Submitting an HTML form in Android without WebView - html

I was given an assignment to develop a very simple weather app in Android using the data given from
http://forecast.weather.gov/zipcity.php
This would be my first actual android app, my only other experience is watching/reading many tutorials on getting started.
To give some background information of the app, it simply needs to have one activity that is a
text field for the user to enter a city, state combination, or just a zip code. This then needs to be submitted to the website's (listed above) form.
After this has been submitted, my app needs to retrieve page sent in response and display it in a simple layout (possibly a listView of the days of the week).
My first question is, how would I go about submitting a text input to the above website's form? Would I have to know the name of the form's field to submit to it precisely?
In general, how should I start this process?
Edited version:
Using this code:
HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpPost post = new HttpPost("http://forecast.weather.gov/zipcity.php?inputstring=04419");
HttpResponse httpResp;
try {
httpResp = httpClient.execute(post);
StatusLine status = httpResp.getStatusLine();
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), status.getStatusCode(), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
} catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
I'm getting a:
10-26 15:29:56.686: DEBUG/SntpClient(59): request time failed: java.net.SocketException: Address family not supported by protocol
error in the debug view. Is this error related? Is my use of toast reasonable for testing if this http interaction is successful?

When you want to see what a post request in passing use Firefox + tamperdata, that way you can look at how to use the webservice.
I took a look at it, I searched for "33129" and when you enter text on the left hand box to start a search it simply pases 2 parameters:
inputstring = "33129"
Go2 = "Go"
That would be one way to do it, on the other hand, once the request is finished it transforms it into another request, thats more specific. You can search by city state or zip, not both.
If you request with a zip you get redirected to:
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Miami&state=FL&site=MFL&lat=25.77&lon=-80.2
So there is probably a redirection going on there.
You are going to have to take a close look at how to work with this.
Now, to do a post request in android use a name value pair like this.
List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("inputstring","33129));
Ramp's answer shows the rest.
Also, ALL comunication should be done on a thread that is not the main UI thread or you will get a ANR error.

When I checked out your URL, I entered city and state.This is the URL it generates in HTTP POST :
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Edison&state=NJ&site=PHI&textField1=40.5288&textField2=-74.3693
So your will do a HTTP POST with the CityName and state URL parameters. It will be something like this if you use apache HttpClient in your android program :
( It should be OK to use HTTP GET too I guess)
HttpPost post = new HttpPost(url);//construct url with cityName and State
HttpResponse httpResp = httpClient.execute(post);
StatusLine status = httpResp.getStatusLine();
Hope this helps.

Something like this:
HttpClient hc = new DefaultHttpClient();
List<NameValuePair> l = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(6);
l.add(new BasicNameValuePair("fieldname", "fieldvalue"));
//More fields...
HttpPost pr = new HttpPost(TheURL);
pr.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(l, "the-proper-encoding"));
HttpResponse Resp = hc.execute(pr);
if(Resp.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() != 200)
//Fail...

