How to do an HTTPS POST from Android?

Question

I want to do a HTTPS post method to send some data from my android app to my website.

I used HttpURLConnection first and it's working fine with my HTTP URL. My production website is on HTTPS and I want to send the same POST using HttpsURLConnection. Can someone help me use the class properly?

I found some source at this link:

KeyStore keyStore = ...;    
TrustManagerFactory tmf = TrustManagerFactory.getInstance("X509");    
tmf.init(keyStore);

SSLContext context = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");   
context.init(null, tmf.getTrustManagers(), null);

URL url = new URL("https://www.example.com/");   
HttpsURLConnection urlConnection = (HttpsURLConnection)
url.openConnection();   
urlConnection.setSSLSocketFactory(context.getSocketFactory());   
InputStream in = urlConnection.getInputStream();

What should be the value of KeyStore keyStore = ...;?

I tried sending the data using the same HttpURLConnection, but I am seeing some POST data is missed or in error.

I've tried the method from this question. I am pasting my code below

String urlParameters="dateTime=" + URLEncoder.encode(dateTime,"UTF-8")+
    "&mobileNum="+URLEncoder.encode(mobileNum,"UTF-8");

URL url = new URL(myurl);
HttpsURLConnection conn;
conn=(HttpsURLConnection)url.openConnection();

// Create the SSL connection
SSLContext sc;
sc = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
sc.init(null, null, new java.security.SecureRandom());
conn.setSSLSocketFactory(sc.getSocketFactory());
conn.setConnectTimeout(HTTP_CONNECT_TIME_OUT);
conn.setReadTimeout(HTTP_READ_TIME_OUT);

//set the output to true, indicating you are outputting(uploading) POST data
conn.setDoOutput(true);
//once you set the output to true, you don't really need to set the request method to post, but I'm doing it anyway
conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
conn.setFixedLengthStreamingMode(urlParameters.getBytes().length);
conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");

PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(conn.getOutputStream());
out.print(urlParameters);
out.close();

InputStream is = conn.getInputStream();
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));
String inputLine;
while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
  response += inputLine;            
}                   

The error I am getting is below:

05-12 19:36:10.758: W/System.err(1123): java.io.FileNotFoundException: https://www.myurl.com/fms/test
05-12 19:36:10.758: W/System.err(1123):     at libcore.net.http.HttpURLConnectionImpl.getInputStream(HttpURLConnectionImpl.java:177)
05-12 19:36:10.758: W/System.err(1123):     at libcore.net.http.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getInputStream(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:270)
05-12 19:36:10.758: W/System.err(1123):     at .httpRequest(SMSToDBService.java:490)
05-12 19:36:10.758: W/System.err(1123):     at com..access$0(SMSToDBService.java:424)
05-12 19:36:10.758: W/System.err(1123):     at com.$ChildThread$1.handleMessage(SMSToDBService.java:182)
05-12 19:36:10.758: W/System.err(1123):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
05-12 19:36:10.758: W/System.err(1123):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:156)
05-12 19:36:10.758: W/System.err(1123):     at com.$ChildThread.run(SMSToDBService.java:303)

Answer 1

You can use the default CAs that are defined in the android device, which is just fine for any public web.

If you have a self-signed certificate, you can either accept all certificates (risky, open to man-in-the-middle attacks) or create your own TrustManagerFactory, which is a bit out of this scope.

Here's some code to use the default CAs for a https POST call:

private InputStream getInputStream(String urlStr, String user, String password) throws IOException
{
    URL url = new URL(urlStr);
    HttpsURLConnection conn = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();

    // Create the SSL connection
    SSLContext sc;
    sc = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
    sc.init(null, null, new java.security.SecureRandom());
    conn.setSSLSocketFactory(sc.getSocketFactory());
      
    // Use this if you need SSL authentication
    String userpass = user + ":" + password;
    String basicAuth = "Basic " + Base64.encodeToString(userpass.getBytes(), Base64.DEFAULT);
    conn.setRequestProperty("Authorization", basicAuth);
    
    // set Timeout and method
    conn.setReadTimeout(7000);
    conn.setConnectTimeout(7000);
    conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
    conn.setDoInput(true);
    
    // Add any data you wish to post here
    
    conn.connect();
    return conn.getInputStream();
}   

To read the response:

String result = new String();
InputStream is = getInputStream(urlStr, user, password);
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));
String inputLine;
while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
    result += inputLine;            
}