How do I decode URL in Android Application?

Question

I am trying to write an Android app, and it's supposed to retrieve the content of a CDN URL, which are always URLEncoded. For the sake of example, I am using a youtube URL, because they are formatted the same way.

    public static String getText(String url) throws Exception {
    URL website = new URL(url);
    URLConnection connection = website.openConnection();
    BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
                            new InputStreamReader(
                                connection.getInputStream()));

    StringBuilder response = new StringBuilder();
    String inputLine;

    while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) 
        response.append(inputLine);

    in.close();

    return response.toString();
}

/**
 * @param args the command line arguments
 */
public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
    String page = getText("http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4");
    String[] temper = page.split("flashvars=\"");
    page = temper[1];
    temper = page.split("\"     allowscriptaccess=\"always\"");
    page = temper[0];
    temper = page.split("url_encoded_fmt_stream_map=");
    page = temper[1];
    temper = page.split("fallback_host");
    page = temper[0];
    page = page.replaceAll("url%3D", ""); **
    page = URLDecoder.decode(page, "UTF-8"); **
    page = page.replaceAll("hd720&", "hd720"); **
    System.out.println(page);
    
        // TODO code application logic here
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(app.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    }
}

The code that is starred is (probably) where it is giving me trouble. The system.out.println outputs

http%3A%2F%2Fo-o.preferred.ord08s01.v3.lscache1.c.youtube.com%2Fvideoplayback%3Fsparams%3Did%252Cexpire%252Cip%252Cipbits%252Citag%252Csource%252Cratebypass%252Ccp%26fexp%3D909708%252C907322%252C908613%26itag%3D44%26ip%3D99.0.0.0%26signature%3D2889261E861AF0E724519652960C1BF31DA5BABD.A621580215B6416151470893E2D07BDE7AFF081E%26sver%3D3%26ratebypass%3Dyes%26source%3Dyoutube%26expire%3D1327316557%26key%3Dyt1%26ipbits%3D8%26cp%3DU0hRTFNMVF9KUUNOMV9LRlhGOlNaUzBvTG1tdEp2%26id%3D407dbe4c6525c2ee&quality=large&

I want that URL decoded in a way that I can wrap it in a method to download it.

I have already tried the string.replaceAll() method. In short, It doesn't work

Please help me regarding this.

The Android version of [URLDecoder](http://developer.android.com/reference/java/net/URLDecoder.html). — Marvin Pinto, Jan 23 '12 at 04:52

score 116 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 21 '22 at 16:23

116

The string you have there is URL encoded.

String afterDecode = URLDecoder.decode(stringvalue, "UTF-8");

edited Jul 21 '22 at 16:23

Boken

4,825
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42

answered Jan 23 '12 at 04:59

Kushan

10,657
4
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10

`Uri.decode(String)` (android.net.Uri) – hmac Nov 07 '19 at 11:01
@hmac, your answer is more android related and should be the correct one. Thanks – amira Apr 19 '20 at 09:33

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 23 '12 at 04:42

7

using URLDecoder

answered Jan 23 '12 at 04:42

Aravind Yarram

78,777
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327

How do I decode URL in Android Application?

2 Answers2

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