Get Website text from URL into String (Android)

Question

first of all I have to say that I'm a beginner in Android programing and not very experienced in general programing at all. But now I decided to make a little app for my private use.

In my app I need to get some Text from a given URL into a string. I found some methods on the web and personalized them a bit. But there is something wrong because when I run the app with the Android Eclipse emulator it says "Unfortunately, xxx_app has stopped.".

Here is my code:

    public String getURLtext(String zielurl) throws IllegalStateException, IOException{
    String meineurl = zielurl;

    HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpContext localContext = new BasicHttpContext();
    HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(meineurl);
    HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpGet, localContext);
    String result = "";

    BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
        new InputStreamReader(
          response.getEntity().getContent()
        )
      );

    String line = null;
    while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null){
      result += line + "\n";
    }

    return result;          
}

And this is the method where I want to show the output string in my EditText text1.

public void test(View view) throws InterruptedException, ExecutionException, IllegalStateException, IOException {

EditText text1 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.textfeld);
String teststring = getURLtext("http://ephemeraltech.com/demo/android_tutorial20.php");
text1.setText(teststring);


}

I would be happy if anyone can help me with this.

Thanks!

When you get an error, always look at the logcat which should show the cause. If you can't see that window, in Eclipse use Window -> ShowView -> Logcat. One issue, as already answered, is network on main thread. Having addressed that, if you have further errors please update your question with the logcat output. — NigelK, Feb 03 '14 at 23:16

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

Your code looks good until you get the HTTPResponse, the bottom part (response to string) can be optimized a lot. It's also worth noticing that Android won't let you to do network operation on the main thread, so please consider using an AsyncTask to execute your http GET operation.

public String getURLtext(String zielurl) throws IllegalStateException, IOException

{
    String result = ""; // default empty string
    try
    {
        String meineurl = zielurl;

    HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpContext localContext = new BasicHttpContext();
    HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(meineurl);
    HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpGet, localContext);

    InputStream is = response.getEntity().getContent();
    result = inputStreamToString(is).toString();
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
       // do some Log.e here
    }
    finally
    {
        return result;          
    }
}

// Fast Implementation
private StringBuilder inputStreamToString(InputStream is) {
    String line = "";
    StringBuilder total = new StringBuilder();

    // Wrap a BufferedReader around the InputStream
    BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));

    // Read response until the end
    try {
        while ((line = rd.readLine()) != null) { 
            total.append(line); 
        }
    } catch (IOException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    // Return full string
    return total;
}

Thanks for your fast answer! I copied the code and pasted it into my Android Eclipse project and tried to test it again. This time there is no error but when I click the button the text field remains blank and nothing happens. — Hayzu27, Feb 03 '14 at 23:24
What if you add ex.printStackTrace(); in the catch block? Have you tried an AsyncTask as I suggested? — elbuild, Feb 03 '14 at 23:35

Get Website text from URL into String (Android)

1 Answers1