How to add parameters to HttpURLConnection using POST using NameValuePair

I am trying to do POST with HttpURLConnection(I need to use it this way, can't use HttpPost) and I'd like to add parameters to that connection such as

post.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nvp));

where

nvp = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();

having some data stored in. I can't find a way how to add this ArrayList to my HttpURLConnection which is here:

HttpsURLConnection https = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();
https.setHostnameVerifier(DO_NOT_VERIFY);
http = https;
http.setRequestMethod("POST");
http.setDoInput(true);
http.setDoOutput(true);

The reason for that awkward https and http combination is the need for not verifying the certificate. That is not a problem, though, it posts the server well. But I need it to post with arguments.

Any ideas?

---

Duplicate Disclaimer:

Back in 2012, I had no idea how parameters were inserted into an HTTP POST request. I was hanging on to NameValuePair because it was in a tutorial. This question might seem like a duplicate, however, my 2012 self read that other question and it was NOT using NameValuePair. It did not, in fact, solve my problem.

You can get output stream for the connection and write the parameter query string to it.

URL url = new URL("http://yoururl.com");
HttpsURLConnection conn = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();
conn.setReadTimeout(10000);
conn.setConnectTimeout(15000);
conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
conn.setDoInput(true);
conn.setDoOutput(true);

List<NameValuePair> params = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("firstParam", paramValue1));
params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("secondParam", paramValue2));
params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("thirdParam", paramValue3));

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

conn.connect();

...

private String getQuery(List<NameValuePair> params) throws UnsupportedEncodingException
{
	StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
	boolean first = true;

	for (NameValuePair pair : params)
	{
		if (first)
			first = false;
		else
			result.append("&");

		result.append(URLEncoder.encode(pair.getName(), "UTF-8"));
		result.append("=");
		result.append(URLEncoder.encode(pair.getValue(), "UTF-8"));
	}

	return result.toString();
}

Since the NameValuePair is deprecated. Thought of sharing my code

public String  performPostCall(String requestURL,
			HashMap<String, String> postDataParams) {

		URL url;
		String response = "";
		try {
			url = new URL(requestURL);

			HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
			conn.setReadTimeout(15000);
			conn.setConnectTimeout(15000);
			conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
			conn.setDoInput(true);
			conn.setDoOutput(true);


			OutputStream os = conn.getOutputStream();
			BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(
					new OutputStreamWriter(os, "UTF-8"));
			writer.write(getPostDataString(postDataParams));

			writer.flush();
			writer.close();
			os.close();
			int responseCode=conn.getResponseCode();

			if (responseCode == HttpsURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
				String line;
				BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
				while ((line=br.readLine()) != null) {
					response+=line;
				}
			}
			else {
				response="";
				
			}
		} catch (Exception e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}

		return response;
	}

....

  private String getPostDataString(HashMap<String, String> params) throws UnsupportedEncodingException{
    	StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
    	boolean first = true;
    	for(Map.Entry<String, String> entry : params.entrySet()){
    		if (first)
    			first = false;
    		else
    			result.append("&");
    
    		result.append(URLEncoder.encode(entry.getKey(), "UTF-8"));
    		result.append("=");
    		result.append(URLEncoder.encode(entry.getValue(), "UTF-8"));
    	}
    
    	return result.toString();
    }

If you don't need the ArrayList<NameValuePair> for parameters, this is a shorter solution that builds the query string using the Uri.Builder class:

URL url = new URL("http://yoururl.com");
HttpsURLConnection conn = (HttpsURLConnection) url.openConnection();
conn.setReadTimeout(10000);
conn.setConnectTimeout(15000);
conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
conn.setDoInput(true);
conn.setDoOutput(true);

Uri.Builder builder = new Uri.Builder()
        .appendQueryParameter("firstParam", paramValue1)
        .appendQueryParameter("secondParam", paramValue2)
        .appendQueryParameter("thirdParam", paramValue3);
String query = builder.build().getEncodedQuery();

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

conn.connect();

One solution is to make your own params string.

