How to add parameters to a HTTP GET request in Android?

I have a HTTP GET request that I am attempting to send. I tried adding the parameters to this request by first creating a BasicHttpParams object and adding the parameters to that object, then calling setParams( basicHttpParms ) on my HttpGet object. This method fails. But if I manually add my parameters to my URL (i.e. append ?param1=value1&param2=value2) it succeeds.

I know I'm missing something here and any help would be greatly appreciated.

I use a List of NameValuePair and URLEncodedUtils to create the url string I want.

protected String addLocationToUrl(String url){
	if(!url.endsWith("?"))
		url += "?";
	
	List<NameValuePair> params = new LinkedList<NameValuePair>();
	
	if (lat != 0.0 && lon != 0.0){
		params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("lat", String.valueOf(lat)));
		params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("lon", String.valueOf(lon)));
	}
	
	if (address != null && address.getPostalCode() != null)
		params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("postalCode", address.getPostalCode()));
	if (address != null && address.getCountryCode() != null)
		params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("country",address.getCountryCode()));
	
	params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("user", agent.uniqueId));
	
	String paramString = URLEncodedUtils.format(params, "utf-8");
	
	url += paramString;
	return url;
}

To build uri with get parameters, Uri.Builder provides a more effective way.

Uri uri = new Uri.Builder()
    .scheme("http")
    .authority("foo.com")
    .path("someservlet")
    .appendQueryParameter("param1", foo)
    .appendQueryParameter("param2", bar)
    .build();

As of HttpComponents 4.2+ there is a new class URIBuilder, which provides convenient way for generating URIs.

You can use either create URI directly from String URL:

List<NameValuePair> listOfParameters = ...;

URI uri = new URIBuilder("http://example.com:8080/path/to/resource?mandatoryParam=someValue")
    .addParameter("firstParam", firstVal)
    .addParameter("secondParam", secondVal)
    .addParameters(listOfParameters)
    .build();

Otherwise, you can specify all parameters explicitly:

URI uri = new URIBuilder()
    .setScheme("http")
    .setHost("example.com")
    .setPort(8080)
    .setPath("/path/to/resource")
    .addParameter("mandatoryParam", "someValue")
    .addParameter("firstParam", firstVal)
    .addParameter("secondParam", secondVal)
    .addParameters(listOfParameters)
    .build();

Once you have created URI object, then you just simply need to create HttpGet object and perform it:

//create GET request
HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(uri);
//perform request
httpClient.execute(httpGet ...//additional parameters, handle response etc.

The method

setParams() 

like

httpget.getParams().setParameter("http.socket.timeout", new Integer(5000));

only adds HttpProtocol parameters.

To execute the httpGet you should append your parameters to the url manually

HttpGet myGet = new HttpGet("http://foo.com/someservlet?param1=foo&param2=bar");

or use the post request the difference between get and post requests are explained here, if you are interested

List<NameValuePair> params = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("param1","value1");

String query = URLEncodedUtils.format(params, "utf-8");

URI url = URIUtils.createURI(scheme, userInfo, authority, port, path, query, fragment); //can be null
HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url);

URI javadoc

Note: url = new URI(...) is buggy

    HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();

	Uri.Builder builder = Uri.parse(url).buildUpon();
	
	for (String name : params.keySet()) {
		builder.appendQueryParameter(name, params.get(name).toString());
	}
	
	url = builder.build().toString();
	HttpGet request = new HttpGet(url);
	HttpResponse response = client.execute(request);
	return EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity(), "UTF-8");

If you have constant URL I recommend use simplified http-request built on apache http.

You can build your client as following:

private filan static HttpRequest<YourResponseType> httpRequest = 
                   HttpRequestBuilder.createGet(yourUri,YourResponseType)
                   .build();

public void send(){
    ResponseHendler<YourResponseType> rh = 
         httpRequest.execute(param1, value1, param2, value2);

    handler.ifSuccess(this::whenSuccess).otherwise(this::whenNotSuccess);
}

public void whenSuccess(ResponseHendler<YourResponseType> rh){
     rh.ifHasContent(content -> // your code);
}

public void whenSuccess(ResponseHendler<YourResponseType> rh){
   LOGGER.error("Status code: " + rh.getStatusCode() + ", Error msg: " + rh.getErrorText());
}

Note: There are many useful methods to manipulate your response.