronously from the network. Debugging and tracing tools.

You can send a http/https request as simple as this:

        // Instantiate the RequestQueue.
        RequestQueue queue = Volley.newRequestQueue(this);
        String url ="http://www.yourapi.com";
        JsonObjectRequest request = new JsonObjectRequest(url, null,
            new Response.Listener<JSONObject>() {
                @Override
                public void onResponse(JSONObject response) {
                    if (null != response) {
                         try {
                             //handle your response
                         } catch (JSONException e) {
                             e.printStackTrace();
                         }
                    }
                }
            }, new Response.ErrorListener() {

            @Override
            public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {

            }
        });
        queue.add(request);

In this case, you needn't consider "running in the background" or "using cache" yourself as all of these has already been done by Volley.