This is the actual method I've been using for my latest project. You need to change args from hashtable to namevaluepair's:

private static String getPostParamString(Hashtable<String, String> params) {
	if(params.size() == 0)
		return "";
	
	StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();
	Enumeration<String> keys = params.keys();
	while(keys.hasMoreElements()) {
		buf.append(buf.length() == 0 ? "" : "&");
		String key = keys.nextElement();
		buf.append(key).append("=").append(params.get(key));
	}
	return buf.toString();
}

POSTing the params:

OutputStreamWriter writer = new OutputStreamWriter(conn.getOutputStream());
writer.write(getPostParamString(req.getPostParams()));

I think I found exactly what you need. It may help others.

You can use the method UrlEncodedFormEntity.writeTo(OutputStream).

UrlEncodedFormEntity formEntity = new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nvp); 
http.connect();

OutputStream output = null;
try {
  output = http.getOutputStream();    
  formEntity.writeTo(output);
} finally {
 if (output != null) try { output.close(); } catch (IOException ioe) {}
}

The accepted answer throws a ProtocolException at:

OutputStream os = conn.getOutputStream();

because it does not enable the output for the URLConnection object. The solution should include this:

conn.setDoOutput(true);

to make it work.

If it's not too late, I'd like to share my code

Utils.java:

public static String buildPostParameters(Object content) {
        String output = null;
        if ((content instanceof String) ||
                (content instanceof JSONObject) ||
                (content instanceof JSONArray)) {
            output = content.toString();
        } else if (content instanceof Map) {
            Uri.Builder builder = new Uri.Builder();
            HashMap hashMap = (HashMap) content;
            if (hashMap != null) {
                Iterator entries = hashMap.entrySet().iterator();
                while (entries.hasNext()) {
                    Map.Entry entry = (Map.Entry) entries.next();
                    builder.appendQueryParameter(entry.getKey().toString(), entry.getValue().toString());
                    entries.remove(); // avoids a ConcurrentModificationException
                }
                output = builder.build().getEncodedQuery();
            }
        }

        return output;
    }
	
public static URLConnection makeRequest(String method, String apiAddress, String accessToken, String mimeType, String requestBody) throws IOException {
        URL url = new URL(apiAddress);
        HttpURLConnection urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();

        urlConnection.setDoInput(true);
        urlConnection.setDoOutput(!method.equals("GET"));
        urlConnection.setRequestMethod(method);
        
        urlConnection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", "Bearer " + accessToken);        
        
        urlConnection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", mimeType);
        OutputStream outputStream = new BufferedOutputStream(urlConnection.getOutputStream());
        BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(outputStream, "utf-8"));
        writer.write(requestBody);
        writer.flush();
        writer.close();
        outputStream.close();            

        urlConnection.connect();

        return urlConnection;
    }

MainActivity.java:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
       
    new APIRequest().execute();
}

private class APIRequest extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, String> {

        @Override
        protected Object doInBackground(Void... params) {

            // Of course, you should comment the other CASES when testing one CASE

			// CASE 1: For FromBody parameter
            String url = "http://10.0.2.2/api/frombody";
            String requestBody = Utils.buildPostParameters("'FromBody Value'"); // must have '' for FromBody parameter
            HttpURLConnection urlConnection = null;
            try {
                urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) Utils.makeRequest("POST", url, null, "application/json", requestBody);                    
                InputStream inputStream;
                // get stream
                if (urlConnection.getResponseCode() < HttpURLConnection.HTTP_BAD_REQUEST) {
                    inputStream = urlConnection.getInputStream();
                } else {
                    inputStream = urlConnection.getErrorStream();
                }
                // parse stream
                BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream));
                String temp, response = "";
                while ((temp = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
                    response += temp;
                }
                return response;
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
                return e.toString();
            } finally {
                if (urlConnection != null) {
                    urlConnection.disconnect();
                }
            }

