PHP HTTP POST on Android device using HttpURLConnection

Question

Question:

So the problem is that this doesn't post to the online database hosted by goDaddy. So my question is why, and how do i fix it to have it post to it?

Issue: The php page is not receiving the name value pairs being passed to it.

Edit:

Modified code on suggestion to use HttpURLConnection... I've narrowed down the problem to it not retrieving the fbid.

As you can tell I’ve done a lot of my homework here... Here's my logcat of what is being set in the postthread class Here's my class that does the post:

07-02 16:41:45.108: I/PROJECTCARUSO(12308): response: {"posts":[null]}

HttpPostThread:

public class HttpPostThread extends Thread {
    public static final int FAILURE = 0;
    public static final int SUCCESS = 1;


    private URL url;
    ArrayList<NameValuePair> pairs;

    public HttpPostThread(URL sERVICE_URL, ArrayList<NameValuePair> pairs, final Handler handler)
    {
        Log.i("PROJECTCARUSO", "Posting to URL: " + sERVICE_URL);
        this.url =sERVICE_URL;
        this.pairs = pairs;
        if(pairs==null){
            Log.i("PROJECTCARUSO", "URL parms were null");
            this.pairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void run()
    {
        try {
            HttpURLConnection conn;
            String param="";

            for (NameValuePair nvp : pairs) {
                //you need to encode ONLY the values of the parameters
                if (param == "") {
                    param=nvp.getName() + "=" + URLEncoder.encode(nvp.getValue(),"UTF-8");
                } else {
                    param+= "&" + nvp.getName() + "=" + URLEncoder.encode(nvp.getValue(),"UTF-8");
                }
            }

            Log.i("PROJECTCARUSO", "param: " + param.toString());
            // Create connection
            conn=(HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
            //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");

            //Android documentation suggested that you set the length of the data you are sending to the server, BUT
            // do NOT specify this length in the header by using conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Length", length);
            //use this instead.
            conn.setFixedLengthStreamingMode(param.getBytes().length);
            conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
            //send the POST out
            PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(conn.getOutputStream());
            out.print(param);
            out.close();

            //build the string to store the response text from the server
            String response= "";

            //start listening to the stream
            Scanner inStream = new Scanner(conn.getInputStream());

            //process the stream and store it in StringBuilder
            while(inStream.hasNextLine())
            response+=(inStream.nextLine());

            Log.i("PROJECTCARUSO","response: " + response);
        }
        //catch some error
        catch(MalformedURLException ex){  
            Log.i("PROJECTCARUSO", ex.toString());

        }
        // and some more
        catch(IOException ex){

            Log.i("PROJECTCARUSO", ex.toString());

        }

    }

    public static boolean isNumeric(String str)  
    {  
      try  
      {  
        double d = Double.parseDouble(str);  
      }  
      catch(NumberFormatException nfe)  
      {  
        return false;  
      }  
      return true;  
    }
}

Here's the php:

        <?php 

//Make connection
$con = mysqli_connect('...','...','...') ;


//check connection
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
    printf("Connect failed: %s\n", mysqli_connect_error());
    exit();
}

//change db to andriodnfp db
mysqli_select_db($con, 'andriodnfp');

$table= 'USER';
$id=0;

$fbid = htmlspecialchars($_GET["fbid"]);
$social = htmlspecialchars($_GET["social"]);


$name = htmlspecialchars($_GET["name"]);
$name = !empty($name) ? "'$name'" : "NULL";

$fname = htmlspecialchars($_GET["fname"]);
$fname = !empty($fname) ? "'$fname'" : "NULL";

$username = htmlspecialchars($_GET["username"]);
$username = !empty($username) ? "'$username'" : "NULL";

$email = htmlspecialchars($_GET["email"]);
$email = !empty($email) ? "'$email'" : "NULL";

$picture = htmlspecialchars($_GET["picture"]);
$picture = !empty($picture) ? "'$picture'" : "NULL";

$other = htmlspecialchars($_GET["other"]);
$other = !empty($other) ? "'$other'" : "NULL";

if (!$fbid == '') {

    if (!mysqli_query($con, 'INSERT INTO '.$table.' ( facebookID, social_outlet, Name, first_name, username, email, picture, significant_other) VALUES ("'.$fbid.'","'.$social.'","'.$name.'","'.$fname.'","'.$username.'","'.$email.'","'.$picture.'","'.$other.'")')) {
        printf("Errormessage: %s\n", mysqli_error($con));
        die();
    } else {
        $posts = array('auto_increment_id'=>mysqli_insert_id($con));
    };
} else {
    printf("Errormessage: %s\n", "Facebook ID was null");
    printf("Errormessage: %s\n", $fbid );
    printf("Errormessage: %s\n", $social);
    printf("Errormessage: %s\n", $name);
    printf("Errormessage: %s\n", $fname);
    printf("Errormessage: %s\n", $username);
    printf("Errormessage: %s\n", $email);
    printf("Errormessage: %s\n", $picture);
    printf("Errormessage: %s\n", $other);
    die();
}

mysqli_close($con);