Related

HMRC MTD Hello World with Qt

I have a Qt program that stores all my small (tiny) company information on a sql database and I have over the years tailored it to do all my accounting stuff, invoices, BOMs etc.
At the push of a button I can get all of the necessary sql data to calculate a quarterly VAT return, but we're going to have to electronically submit all the data now, not just calculate it. I have all the data needed, it's just a case of submitting over HTTP using json (of which I know a little/nothing about respectively).
I'm small enough so that I don't have to do this submission at the moment, but the time will likely come, so I'm trying the most basic of requests in the HMRC's sandbox as a starting point.
On this page it shows you how to do an hello world request in Java, so I'm trying to do the same with Qt with C++.
I've tried the following which responds to the push of a button and I have of course, set up a slot to deal with a response:
void MainWindow::hello()
{
QJsonObject json;
QString rs("https://test-api.service.hmrc.gov.uk/hello/world");
QNetworkRequest request
{
QUrl(rs)
};
request.setHeader(QNetworkRequest::ContentTypeHeader,"application/vnd.hmrc.1.0+json");
request.setUrl(QUrl(rs));
manager->get(request);
}
and the main window init:
manager = new QNetworkAccessManager();
QObject::connect
(manager, &QNetworkAccessManager::finished, this, [=](QNetworkReply *reply)
{
if (reply->error())
{
ui->debugText->appendHtml(reply->errorString());
return;
}
QString answer = reply->readAll();
ui->debugText->appendHtml(answer);
}
);
To which I get the reply:
Error transferring https://test-api.service.hmrc.gov.uk/hello/world -
server replied: Not Acceptable
I assume that means I am communicating with the sever now, but I do not know what this terse error message means!
The Java on the HMRC web page is as follows:
// construct the GET request for our Hello World endpoint
HttpClient client = HttpClientBuilder.create().build();
HttpGet request = new HttpGet(
"https://test-api.service.hmrc.gov.uk/hello/world");
request.addHeader("Accept", "application/vnd.hmrc.1.0+json");
// execute the request
HttpResponse response = client.execute(request);
// extract the HTTP status code and response body
int statusCode = response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode();
String responseBody = EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity());
Is that enough information for someone to point me in the right direction of what I'm doing wrong please? Suspect I am missing a fundamental point here.
In your Java example, you are setting the HTTP header "Accept". In your C++/Qt snippet, your are setting the "Content-Type" header.
You may want to adapt your code like this to match your Java working example:
QNetworkRequest request { QUrl(rs) };
request.setRawHeader(QByteArray("Accept"), QByteArray("application/vnd.hmrc.1.0+json"));
manager->get(request);

Parsing a page that has to be logged into with jsoup - cant find authentication key?

Right now I'm trying to parse a page behind a login - specifically, my own transcript of grades that must be logged in to access through the university website.
I am following this tutorial - http://joelmin.blogspot.ca/2016/04/how-to-login-to-website-using-jsoup-java_4.html - but the author mentions finding an authentication key, as shown here:
What I wish I saw - note authentication field
However, when I follow the steps, the form data I see looks like this:
What I actually see - no authentication key field
I then tried to adapt the steps by searching for an "It" id and a "execution" id, as they seem to change with every login, but they dont exist.
This is the site I am attempting to automate login to: https://cas.id.ubc.ca/ubc-cas/login
Any help would be appreciated :) I apologize if I'm missing something obvious!
Here is what you can try...
import org.jsoup.Connection;
Connection.Response res = null;
try {
res = Jsoup
.connect("https://cas.id.ubc.ca/ubc-cas/login")
.data("username", "your login id", "password", "your password")
.method(Connection.Method.POST)
.execute();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
Now save all your cookies and make request to the other page you want.
//Saving Cookies
cookies = res.cookies();
Making request to another page.
try {
Document doc = Jsoup.connect("your-second-page-link").cookies(cookies).get();
}
catch(Exception e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
Ask if further help needed.

Json put/get/post in Restful webservices not working

I am trying to pass parameters to a server and extract the report in csv format. So the code i have has PUT/GET/POST in the order. I could get GET and POST work, but when i add PUT there is no error just blank screen.
String output1 = null;
URL url = new URL("http://<servername>/biprws/raylight/v1/documents/12345/parameters");
HttpURLConnection conn1 = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
conn1.setRequestMethod("PUT");
conn1.setRequestProperty("Accept", "application/json");
conn1.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
conn1.setDoInput(true);
conn1.setDoOutput(true);
String body = "<parameters><parameter><id>0</id><answer><values><value>EN</value></values></answer></parameter></parameters>";
int len1 = body.length();
conn1.setRequestProperty("Content-Length", Integer.toString(len1));
conn1.connect();
OutputStreamWriter out1 = new OutputStreamWriter(conn1.getOutputStream());
out1.write(body, 0, len1);
out1.flush();
What i am trying to do is pass parameter EN to the report and refresh it, take the output in csv using GET. POST is used for login to the server. I could make GET and POST work and get the output in CSV but not refreshed one.
Appreciate very much any help here.
Thanks,
Ak
What is the response code from the server when using PUT?
A PUT may not actually return a body to display on the screen; often times a PUT will only return a 200 or 204 response code. 204 would clearly mean that the server took the data and applied it, but is not sending you anything back, 200/201 may include a response, but maybe not. It depends on the folks who implemented the API.
https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec9.html (section 9.6)
Should a RESTful 'PUT' operation return something

