How do I manage cookies with HttpClient in Android and/or Java?

Question

I am trying to login to a site and maintain that session/cookie so that the server will recognize my login, but I am struggling to figure out a way of extracting the cookie from the response and setting into a request to maintain my login. I'm wondering if I should go about taking the header "Set-Cookie" or using a CookieStore. Any help is greatly appreciated. Here is my code that I have, with comments where I think the getHeader/getCookie methods would go.

public class Http
{
DefaultHttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpGet request;
HttpEntity entity;
HttpResponse response;
HttpPost post;
CookieStore cookieStore = new BasicCookieStore();
HttpContext localContext = new BasicHttpContext();

public static void setContext()
{
    localContext.setAttribute(ClientContext.COOKIE_STORE, cookieStore);
}

public static void getPage(String url) throws Exception
{
    request = new HttpGet(url);
    response = client.execute(request, localContext);
    PARSER.preParse(url, response);
}

public static HttpResponse postPage(List<NameValuePair> params, String host, String action) throws Exception
{
    post = new HttpPost(host + action);
    post.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(params, HTTP.UTF_8));

    response = client.execute(post, localContext);

    entity = response.getEntity();
    if(entity != null)
    {
        entity.consumeContent();
    }

    return response;
}


public void destoyHttp()
{
    client.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
}
}

In hopes of others better understanding my confusion am adding code that I know DOES work and maintains a session but when I tried to move the code into my actual application it broke somewhere down the line.

public class HttpClientTest extends Activity{

DefaultHttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpGet request;
HttpEntity entity;
List<Cookie> cookies;
HttpResponse response;
HttpPost post;

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    try {
        getRequest();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        Log.d("My Activity", "Failed");
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

public void getRequest() throws Exception
{
    final String TAG = "MyActivity";
    request = new HttpGet("http://gc.gamestotal.com/i.cfm?p=login&se=4");
    response = client.execute(request);

    String action = "i.cfm?&1028&p=login&se=4";
    String yourServer = "http://gc.gamestotal.com/";
    post = new HttpPost(yourServer + action);

    List<NameValuePair> params = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
    params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("nic", "myusername"));
    params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("password", "mypassword"));
    params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("server", "4"));

    post.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(params, HTTP.UTF_8));


    response = client.execute(post);
    entity = response.getEntity();

    if(entity != null){
        entity.consumeContent();
    }

    request = new HttpGet("http://gc.gamestotal.com/i.cfm?f=com_empire&cm=3");

    response = client.execute(request);

    if(entity != null)
    {
        entity.consumeContent();
    }    

}

}

I know for a fact it works, and you can see that in this code I consumeContent() but adding that to the top code didn't seem to make a difference so I left it out. Any Ideas?

Edit: I am still unable to get the code working in keeping a session going. I am posting the cookies from my current code, along with the cookies of the second code that is working. Perhaps someone will notice an issue, I certainly do not.

08-31 06:53:50.318: VERBOSE/SFGC(496): - [version: 0][name: CFID][value: 26651316][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:53:50.329: VERBOSE/SFGC(496): - [version: 0][name: CFTOKEN][value: 96917381][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:53:50.329: VERBOSE/SFGC(496): - [version: 0][name: CFCLIENT_SFGC_106Y][value: CFTOKEN2%3D735125416524430%23COUNTRY%3D56%23DOWNLOADFLAG%3D0%23OCHAT%3D1%23PM%5FDATE%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A53%3A45%27%7D%23REGION%3D3%23SCREEN%3D800%23S%5FGC%5FIMAGELOC%3Di%2Fw%2F%23TIMEZONE%3D%2D600%23][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:53:50.339: VERBOSE/SFGC(496): - [version: 0][name: CFGLOBALS][value: HITCOUNT%3D2%23LASTVISIT%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A53%3A45%27%7D%23TIMECREATED%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A53%3A39%27%7D%23][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]

08-31 06:53:51.938: VERBOSE/SFGC(496): - [version: 0][name: CFID][value: 26651316][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:53:51.938: VERBOSE/SFGC(496): - [version: 0][name: CFTOKEN][value: 96917381][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:53:51.938: VERBOSE/SFGC(496): - [version: 0][name: CFCLIENT_SFGC_106Y][value: CFTOKEN2%3D735125416524430%23COUNTRY%3D56%23DOWNLOADFLAG%3D0%23OCHAT%3D1%23PM%5FDATE%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A53%3A45%27%7D%23REGION%3D3%23SCREEN%3D800%23S%5FGC%5FIMAGELOC%3Di%2Fw%2F%23TIMEZONE%3D%2D600%23][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:53:51.948: VERBOSE/SFGC(496): - [version: 0][name: CFGLOBALS][value: HITCOUNT%3D3%23LASTVISIT%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A53%3A46%27%7D%23TIMECREATED%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A53%3A39%27%7D%23][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]


