Thread: HttpURLConnection with POST data URLEncoder.encode not working i think

hi all
i want to make an HttpURLConnection with POST data
this code works for the most part, except for the post data part
i tested it on this page, with this post data, with this command line in windows command prompt:

>java UrlToString http://mw3dailymedia.com/twixtor/javagrab.php user=chopficaro^
&pass=omgtkkyb

the ^ is required to escape the & in windows command prompt
and it returned to me

no username or password

i am absolutely sure that the php is correct, i can access this page with the user name and password specified with an html form
if it were the wrong username or password it would return "wrong user name or password"
so it did not send the post data.
why?

//takes am address, and post data, and returns the html as a string
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.lang.*;
public class UrlToString
{
	public String returnString = "";
	public static void main (String[] args) throws Exception
	{
		//enter url and post data in cmd prompt to test
		UrlToString urlToString = new UrlToString  (args[0],args[1]);
		System.out.println(urlToString.returnString);
	}
	//paramaters of returned string, address to get it from, and post data in th for of variable1=value1&variable2=value2...
	UrlToString (String inAddr, String rawData) throws Exception
	{
		//connection variables
		String agent = "Mozilla/4.0";
		String type = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
		HttpURLConnection connection = null;
		String encodedData = URLEncoder.encode( rawData, "UTF-8");
		//connect
		try 
		{
			URL searchUrl = new URL(inAddr);
			connection = (HttpURLConnection)searchUrl.openConnection();
			connection.setDoOutput(true);
			connection.setRequestMethod("POST");
			connection.setRequestProperty( "User-Agent", agent );
			connection.setRequestProperty( "Content-Type", type );
			connection.setRequestProperty( "Content-Length", Integer.toString(encodedData.length()) );
			OutputStream os = connection.getOutputStream();
			os.write( encodedData.getBytes() );
			os.flush();
			os.close();
			//check if theres an http error
			int rc = connection.getResponseCode();
			if(rc==200)
			{
				//no http response code error
				//read the result from the server
 
				InputStreamReader in = new InputStreamReader(connection.getInputStream());
				BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(in);
				String strLine;
				//Read File Line By Line
				while ((strLine = br.readLine()) != null)
				{
					returnString = returnString.concat(strLine);
				}
				return;
			}
			else
			{
				System.out.println("http response code error: "+rc+"\n");
				return;
			}
 
		}
		catch( IOException e )
		{
			System.out.println("search URL connect failed: " + e.getMessage());
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
}

Print out the value of encodedData.

Are you sure your PHP is right? This also doesn't work:

curl -s -v  -d username=chopficaro -d password=omgtkkyb --trace - http://mw3dailymedia.com/twixtor/javagrab.php

D'oh! That command works just fine if I get the names of the form data right:

sean@bulldozer:~$ curl -d user=chopficaro -d pass=omgtkkyb --trace - http://mw3dailymedia.com/twixtor/javagrab.php== Info: About to connect() to mw3dailymedia.com port 80 (#0)
== Info:   Trying 69.61.35.28... == Info: connected
=> Send header, 259 bytes (0x103)
0000: 50 4f 53 54 20 2f 74 77 69 78 74 6f 72 2f 6a 61 POST /twixtor/ja
0010: 76 61 67 72 61 62 2e 70 68 70 20 48 54 54 50 2f vagrab.php HTTP/
0020: 31 2e 31 0d 0a 55 73 65 72 2d 41 67 65 6e 74 3a 1.1..User-Agent:
0030: 20 63 75 72 6c 2f 37 2e 32 32 2e 30 20 28 78 38  curl/7.22.0 (x8
0040: 36 5f 36 34 2d 70 63 2d 6c 69 6e 75 78 2d 67 6e 6_64-pc-linux-gn
0050: 75 29 20 6c 69 62 63 75 72 6c 2f 37 2e 32 32 2e u) libcurl/7.22.
0060: 30 20 4f 70 65 6e 53 53 4c 2f 31 2e 30 2e 31 20 0 OpenSSL/1.0.1 
0070: 7a 6c 69 62 2f 31 2e 32 2e 33 2e 34 20 6c 69 62 zlib/1.2.3.4 lib
0080: 69 64 6e 2f 31 2e 32 33 20 6c 69 62 72 74 6d 70 idn/1.23 librtmp
0090: 2f 32 2e 33 0d 0a 48 6f 73 74 3a 20 6d 77 33 64 /2.3..Host: mw3d
00a0: 61 69 6c 79 6d 65 64 69 61 2e 63 6f 6d 0d 0a 41 ailymedia.com..A
00b0: 63 63 65 70 74 3a 20 2a 2f 2a 0d 0a 43 6f 6e 74 ccept: */*..Cont
00c0: 65 6e 74 2d 4c 65 6e 67 74 68 3a 20 32 39 0d 0a ent-Length: 29..
00d0: 43 6f 6e 74 65 6e 74 2d 54 79 70 65 3a 20 61 70 Content-Type: ap
00e0: 70 6c 69 63 61 74 69 6f 6e 2f 78 2d 77 77 77 2d plication/x-www-
00f0: 66 6f 72 6d 2d 75 72 6c 65 6e 63 6f 64 65 64 0d form-urlencoded.
0100: 0a 0d 0a                                        ...
=> Send data, 29 bytes (0x1d)
0000: 75 73 65 72 3d 63 68 6f 70 66 69 63 61 72 6f 26 user=chopficaro&
0010: 70 61 73 73 3d 6f 6d 67 74 6b 6b 79 62          pass=omgtkkyb
== Info: upload completely sent off: 29out of 29 bytes
<= Recv header, 17 bytes (0x11)
0000: 48 54 54 50 2f 31 2e 31 20 32 30 30 20 4f 4b 0d HTTP/1.1 200 OK.
0010: 0a                                              .
<= Recv header, 37 bytes (0x25)
0000: 44 61 74 65 3a 20 57 65 64 2c 20 30 36 20 4a 75 Date: Wed, 06 Ju
0010: 6e 20 32 30 31 32 20 31 38 3a 32 35 3a 33 38 20 n 2012 18:25:38 
0020: 47 4d 54 0d 0a                                  GMT..
<= Recv header, 16 bytes (0x10)
0000: 53 65 72 76 65 72 3a 20 41 70 61 63 68 65 0d 0a Server: Apache..
<= Recv header, 26 bytes (0x1a)
0000: 58 2d 50 6f 77 65 72 65 64 2d 42 79 3a 20 50 48 X-Powered-By: PH
0010: 50 2f 35 2e 32 2e 31 37 0d 0a                   P/5.2.17..
<= Recv header, 19 bytes (0x13)
0000: 43 6f 6e 6e 65 63 74 69 6f 6e 3a 20 63 6c 6f 73 Connection: clos
0010: 65 0d 0a                                        e..
<= Recv header, 28 bytes (0x1c)
0000: 54 72 61 6e 73 66 65 72 2d 45 6e 63 6f 64 69 6e Transfer-Encodin
0010: 67 3a 20 63 68 75 6e 6b 65 64 0d 0a             g: chunked..
<= Recv header, 25 bytes (0x19)
0000: 43 6f 6e 74 65 6e 74 2d 54 79 70 65 3a 20 74 65 Content-Type: te
0010: 78 74 2f 68 74 6d 6c 0d 0a                      xt/html..
<= Recv header, 2 bytes (0x2)
0000: 0d 0a                                           ..
<= Recv data, 6 bytes (0x6)
0000: 31 0d 0a 0a 0d 0a                               1.....
 
