How to download a file from a protected web folder in Android App?

Question

I'm looking for some help on how to download an image file from a password protected folder to my Android App. The code I have is using URLConnection along with getInputStream/BufferedInputStream but I don't see how to get the username/password authentication in there. I see that HttpClient has UsernamePasswordCredentials -- but I don't know how to download a file using HttpClient so that isn't helping me much.

Here's the code I found so far, how would I download a file using this?

public class ClientAuthentication {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        DefaultHttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
        try {
            httpclient.getCredentialsProvider().setCredentials(
                    new AuthScope("localhost", 443),
                    new UsernamePasswordCredentials("username", "password"));

            HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet("https://localhost/protected");

            System.out.println("executing request" + httpget.getRequestLine());
            HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

            System.out.println("----------------------------------------");
            System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
            if (entity != null) {
                System.out.println("Response content length: " + entity.getContentLength());
            }
            EntityUtils.consume(entity);
        } finally {
            // When HttpClient instance is no longer needed,
            // shut down the connection manager to ensure
            // immediate deallocation of all system resources
            httpclient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
        }
    }
}

Or, I have this code for downloading file -- how would I add credentials to this:

http://www.helloandroid.com/tutorials/how-download-fileimage-url-your-device

Thanks!

EDIT: well, not getting much help here. I found this answer which I'm going to try and rework for my purposes: Download a file with DefaultHTTPClient and preemptive authentication

Have you tried to put it into the URL like `https://user:password@host.domain/page/` ? — ott--, Sep 09 '11 at 14:07
Yes I did, it gives me file io exception. That worked in iOS though! — Alan Moore, Sep 09 '11 at 14:11
Good question, I'm starting to think that this is actually a file i/o issue -- I may have been too trusting with the code example I used! But I like using the HttpClient Authentication code better than the inline authentication so I'm seeing if I can get that to work. — Alan Moore, Sep 09 '11 at 15:42

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 09 '11 at 15:45

Well, this is the code I've come up with, seems to work. I'm posting it since I had so much trouble finding code like this anywhere on the web. I welcome suggestions on how to improve it :)

public void downloadHTTPC(Activity act, String imageURL, String fileName) {
    DefaultHttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    try {
        String pathDir = act.getExternalFilesDir(null).toString() + "/" + fileName;
        File file = new File(pathDir);
        long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        httpclient.getCredentialsProvider().setCredentials(
                new AuthScope(null, -1),
                new UsernamePasswordCredentials("user", "password"));

        HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet(IMGURL + imageURL);

        System.out.println("executing request" + httpget.getRequestLine());
        HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
        HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

        System.out.println("----------------------------------------");
        System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());

        if (entity != null) {
            System.out.println("Response content length: " + entity.getContentLength());
            InputStream is = entity.getContent();

            BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(is);

            /*
             * Read bytes to the Buffer until there is nothing more to read(-1).
             */
            ByteArrayBuffer baf = new ByteArrayBuffer(50);
            int current = 0;
            while ((current = bis.read()) != -1) {
                baf.append((byte) current);
            }

            /* Convert the Bytes read to a Stream. */
            FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(file);
            fos.write(baf.toByteArray());
            fos.close();
            Log.d("ImageManager", "download ready in"
                    + ((System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime) / 1000)
                    + " sec");
        }

        //EntityUtils.consume(entity);
    } catch (IOException e) {
        Log.d("ImageManager", "Error: " + e);

    } finally {
        // When HttpClient instance is no longer needed,
        // shut down the connection manager to ensure
        // immediate deallocation of all system resources
        httpclient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
    }
}

How to download a file from a protected web folder in Android App?

1 Answers1