Get page content from Apache Commons HTTP Request

Question

So I'm using Apache Commons HTTP to make a request to a webpage. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the actual content from the page, I can just get its header information. How can I get the actual content from it?

Here is my example code:

HttpGet request = new HttpGet("http://URL_HERE/");

HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(request);

System.out.println("Response: " + response.toString());

Answer 1

Use HttpResponse#getEntity() and then HttpEntity#getContent() to obtain it as an InputStream.

InputStream input = response.getEntity().getContent();
// Read it the usual way.

Note that HttpClient isn't part of Apache Commons. It's part of Apache HttpComponents.

Answer 2

BalusC's comment will work just fine. If you're using version 4 or newer of Apache HttpComponents, there is a convenience method you can use as well: EntityUtils.toString(HttpEntity);

Here's what it'll look like in your code:

HttpGet request = new HttpGet("http://URL_HERE/");
HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(request);
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
String entityContents = EntityUtils.toString(entity);

Not sure if this is due to different versions, but I had to rewrite it like this:

HttpGet request = new HttpGet("http://URL_HERE/");
CloseableHttpClient httpClient = HttpClients.createDefault();
HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(request);
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
String entityContents = EntityUtils.toString(entity);