How to send POST request using HTTPURLConnection with JSON data

Question

I have a RESTful API that I can call by doing the following:

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"url":"http://www.example.com"}' http://www.example.com/post

In Java, when I print out the received request data from the cURL, I correctly get the following data:

Log: Data grabbed for POST data: {"url":"http://www.example.com/url"}

But when I send a POST request via Java using HttpClient/HttpPost, I am getting poorly formatted data that does not allow me to grab the key-value from the JSON.

Log: Data grabbed for POST data: url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Furl

In Java, I am doing this:

        HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
        HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("http://www.example.com/post/");

        List<BasicNameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<BasicNameValuePair>();

        BasicNameValuePair nvp1 = new BasicNameValuePair("url", "http://www.example.com/url);

        nameValuePairs.add(nvp1);

        httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));
        HttpResponse httpresponse = httpclient.execute(httppost);

How do I make it so that the request from Java is similar to cURL in terms of how the data is sent?

I know little about HttpClient/HttpPost, but do they send the data as a JSON string? Don't you have to set the content type in the header either? — Leo
– Leo, Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 21:36

John Bollinger · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-10 20:54:23Z

2

The data you present as coming from the Java client are URL-encoded. You appear to specifically request that by using a UrlEncodedFormEntity. It is not essential for the body of a POST request to be URL-encoded, so if you don't want that then use a more appropriate HttpEntity implementation.

In fact, if you want to convert generic name/value pairs to a JSON-format request body, as it seems you do, then you probably need either to use a JSON-specific HttpEntity implementation or to use a plainer implementation that allows you to format the body directly.

answered Oct 10, 2014 at 20:54

John Bollinger

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