How do I make an http request using cookies on Android?

Question

I'd like to make an http request to a remote server while properly handling cookies (eg. storing cookies sent by the server, and sending those cookies when I make subsequent requests). It'd be nice to preserve any and all cookies, but really the only one I care about is the session cookie.

With java.net, it appears that the preferred way to do this is using java.net.CookieHandler (abstract base class) and java.net.CookieManager (concrete implementation). Android has java.net.CookieHandler, but it does not seem to have java.net.CookieManager.

I could code it all by hand by inspecting http headers, but it seems like there must be an easier way.

What is the proper way to make http requests on Android while preserving cookies?

Just as a note more than two years later: `java.net.CookieManager` is now supported in Android since version 2.3 (API level 9): http://developer.android.com/reference/java/net/CookieManager.html — Slauma, Sep 04 '11 at 12:41
Have you tried [org.apache.http.cookie](http://developer.android.com/reference/org/apache/http/cookie/package-summary.html)? — Jack L., Mar 24 '09 at 19:37

score 94 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 17 '20 at 09:50

It turns out that Google Android ships with Apache HttpClient 4.0, and I was able to figure out how to do it using the "Form based logon" example in the HttpClient docs:

https://github.com/apache/httpcomponents-client/blob/master/httpclient5/src/test/java/org/apache/hc/client5/http/examples/ClientFormLogin.java

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.NameValuePair;
import org.apache.http.client.entity.UrlEncodedFormEntity;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.cookie.Cookie;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.message.BasicNameValuePair;
import org.apache.http.protocol.HTTP;

/**
 * A example that demonstrates how HttpClient APIs can be used to perform
 * form-based logon.
 */
public class ClientFormLogin {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        DefaultHttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();

        HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet("https://portal.sun.com/portal/dt");

        HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
        HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

        System.out.println("Login form get: " + response.getStatusLine());
        if (entity != null) {
            entity.consumeContent();
        }
        System.out.println("Initial set of cookies:");
        List<Cookie> cookies = httpclient.getCookieStore().getCookies();
        if (cookies.isEmpty()) {
            System.out.println("None");
        } else {
            for (int i = 0; i < cookies.size(); i++) {
                System.out.println("- " + cookies.get(i).toString());
            }
        }

        HttpPost httpost = new HttpPost("https://portal.sun.com/amserver/UI/Login?" +
                "org=self_registered_users&" +
                "goto=/portal/dt&" +
                "gotoOnFail=/portal/dt?error=true");

        List <NameValuePair> nvps = new ArrayList <NameValuePair>();
        nvps.add(new BasicNameValuePair("IDToken1", "username"));
        nvps.add(new BasicNameValuePair("IDToken2", "password"));

        httpost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nvps, HTTP.UTF_8));

        response = httpclient.execute(httpost);
        entity = response.getEntity();

        System.out.println("Login form get: " + response.getStatusLine());
        if (entity != null) {
            entity.consumeContent();
        }

        System.out.println("Post logon cookies:");
        cookies = httpclient.getCookieStore().getCookies();
        if (cookies.isEmpty()) {
            System.out.println("None");
        } else {
            for (int i = 0; i < cookies.size(); i++) {
                System.out.println("- " + cookies.get(i).toString());
            }
        }

        // When HttpClient instance is no longer needed, 
        // shut down the connection manager to ensure
        // immediate deallocation of all system resources
        httpclient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();        
    }
}

may I know how to set the cookies to the Request Url to check the session whether valid or not? — Praveen, Sep 23 '10 at 11:36
THANK YOU for introducing me to BasicNameValuePairs. They helped me. — bhekman, Jun 13 '12 at 00:23
I get `The method getCookieStore() is undefined for the type HttpClient`, Do I have to change to `List cookies = ((AbstractHttpClient) httpclient).getCookieStore().getCookies();` ? Cause if I do, it works. — Francisco Corrales Morales, May 22 '14 at 14:34
@Praveen Take a look here to save Cookies: http://stackoverflow.com/a/5989115/2615737 — Francisco Corrales Morales, May 22 '14 at 14:49
@emmby: unfortunateley android deprecated apache module. So right now his answer is not helpful .Is there another way to do this with HttpURLConnection? — Milad Faridnia, Apr 12 '16 at 05:19
@emmby What if the httpOnly flag is set to true? Still can we store cookie and send in subsequent request? — Arjun Nayak, Feb 01 '17 at 08:05

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 11 '14 at 16:45

A cookie is just another HTTP header. You can always set it while making a HTTP call with the apache library or with HTTPUrlConnection. Either way you should be able to read and set HTTP cookies in this fashion.

You can read this article for more information.

