Java constructing an http request message

Question

I asked a similar question in another thread but I think I'm just having trouble getting the syntax right at this point. I basically want to open a socket in Java, send a HTTP request message to get the header fields of a specific web page. My program looks like this so far:

            String server = "www.w3.org"; 
            int port = 80; 
            String uri = "/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec5.html#sec5.1"

            Socket socket = new Socket(server, port); 

            PrintStream output = new PrintStream(socket.getOutputStream()); 
            BufferedReader socketInput = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));

            output.println("HEAD " + uri + " HTTP/1.1");

            //String response = ""; 
            String line = ""; 
            while((line = socketInput.readLine()) != null){
                System.out.println(line);  
            }

            socketInput.close();
            socket.close();

It doesn't really work. Or it doesn't work for all websites. If someone could just tell me the immediate problems with what I'm doing, that would be great. Thank you!

palacsint · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-30 19:57:32Z

2

Change

output.println("HEAD " + uri + " HTTP/1.1");

to

output.println("HEAD " + uri + " HTTP/1.1");
output.println("Host: " + server);
output.println();

You have to send the Host header because usually there are more than one virtual host on one IP address. If you use HTTP/1.0 it works without the Host header.

edited Sep 30, 2011 at 19:57

answered Sep 30, 2011 at 19:51

palacsint

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:55:39Z

1

I would use some higher-level component, like HttpURLConnection (see here) or apache http components.

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:55

CommunityBot

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answered Sep 30, 2011 at 19:50

Bozho

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1 Comment

Cuthbert Over a year ago

That was suggested to me, but I'd like to see if this will actually work.

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