			// CASE 2: For JSONObject parameter
            String url = "http://10.0.2.2/api/testjsonobject";
            JSONObject jsonBody;
            String requestBody;
            HttpURLConnection urlConnection;
            try {
                jsonBody = new JSONObject();
                jsonBody.put("Title", "BNK Title");
                jsonBody.put("Author", "BNK");
                jsonBody.put("Date", "2015/08/08");
                requestBody = Utils.buildPostParameters(jsonBody);
                urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) Utils.makeRequest("POST", url, null, "application/json", requestBody);                    
                ...
                // the same logic to case #1
                ...
                return response;
            } catch (JSONException | IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
                return e.toString();
            } finally {
                if (urlConnection != null) {
                    urlConnection.disconnect();
                }
            }           

			// CASE 3: For form-urlencoded parameter
            String url = "http://10.0.2.2/api/token";
            HttpURLConnection urlConnection;
            Map<String, String> stringMap = new HashMap<>();
            stringMap.put("grant_type", "password");
            stringMap.put("username", "username");
            stringMap.put("password", "password");
            String requestBody = Utils.buildPostParameters(stringMap);
            try {
                urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) Utils.makeRequest("POST", url, null, "application/x-www-form-urlencoded", requestBody);
                ...
                // the same logic to case #1
                ...
                return response;
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
                return e.toString();
            } finally {
                if (urlConnection != null) {
                    urlConnection.disconnect();
                }
            }                  
        }

        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(String response) {
            super.onPostExecute(response);
            // do something...
        }
    }

There's a much easier approach using PrintWriter (see here)

Basically all you need is:

// set up URL connection
URL urlToRequest = new URL(urlStr);
HttpURLConnection urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection)urlToRequest.openConnection();
urlConnection.setDoOutput(true);
urlConnection.setRequestMethod("POST");
urlConnection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");

// write out form parameters
String postParamaters = "param1=value1&param2=value2"
urlConnection.setFixedLengthStreamingMode(postParameters.getBytes().length);
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(urlConnection.getOutputStream());
out.print(postParameters);
out.close();

// connect
urlConnection.connect();

AsyncTask to send data as JSONObect via POST Method

public class PostMethodDemo extends AsyncTask<String , Void ,String> {
        String server_response;

        @Override
        protected String doInBackground(String... strings) {
            URL url;
            HttpURLConnection urlConnection = null;

            try {
                url = new URL(strings[0]);
                urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
                urlConnection.setDoOutput(true);
                urlConnection.setDoInput(true);
                urlConnection.setRequestMethod("POST");

                DataOutputStream wr = new DataOutputStream(urlConnection.getOutputStream ());

                try {
                    JSONObject obj = new JSONObject();
                    obj.put("key1" , "value1");
                    obj.put("key2" , "value2");

                    wr.writeBytes(obj.toString());
                    Log.e("JSON Input", obj.toString());
                    wr.flush();
                    wr.close();
                } catch (JSONException ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace();
                }
                urlConnection.connect();

                int responseCode = urlConnection.getResponseCode();

                if(responseCode == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK){
                    server_response = readStream(urlConnection.getInputStream());
                }

            } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
			return null;
        }

        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(String s) {
            super.onPostExecute(s);
            Log.e("Response", "" + server_response);
        }
    }
	
	public static String readStream(InputStream in) {
        BufferedReader reader = null;
        StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer();
        try {
            reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
            String line = "";
            while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                response.append(line);
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            if (reader != null) {
                try {
                    reader.close();
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
        return response.toString();
    }

Try this:

HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("your url");
List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(3);
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("user_name", "Name"));
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("pass","Password" ));
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("user_email","email" ));
httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));
    
// Execute HTTP Post Request
HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
	            
String ret = EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity());
Log.v("Util response", ret);
		

You can add as many nameValuePairs as you need. And don't forget to mention the count in the list.

