Open a link from Java, how to hide GET parameter

Question

I want to open a link from Java I tried this

public static void main(String[] args) {
       try {
         //Set your page url in this string. For eg, I m using URL for Google Search engine
         String url = "http://myurl.com?id=xx";
         java.awt.Desktop.getDesktop().browse(java.net.URI.create(url));       
       }
       catch (java.io.IOException e) {
           System.out.println(e.getMessage());
       }
   }

It is working fine but the problem is that the query string is in that url. I don't want to pass it as a query string because it is a secret key. It should be passed as hidden to webpage request. How can I do this?

Answer 1

You can't, directly

You'd need to use a POST instead of a GET to hide the value and the URL does not encode the method used to access it, so it will always use GET.

You could conceivably write out a HTML file that automagically does a POST to the desired URL (using some JavaScript) and open that (using a file:// URL).

But note that "hiding" the parameter like this adds no real security! An interested user that wants to know the value that his PC sends to some site will be able to see it. It might take slightly more effort to find it, but it's definitely not impossible.