<= Recv data, 24 bytes (0x18)
0000: 31 32 0d 0a 63 6f 64 65 30 20 45 34 31 62 30 53 12..code0 E41b0S
0010: 37 79 5a 58 6f 0a 0d 0a                         7yZXo...
code0 E41b0S7yZXo
<= Recv data, 96 bytes (0x60)
0000: 35 61 0d 0a 63 6f 64 65 31 20 62 35 45 6f 38 36 5a..code1 b5Eo86
0010: 43 66 37 6c 38 0a 63 6f 64 65 32 20 55 33 4b 4a Cf7l8.code2 U3KJ
0020: 6b 4f 6d 78 54 41 41 0a 63 6f 64 65 33 20 73 2d kOmxTAA.code3 s-
0030: 71 71 71 66 51 48 71 55 6f 0a 63 6f 64 65 34 20 qqqfQHqUo.code4 
0040: 4c 6b 74 59 57 39 6b 57 5a 64 6f 0a 63 6f 64 65 LktYW9kWZdo.code
0050: 35 20 50 4a 43 6a 78 69 71 38 6e 73 30 0a 0d 0a 5 PJCjxiq8ns0...
code1 b5Eo86Cf7l8
code2 U3KJkOmxTAA
code3 s-qqqfQHqUo
code4 LktYW9kWZdo
code5 PJCjxiq8ns0
<= Recv data, 42 bytes (0x2a)
0000: 32 34 0d 0a 63 6f 64 65 36 20 7a 45 48 36 4d 4d 24..code6 zEH6MM
0010: 4a 75 6b 72 63 0a 63 6f 64 65 37 20 42 5f 35 56 Jukrc.code7 B_5V
0020: 76 56 37 7a 32 38 63 0a 0d 0a                   vV7z28c...
code6 zEH6MMJukrc
code7 B_5VvV7z28c
<= Recv data, 91 bytes (0x5b)
0000: 33 37 0d 0a 63 6f 64 65 38 20 4b 4a 61 7a 41 71 37..code8 KJazAq
0010: 50 50 7a 73 6b 0a 63 6f 64 65 39 20 47 4b 57 65 PPzsk.code9 GKWe
0020: 43 6c 47 79 67 5f 45 0a 63 6f 64 65 31 30 20 75 ClGyg_E.code10 u
0030: 59 70 51 6a 39 57 33 30 41 67 0a 0d 0a 31 33 0d YpQj9W30Ag...13.
0040: 0a 63 6f 64 65 31 31 20 61 49 58 71 47 6f 70 5a .code11 aIXqGopZ
0050: 6f 54 6b 0a 0d 0a 30 0d 0a 0d 0a                oTk...0....
code8 KJazAqPPzsk
code9 GKWeClGyg_E
code10 uYpQj9W30Ag
code11 aIXqGopZoTk
== Info: Closing connection #0

URLEncoder is for encoding URLs. You're encoding form data for an application/x-www-form-urlencoded POST. That's different! Compare the content of the POST I've copied above from curl with the String you've just posted.

ok well i tried not encoding it with os.write( rawData );
but it says no such method exists os.write( String );

You used OutputStream.write() with a String in your original code.