Apache HttpClient in Java, instream.toString = org.apache.http.conn.EofSensorInputStream

Question

I get a page with Apache HttpClient, and I want to save the server response server to a string so that I can then manipulate that string and print it to the console.

Unfortunately, when I run this method, I return this message:

17:52:01,862  INFO Driver:53 - fetchPage STARTING
17:52:07,580  INFO Driver:73 - fetchPage ENDING, took 5716
org.apache.http.conn.EofSensorInputStream@5e0eb724

FetchPage class:

public String fetchPage(String part){
    log.info("fetchPage STARTING");
    long start = System.currentTimeMillis();

    String reply;

    String searchurl = URL + URL_SEARCH_BASE + part + URL_SEARCH_TAIL;

    HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet(searchurl);
    HttpResponse response;
    try {
        response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
        HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
        if (entity != null) {
            InputStream instream = entity.getContent();
            int l;
            byte[] tmp = new byte[2048];
            while ((l = instream.read(tmp)) != -1) {
            }
            long elapsedTimeMillis = System.currentTimeMillis()-start;
            log.info("fetchPage ENDING, took " + elapsedTimeMillis);
            reply = instream.toString();
            System.out.println(reply);
            return reply;
        }
    } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return null;
}

Answer 1

You call toString in InputStream after it has already read. You need to create your own string from byte arrays. An easier way to get the version of String content is to use EntityUtils.toString (HttpEntity)

The exact implicator will look like this:

import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

public String fetchPage(String part){
    log.info("fetchPage STARTING");
    long start = System.currentTimeMillis();

    String reply;

    String searchurl = URL + URL_SEARCH_BASE + part + URL_SEARCH_TAIL;

    HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet(searchurl);
    HttpResponse response;
    try {
        response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
        HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
        if (entity != null) {
            return EntityUtils.toString(entity);
        }
    } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return null;
}