08-31 06:52:41.628: DEBUG/MyActivity(469): - [version: 0][name: CFID][value: 26651274][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:52:41.638: DEBUG/MyActivity(469): - [version: 0][name: CFTOKEN][value: 58361320][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:52:41.638: DEBUG/MyActivity(469): - [version: 0][name: CFCLIENT_SFGC_106Y][value: CFTOKEN2%3D735125815099420%23COUNTRY%3D56%23DOWNLOADFLAG%3D0%23OCHAT%3D1%23PM%5FDATE%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A52%3A36%27%7D%23REGION%3D3%23SCREEN%3D800%23S%5FGC%5FIMAGELOC%3Di%2Fw%2F%23TIMEZONE%3D%2D600%23][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:52:41.648: DEBUG/MyActivity(469): - [version: 0][name: CFGLOBALS][value: HITCOUNT%3D2%23LASTVISIT%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A52%3A36%27%7D%23TIMECREATED%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A52%3A33%27%7D%23][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]

08-31 06:52:44.138: DEBUG/MyActivity(469): - [version: 0][name: CFID][value: 26651274][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:52:44.138: DEBUG/MyActivity(469): - [version: 0][name: CFTOKEN][value: 58361320][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:52:44.138: DEBUG/MyActivity(469): - [version: 0][name: CFCLIENT_SFGC_106Y][value: CFTOKEN2%3D735125815099420%23COUNTRY%3D56%23DOWNLOADFLAG%3D0%23OCHAT%3D1%23PM%5FDATE%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A52%3A36%27%7D%23REGION%3D3%23SCREEN%3D800%23S%5FGC%5FIMAGELOC%3Di%2Fw%2F%23TIMEZONE%3D%2D600%23][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]
08-31 06:52:44.138: DEBUG/MyActivity(469): - [version: 0][name: CFGLOBALS][value: HITCOUNT%3D4%23LASTVISIT%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A52%3A38%27%7D%23TIMECREATED%3D%7Bts+%272010%2D08%2D31+14%3A52%3A33%27%7D%23][domain: gc.gamestotal.com][path: /][expiry: Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 GMT+00:00 2037]

Leoni

Answer 1

I was unable to get my own code working (I might work on it again later), but I found useful code here Android project using httpclient --> http.client (apache), post/get method and I am using the class built by Charlie Collins, which is similar to the Http Code in the ZXing Android example. I may eventually move to the ZXing code.

Leoni

Answer 2

You need to use HttpContext. Set cookie store to context and pass context long with HttpGet/HttpPost in execute method. Hope this should help.

See example: Complete code can be found here

   // Create a local instance of cookie store
    CookieStore cookieStore = new BasicCookieStore();

    // Create local HTTP context
    HttpContext localContext = new BasicHttpContext();
    // Bind custom cookie store to the local context
    localContext.setAttribute(ClientContext.COOKIE_STORE, cookieStore);

    HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet("http://www.google.com/"); 

    System.out.println("executing request " + httpget.getURI());

    // Pass local context as a parameter
    HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpget, localContext);

Maudemaudie

Ok, how would I go about getting the header? Do I take it from the response, such as, response.getHeader("Set-Cookie")? Because I have tried to do something similar but there is only a getHeaders(); method which I guess returns an array? I'd have to look it up again. – Leoni

Ok I managed to use the Header[] object and have successfully set the headers including the Cookie header but that didn't seem to solve my issue. I have edited my question with code that DOES work that I made, but for some reason as I moved it over to my actual application it broke. FYI the working code does nothing with headers, it just works? lol – Leoni

Ok ;) I managed to find something which I see missing from your code and updated (rather changed ) my answer. – Maudemaudie

I appreciate the quick responses. I added the missing code but still no luck. Could splitting up the GET and POST section into 2 different methods somehow cause the client to no retain a session? – Leoni

did you try to set cookiestore to HttpContext and passing HttpContext along with your method in execute of httpclient ? – Maudemaudie

Yep, I created a method that sets the CookieStore to the context, and then made sure that I passed along the context client.execute(request, local context), but still no luck. I have no idea what it is at this point. – Leoni

Strange... I am out now but will certainly give it a try sometime in next few days (when I am back). Can you post updated code ? – Maudemaudie

Yes I will do just that, again I appreciate the help. – Leoni

In your code I don't see "setContext" defined being called anywhere ? Also why everything in your class static ? If this is only for testing then its fine. – Maudemaudie

setContext is called from the main activity at startup. It calls these methods in this order, setContext(); and getPage(url); at onCreate. Then when I press the login button, postPage(params, host, action). At compile I get a, cannot make a static reference to non static method, when I do HTTP.getPage(url), therefore the static. – Leoni

I've since edited and updated my code and have gotten rid of all static declarations. Everything compiles and runs, but of course no luck with the session issue. – Leoni

Will this persist acroos application re-start ? – Pearson

@Ovidiu Latcu Yes.. but for sessions your server needs to support session persistence. – Maudemaudie

Answer 3

for me it didn't work, until i made both HttpContext and CookieStore static, to stay for all requests.

Uncle