open a file from a website in java

Question

Specifically I am trying to open a file from SharePoint, but it's really just a website, and I have the proper access so that' not an issue. I am trying to use the desktop api in java to open it, but it gives me an error message "File does not exist!" Does desktop only work locally? If it does work for websites, what am I doing wrong?

new code based on stephen c's suggesttions, it still does not work however. What am I missing?

public class ParseURL {
        public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
            try {
            URL url = new URL("http://wss/is/sites/itsd/network/Remote%20Access/Soft%20Tokens/Your%20new%20RSA%20Soft%20Token%20for%20Android%20-%20INC%20XXXXXXX.oft"); 
            InputStream is = url.openStream(); 
            is.close();
            } catch(IOException err) { 
              }
        }
    }

old code

 public static void main(){

        try {

            File oftFile = new File("http://wss/is/sites/itsd/network/Remote%20Access/Soft%20Tokens/Your%20new%20RSA%20Soft%20Token%20for%20Android%20-%20INC%20XXXXXXX.oft
");
            if (oftFile.exists()) {

                if (Desktop.isDesktopSupported()) {
                    Desktop.getDesktop().open(oftFile);
                } else {
                    System.out.println("Awt Desktop is not supported!");
                }

            } else {
                System.out.println("File does not exist!");
            }

            System.out.println("Done");

          } catch (Exception ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
          }
    }
    }

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

1

Try using HttpURLConnection.

This is a web address and you need to connect to the url and read the contents from the stream you get from the connection.

See Usage here

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

1
1

answered Jun 29 '12 at 03:41

Nrj

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so can you show me an example of how I would use that in my code, please! – jerhynsoen Jun 29 '12 at 03:43
@jerhynsoen - see my answer for a link to the tutorials that will explain it all. – Stephen C Jun 29 '12 at 04:03

Stephen C · Answer 2 · 2012-06-29T07:27:57.063

0

The File class is for representing the names / paths of files that live on a local / locally mounted file system. You've given it a URL, and that is not a file or pathname.

You should be using the URL or URI class, and attempting to read it by opening a connection ...

Rather that giving you potted examples to cut and paste, I recommend that you read the relevant parts of the Java Tutorials.

so i read the tutorials but how would that open a file from the url? it's not just that I am trying to read the data but I want to open the oft file in outlook.

Ah ... so by "open" you mean "launch a separate window with a viewer for the file".

In that case, your code is the right approach BUT you can't use File.exists() to test if a URL exists. If all you have is an "http:", you need to attempt to open the file using URL.openStream() as per the example code in the tutorial, and interpret the exception as telling whether or not the file exists. (A HTTP 404 response turns into a FileNotFoundException but other IOExceptions are possible too.) Don't forget to close() the stream or you code will leak file descriptors.

In fact, you are probably better of not trying to test if the URL exists. Just attempt to "open" it and diagnose the exceptions.

edited Jun 29 '12 at 07:27

answered Jun 29 '12 at 03:58

Stephen C

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so i read the tutorials but how would that open a file from the url? it's not just that I am trying to read the data but I want to open the oft file in outlook. – jerhynsoen Jun 29 '12 at 04:22
@jerhynsoen: If you want to open up the file, you will need to set the content type in the connection header. This should make it work. – Nrj Jun 29 '12 at 04:40
@nrj, care to show me an example of how I would do it in my program? – jerhynsoen Jun 29 '12 at 04:48
@stephen for me i need to see the example, the tutorials... very nice actually, but if i don't have a working solution to mess with, it's harder for me to learn it for some reason. – jerhynsoen Jun 29 '12 at 04:54
@stephen, i am using the url.openstream() but it is not opening the file. – jerhynsoen Jun 29 '12 at 16:15
@jerhynsoen - Please read my updated answer again. I didn't say that you should use `url.openstream()` to open the file. I said you should use it to test that that file exists. Or better still don't even try to test that the file exists at all. – Stephen C Jun 30 '12 at 00:59

open a file from a website in java

2 Answers2