//$posts = array($json);
$posts = array($posts);
header('Content-type: application/json');
echo json_encode(array('posts'=>$posts));

?>

Apache logs:

166.147.72.174 - - [19/Jun/2013:16:47:41 -0700] "POST ...post.php? HTTP/1.1" 200 155 "-" "Apache-HttpClient/UNAVAILABLE (java 1.4)" 0 "x-httpd-php5-3" "/var/chroot/home/content/31/9124131/html/android/com.projectcaruso/naturalfamilyplaning/post.php" 195224
166.147.72.174 - - [19/Jun/2013:16:49:08 -0700] "POST ...post.php? HTTP/1.1" 200 155 "-" "Apache-HttpClient/UNAVAILABLE (java 1.4)" 0 "x-httpd-php5-3" "/var/chroot/home/content/31/9124131/html/android/com.projectcaruso/naturalfamilyplaning/post.php" 13848
166.147.72.174 - - [19/Jun/2013:16:50:57 -0700] "POST ...post.php? HTTP/1.1" 200 155 "-" "Apache-HttpClient/UNAVAILABLE (java 1.4)" 0 "x-httpd-php5-3" "/var/chroot/home/content/31/9124131/html/android/com.projectcaruso/naturalfamilyplaning/post.php" 17899
166.147.72.174 - - [19/Jun/2013:16:52:14 -0700] "POST ...post.php HTTP/1.1" 200 155 "-" "Apache-HttpClient/UNAVAILABLE (java 1.4)" 0 "x-httpd-php5-3" "/var/chroot/home/content/31/9124131/html/android/com.projectcaruso/naturalfamilyplaning/post.php" 12514
166.147.72.174 - - [19/Jun/2013:16:53:35 -0700] "POST ...post.php HTTP/1.1" 200 155 "-" "Apache-HttpClient/UNAVAILABLE (java 1.4)" 0 "x-httpd-php5-3" "/var/chroot/home/content/31/9124131/html/android/com.projectcaruso/naturalfamilyplaning/post.php" 15190
166.147.72.174 - - [19/Jun/2013:16:54:56 -0700] "POST ...post.php HTTP/1.1" 200 155 "-" "Apache-HttpClient/UNAVAILABLE (java 1.4)" 0 "x-httpd-php5-3" "/var/chroot/home/content/31/9124131/html/android/com.projectcaruso/naturalfamilyplaning/post.php" 14373
166.147.72.174 - - [19/Jun/2013:16:56:50 -0700] "POST ...post.php HTTP/1.1" 200 155 "-" "Apache-HttpClient/UNAVAILABLE (java 1.4)" 0 "x-httpd-php5-3" "/var/chroot/home/content/31/9124131/html/android/com.projectcaruso/naturalfamilyplaning/post.php" 12017

EDIT:

I even tried the java as so:

public void run() {
    try {
    HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
    conn.setReadTimeout(10000);
    conn.setConnectTimeout(15000);

        conn.setRequestMethod("POST");

    conn.setDoInput(true);
    conn.setDoOutput(true);

    List<NameValuePair> params = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
    for (NameValuePair nvp : pairs) {
    //you need to encode ONLY the values of the parameters
        params.add(new BasicNameValuePair(nvp.getName(), nvp.getValue()));
        Log.i("PROJECTCARUSO", "NVP: " + nvp.getName() + " - " + nvp.getValue());
    }


    OutputStream os = conn.getOutputStream();
    BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(
            new OutputStreamWriter(os, "UTF-8"));
    writer.write(getQuery(params));
    writer.close();
    os.close();

    conn.connect();

    //build the string to store the response text from the server
    String response= "";

    //start listening to the stream
    Scanner inStream = new Scanner(conn.getInputStream());

    //process the stream and store it in StringBuilder
    while(inStream.hasNextLine())
    response+=(inStream.nextLine());

    Log.i("PROJECTCARUSO","response: " + response);

    } catch (ProtocolException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

     catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
    }

Answer 1

You have to use $_POST instead of $_GET everywhere.