Problems with HTTPclient and cookies

Question

I am currently working on a mobile app that is going to communicate with a RESTfull server over the HTTP-protocol. For this I have made a working code and got the communication working.

For the server to identify users I wanted to use cookies (some kind of sessions cookie). So I have started out with the two following helper-methods to create a HttpClient and a context (that includes my cookie).

// Gets a standard client - set to HTTP1.1
private HttpClient getClient() {
    HttpParams params = new BasicHttpParams();
    params.setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.PROTOCOL_VERSION, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);
    return new DefaultHttpClient(params);
}

// Gets the context with cookies to be used. This is to make each user unique
private HttpContext getHttpContext(String server) {
    CookieStore cookieStore = new BasicCookieStore();
    BasicClientCookie cookie = new BasicClientCookie("X-ANDROID-USER", "some name");
    cookie.setDomain(server);
    cookie.setPath("/");
    cookie.setVersion(1);

    cookieStore.addCookie(cookie);
    HttpContext localContext = new BasicHttpContext();
    localContext.setAttribute(ClientContext.COOKIE_STORE, cookieStore);
    return localContext;
}

I then connect to the server using the following (read function). That basically takes the Client and Conext generate by the last two helper methods and do a normal GET-request.
// Connects to the restfull server and returns the return value (get request)

    private String restfullRead(URI uri, String server)
    {
        // Sets up the different objects needed to read a HttpRequest
        HttpClient client = this.getClient();
        HttpGet request = new HttpGet();
        request.setURI(uri);
        HttpContext context = this.getHttpContext(server);

        // Connects to the server and reads response
        try {
          HttpResponse response = client.execute(request, context);
          reader.close();
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
        return "";
    }

When I run this to my server I get the following request.
GET /info/1 HTTP/1.1
Host: 192.168.0.191:8080
Connection: Keep-Alive

As you can see, this does not include any cookies. Thats why I wonder, why arent the cookie made in "getHttpContext" sent in the request?

Why dont you send the client app an unique token. This token identifies the user and will be send with every single request to the server? — Basic Coder, Mar 20 '12 at 15:53
Maybe a bit unclear, the code was a bit simplefied - i try to sent a cookie with the name "X-ANDROID-USER" with the value "some name" so the server. When I get this working, i will change "some name" into a unique-value. — Etse, Mar 20 '12 at 15:56

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

0

This answer will help you:

How do I make an http request using cookies on Android?

// EDIT

1.) Your Android app sends it's unique NFC-Tag to the server.

2.) The server create a new unique token and builds a releation beween the token and the NFC-Tag

3.) Whenever your app is sending a request, send the unique NFC-Tag too.

4.) The server will check the NFC-Tag and searchs the token and now your device is identified

Sending custom header:

HttpGet get = new HttpGet(getURL);
get.addHeader("NFC", "YOUR NFC-TAG");
get.addHeader("Some more header", "more infos");

edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

Community

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answered Mar 20 '12 at 16:07

Basic Coder

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Hi. Thanks for trying to help. I have read through it and it is different from what I am trying to do. He is doing a post-request to the server and retrieves the cookies sent back. While I want to create a new cookie on my android app (with a unique identifier, which is read from an NFC-tag). I would like to send this tag as a cookie. Do I actually need to send a post-request to the server and make the server set the cookie? – Etse Mar 20 '12 at 16:33
Which is what I am tryong to do. I have even made the cookides and added into the HttpContext. And when I do the request I tell it to use this context. - Yet, the header is never actually sent. – Etse Mar 20 '12 at 16:50
You can send the NFC-Tag as GET Parameter or as Header. GET Parameter should be clear. I will post an example to send a header. I'm going to edit the post above – Basic Coder Mar 20 '12 at 16:52
Hey. Thanks for the help, This did not really fix the problem but it should work. Thank sfor the help atleast, I think I will just stick with sending them as header-fields :) – Etse Mar 20 '12 at 16:56

Problems with HTTPclient and cookies

1 Answers1