To call POST/PUT/DELETE/GET Restful methods with custom header or json data the following Async class can be used

public class HttpUrlConnectionUtlity extends AsyncTask<Integer, Void, String> {
private static final String TAG = "HttpUrlConnectionUtlity";
Context mContext;
public static final int GET_METHOD = 0,
        POST_METHOD = 1,
        PUT_METHOD = 2,
        HEAD_METHOD = 3,
        DELETE_METHOD = 4,
        TRACE_METHOD = 5,
        OPTIONS_METHOD = 6;
HashMap<String, String> headerMap;

String entityString;
String url;
int requestType = -1;
final String timeOut = "TIMED_OUT";

int TIME_OUT = 60 * 1000;

public HttpUrlConnectionUtlity (Context mContext) {
    this.mContext = mContext;
    this.callback = callback;
}

@Override
protected void onPreExecute() {
    super.onPreExecute();
}

@Override
protected String doInBackground(Integer... params) {
    int requestType = getRequestType();
    String response = "";
    try {


        URL url = getUrl();
        HttpURLConnection urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();

        urlConnection = setRequestMethod(urlConnection, requestType);
        urlConnection.setConnectTimeout(TIME_OUT);
        urlConnection.setReadTimeout(TIME_OUT);
        urlConnection.setDoOutput(true);
        urlConnection = setHeaderData(urlConnection);
        urlConnection = setEntity(urlConnection);

        if (urlConnection.getResponseCode() == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
            response = readResponseStream(urlConnection.getInputStream());
            Logger.v(TAG, response);
        }
        urlConnection.disconnect();
        return response;


    } catch (ProtocolException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (SocketTimeoutException e) {
        return timeOut;
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
        Logger.e(TAG, "ALREADY CONNECTED");
    }
    return response;
}

@Override
protected void onPostExecute(String response) {
    super.onPostExecute(response);

    if (TextUtils.isEmpty(response)) {
        //empty response
    } else if (response != null && response.equals(timeOut)) {
        //request timed out 
    } else    {
    //process your response
   }
}


private String getEntityString() {
    return entityString;
}

public void setEntityString(String s) {
    this.entityString = s;
}

private String readResponseStream(InputStream in) {
    BufferedReader reader = null;
    StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer();
    try {
        reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
        String line = "";
        while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
            response.append(line);
        }
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } finally {
        if (reader != null) {
            try {
                reader.close();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
    return response.toString();
}

private HttpURLConnection setEntity(HttpURLConnection urlConnection) throws IOException {
    if (getEntityString() != null) {
        OutputStream outputStream = urlConnection.getOutputStream();
        BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(outputStream, "UTF-8"));
        writer.write(getEntityString());
        writer.flush();
        writer.close();
        outputStream.close();
    } else {
        Logger.w(TAG, "NO ENTITY DATA TO APPEND ||NO ENTITY DATA TO APPEND ||NO ENTITY DATA TO APPEND");
    }
    return urlConnection;
}

private HttpURLConnection setHeaderData(HttpURLConnection urlConnection) throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
    urlConnection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/json");
    urlConnection.setRequestProperty("Accept", "application/json");
    if (getHeaderMap() != null) {
        for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : getHeaderMap().entrySet()) {
            urlConnection.setRequestProperty(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue());
        }
    } else {
        Logger.w(TAG, "NO HEADER DATA TO APPEND ||NO HEADER DATA TO APPEND ||NO HEADER DATA TO APPEND");
    }
    return urlConnection;
}

private HttpURLConnection setRequestMethod(HttpURLConnection urlConnection, int requestMethod) {
    try {
        switch (requestMethod) {
            case GET_METHOD:
                urlConnection.setRequestMethod("GET");
                break;
            case POST_METHOD:
                urlConnection.setRequestMethod("POST");
                break;
            case PUT_METHOD:
                urlConnection.setRequestMethod("PUT");
                break;
            case DELETE_METHOD:
                urlConnection.setRequestMethod("DELETE");
                break;
            case OPTIONS_METHOD:
                urlConnection.setRequestMethod("OPTIONS");
                break;
            case HEAD_METHOD:
                urlConnection.setRequestMethod("HEAD");
                break;
            case TRACE_METHOD:
                urlConnection.setRequestMethod("TRACE");
                break;
        }
    } catch (ProtocolException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return urlConnection;
}

public int getRequestType() {
    return requestType;
}

public void setRequestType(int requestType) {
    this.requestType = requestType;
}

public URL getUrl() throws MalformedURLException {
    return new URL(url);
}

public void setUrl(String url) {
    this.url = url;
}

public HashMap<String, String> getHeaderMap() {
    return headerMap;
}

public void setHeaderMap(HashMap<String, String> headerMap) {
    this.headerMap = headerMap;
}   }

