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] 

Answer 1

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);