I can share my peace of code to demonstrate how easy you can make it.

public static String getServerResponseByHttpGet(String url, String token) {

        try {
            HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
            HttpGet get = new HttpGet(url);
            get.setHeader("Cookie", "PHPSESSID=" + token + ";");
            Log.d(TAG, "Try to open => " + url);

            HttpResponse httpResponse = client.execute(get);
            int connectionStatusCode = httpResponse.getStatusLine().getStatusCode();
            Log.d(TAG, "Connection code: " + connectionStatusCode + " for request: " + url);

            HttpEntity entity = httpResponse.getEntity();
            String serverResponse = EntityUtils.toString(entity);
            Log.d(TAG, "Server response for request " + url + " => " + serverResponse);

            if(!isStatusOk(connectionStatusCode))
                return null;

            return serverResponse;

        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        return null;
    }

This help me a lot , +1 get.setHeader("Cookie", "PHPSESSID=" + token + ";"); do the work — Oussaki, Mar 28 '15 at 18:54
@Hesam : unfortunatley android deprecated apache module. So right now his answer is not helpful .Is there another way to do this with HttpURLConnection? — Milad Faridnia, Apr 12 '16 at 05:16

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Since Apache library is deprecated, for those who want to use HttpURLConncetion , I wrote this class to send Get and Post Request with the help of this answer:

public class WebService {

static final String COOKIES_HEADER = "Set-Cookie";
static final String COOKIE = "Cookie";

static CookieManager msCookieManager = new CookieManager();

private static int responseCode;

public static String sendPost(String requestURL, String urlParameters) {

    URL url;
    String response = "";
    try {
        url = new URL(requestURL);

        HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
        conn.setReadTimeout(15000);
        conn.setConnectTimeout(15000);
        conn.setRequestMethod("POST");

        conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");

        if (msCookieManager.getCookieStore().getCookies().size() > 0) {
            //While joining the Cookies, use ',' or ';' as needed. Most of the server are using ';'
            conn.setRequestProperty(COOKIE ,
                    TextUtils.join(";", msCookieManager.getCookieStore().getCookies()));
        }

        conn.setDoInput(true);
        conn.setDoOutput(true);

        OutputStream os = conn.getOutputStream();
        BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(
                new OutputStreamWriter(os, "UTF-8"));

        if (urlParameters != null) {
            writer.write(urlParameters);
        }
        writer.flush();
        writer.close();
        os.close();

        Map<String, List<String>> headerFields = conn.getHeaderFields();
        List<String> cookiesHeader = headerFields.get(COOKIES_HEADER);

        if (cookiesHeader != null) {
            for (String cookie : cookiesHeader) {
                msCookieManager.getCookieStore().add(null, HttpCookie.parse(cookie).get(0));
            }
        }

        setResponseCode(conn.getResponseCode());

        if (getResponseCode() == HttpsURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {

            String line;
            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
            while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
                response += line;
            }
        } else {
            response = "";
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return response;
}


// HTTP GET request
public static String sendGet(String url) throws Exception {

    URL obj = new URL(url);
    HttpURLConnection con = (HttpURLConnection) obj.openConnection();

    // optional default is GET
    con.setRequestMethod("GET");

    //add request header 
    con.setRequestProperty("User-Agent", "Mozilla");
    /*
    * https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16150089/how-to-handle-cookies-in-httpurlconnection-using-cookiemanager
    * Get Cookies form cookieManager and load them to connection:
     */
    if (msCookieManager.getCookieStore().getCookies().size() > 0) {
        //While joining the Cookies, use ',' or ';' as needed. Most of the server are using ';'
        con.setRequestProperty(COOKIE ,
                TextUtils.join(";", msCookieManager.getCookieStore().getCookies()));
    }

    /*
    * https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16150089/how-to-handle-cookies-in-httpurlconnection-using-cookiemanager
    * Get Cookies form response header and load them to cookieManager:
     */
    Map<String, List<String>> headerFields = con.getHeaderFields();
    List<String> cookiesHeader = headerFields.get(COOKIES_HEADER);
    if (cookiesHeader != null) {
        for (String cookie : cookiesHeader) {
            msCookieManager.getCookieStore().add(null, HttpCookie.parse(cookie).get(0));
        }
    }


    int responseCode = con.getResponseCode();

    BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(con.getInputStream()));
    String inputLine;
    StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer();

    while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
        response.append(inputLine);
    }
    in.close();

    return response.toString();
}

public static void setResponseCode(int responseCode) {
    WebService.responseCode = responseCode;
    Log.i("Milad", "responseCode" + responseCode);
}


public static int getResponseCode() {
    return responseCode;
}
}

Nice Class Milad ! It helped me a lot ! Now, I was wondering, if I wanted to save the cookie for it to be available if the user killed the app and launched it again, what exactly should I store and where (how) — Mouradif, Aug 02 '16 at 10:17

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 24 '09 at 20:01

I do not work with google android but I think you'll find it's not that hard to get this working. If you read the relevant bit of the java tutorial you'll see that a registered cookiehandler gets callbacks from the HTTP code.

So if there is no default (have you checked if CookieHandler.getDefault() really is null?) then you can simply extend CookieHandler, implement put/get and make it work pretty much automatically. Be sure to consider concurrent access and the like if you go that route.

edit: Obviously you'd have to set an instance of your custom implementation as the default handler through CookieHandler.setDefault() to receive the callbacks. Forgot to mention that.

How do I make an http request using cookies on Android?

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