Usage of URL and URLConnection classes in Java

Question

I was looking for an easy way to do a GET request given a URL, port and path. I came across this method which works fine but I started wondering why it is designed to be like this verbose. Why isn't it better for the URL class to provide a get() method that just does steps 2,3 and 4 behind the scenes?

    URL url = new URL("http", host, port, path);
    URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
    conn.setDoInput(true);
    conn.connect();

Not sure what you are asking about. Where do you see redundant data and/or steps? — PM 77-1
– PM 77-1, Commented Sep 5, 2014 at 3:51
I was thinking along the lines of having a url.get() method that includes: URLConnection conn = url.openConnection(); conn.setDoInput(true); conn.connect(); — user2399453
– user2399453, Commented Sep 5, 2014 at 4:00
You are actually asking why the API is not more high level than it already is. This is just the way it was designed; having a higher level API would prevent developers from accessing many other options that are available now. You can still write your own wrapper ! — personne3000
– personne3000, Commented Sep 5, 2014 at 4:06

chenzhongpu · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-05 07:37:08Z

1

Indeed, the Apache HttpClient is a better replacement of URLConnection. The HttpClient has been integrated into Android API and it is more friendly to developer. More can be seen at http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/tutorial/html/fundamentals.html

answered Sep 5, 2014 at 7:37

chenzhongpu

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nablex · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-05 06:14:05Z

0

url.openStream() bypasses the need for a self-managed URLConnection object.

answered Sep 5, 2014 at 6:14

nablex

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