And The Usage is

    HttpUrlConnectionUtlity httpMethod = new HttpUrlConnectionUtlity (mContext);
    JSONObject jsonEntity = new JSONObject();

    try {
        jsonEntity.put("key1", value1);
        jsonEntity.put("key2", value2);

    } catch (JSONException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    httpMethod.setUrl(YOUR_URL_STRING);
	HashMap<String, String> headerMap = new HashMap<>();
    headerMap.put("key",value);
	headerMap.put("key1",value1);
	httpMethod.setHeaderMap(headerMap);
    httpMethod.setRequestType(WiseConnectHttpMethod.POST_METHOD); //specify POST/GET/DELETE/PUT
    httpMethod.setEntityString(jsonEntity.toString());
    httpMethod.execute();

In my case I have created function like this to make Post request which takes String url and hashmap of parameters

 public  String postRequest( String mainUrl,HashMap<String,String> parameterList)
{
    String response="";
    try {
        URL url = new URL(mainUrl);

        StringBuilder postData = new StringBuilder();
        for (Map.Entry<String, String> param : parameterList.entrySet())
        {
            if (postData.length() != 0) postData.append('&');
            postData.append(URLEncoder.encode(param.getKey(), "UTF-8"));
            postData.append('=');
            postData.append(URLEncoder.encode(String.valueOf(param.getValue()), "UTF-8"));
        }

        byte[] postDataBytes = postData.toString().getBytes("UTF-8");




        HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
        conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
        conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
        conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Length", String.valueOf(postDataBytes.length));
        conn.setDoOutput(true);
        conn.getOutputStream().write(postDataBytes);

        Reader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream(), "UTF-8"));

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        for (int c; (c = in.read()) >= 0; )
            sb.append((char) c);
        response = sb.toString();


    return  response;
    }catch (Exception excep){
        excep.printStackTrace();}
    return response;
}

By using org.apache.http.client.HttpClient also you can easily do this with more readable way as below.

HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("http://www.yoursite.com/script.php");

Within try catch you can insert

// Add your data
List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(2);
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("id", "12345"));
nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("stringdata", "AndDev is Cool!"));
httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));

// Execute HTTP Post Request
HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);

Parameters to HttpURLConnection using POST using NameValuePair with OutPut

        try {
        URL url = new URL("https://yourUrl.com");
        HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();

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

        conn.setRequestMethod("POST");

        conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/json");

        JSONObject data = new JSONObject();
        data.put("key1", "value1");
        data.put("key2", "value2");

        OutputStreamWriter wr = new OutputStreamWriter(conn.getOutputStream());
        wr.write(data.toString());
        wr.flush();
        wr.close();

        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
        String inputLine;
        StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer();

        while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
            response.append(inputLine);
        }
        in.close();
        System.out.println(response.toString());
    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (JSONException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

I use something like this:

SchemeRegistry sR = new SchemeRegistry();
sR.register(new Scheme("https", SSLSocketFactory.getSocketFactory(), 443));

HttpParams params = new BasicHttpParams();
SingleClientConnManager mgr = new SingleClientConnManager(params, sR);

HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient(mgr, params);

HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost(url);
httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));

HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);

JSONObject params = new JSONObject();
try {
   params.put(key, val);
}catch (JSONException e){
   e.printStackTrace();
}

this is how i pass "params"(JSONObject) through POST

connection.getOutputStream().write(params.toString().getBytes("UTF-8"));