ASP.NET Web API: How to do a Post back results with redirection

I got a Web API that performs a function and posts a JSON response back to a calling page.
This is standard Web API behaviour and works beautifully.
Now I want to modify the controller so that in addition to the post back the user is redirected back to the page on the calling web site where the result of the Web API call can be displayed (in JSON).
So basically I want to:
(1) Server side post back the results in JSON to a page and redirect to the same page from the Web API
(2) On the caller's site, I want to display the JSON that was posted back.
How do I do this?
I already tried for many hours ...
e.g.:
using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
{
client.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "text/json");
client.Headers.Add("Accept", "text/json");
try
{
ErrorText = client.UploadString(redirectURL, "POST", JsonConvert.SerializeObject(orderresponse));
Response.Redirect(redirectURL);
}
catch (WebException err)
{
ErrorText = err.Message; //Todo - write to logfile
}
}
Instead of doing the redirect on the server, instruct the client to do it by using the appropriate HTTP status code. For example:
public HttpResponseMessage Post(MyModel model)
{
// handle the post
MyResult result = ...;
// redirect
var response = Request.CreateResponse<MyResult>(HttpStatusCode.Moved, result);
response.Headers.Location = new Uri("http://www.yourdomain.com/redirectURI");
return response;
}

IOS - How to handle return calls from a RESTful service API

I am using an API to have users create an account within my app.
Now I am able to generate the URL required in objective-C to submit the values and in the API documentation it has the return numbers that will confirm to me what has happened.
My question is how do I relay that information to the user of the app?
The return call is shown to me in a HTML page as plain text.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
///////
2012-10-03 12:24:31.557 Multi Web[72631:15203] Dictionary list - {
Connection = "keep-alive";
"Content-Encoding" = gzip;
"Content-Length" = 26;
"Content-Location" = "signup.php";
"Content-Type" = "text/html";
Date = "Tue, 02 Oct 2012 23:24:32 GMT";
P3P = "policyref=\"/w3c/p3p.xml\", CP=\"ALL CURa ADMa DEVa OUR IND UNI COM NAV INT STA PRE\"";
Server = "Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu)";
Status = "200 OK";
TCN = choice;
Vary = "negotiate,Accept-Encoding";
"X-Limit-Key-Limit" = 10000;
"X-Limit-Key-Remaining" = 9992;
"X-Limit-Key-Reset" = 236;
"X-Limit-User-Limit" = 320;
"X-Limit-User-Remaining" = 319;
"X-Limit-User-Reset" = 3600;
"X-Powered-By" = "PHP/5.3.2-1ubuntu4.14";
I got this in my console so I now, I have created the account succesfully.
In the middle it says Status = "200 OK";
How do I use that particular line? If I can hook up a UIAlertView to that then i am where I want to be.
Cheers.
I'm not sure if your situation is related to this question. According to docs from the getPocket API you are using, i see the following:
According to apple docs, the default HTTP method is GET. What you need to do is check the response headers from the API. So what you need to do is change your httpMethod to HEAD like so:
NSMutableURLRequest *modReq = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"www.somesite.com/?something"]];
[modReq setHTTPMethod:#"HEAD"];
Then you can read the values from the header with something like so:
NSURLResponse* response = // the response, from somewhere
NSDictionary* headers = [(NSHTTPURLResponse *)response allHeaderFields];
You can then get the response values, and tell the user whats up accordingly.
It's called designing and creating a user interface.
You send a request to the server and get a response. Your job is to examine the response, recognise what it means, and tell the user in an appropriate way what the response meant. Since the user is not an expert in parsing html, showing the html would almost always be entirely inappropriate.
For a user entering a username and password correctly, the appropriate response is usually that the user can now access the site.