Connecting to Web Services

Sean Sullivan
Android Dev Camp Amsterdam
8 January 2009
+
• HTTP
• XML
• JSON
• OAuth
HTTP request

XML response
http://code.google.com/p/jfireeagle
jfireeagle uses:
• HttpClient API
• XStream
• OAuth Java library
“An open protocol to allow secure API
authorization in a simple and standard method
from desktop and web applications”
• use OAuth to access protected data
• your application needs to obtain an access
token from the service provider
• service provider will issue access token
after the user grants permission
 +

http://code.google.com/p/oauth
 +

jfireeagle

http://code.google.com/p/jfireeagle/wiki/Android

jpoco

http://code.google.com/p/jpoco/wiki/Android
 + HTTP
Option 1
• java.net.URL
• java.net.HttpURLConnection
Option 2
• HttpClient 4.0 API
 HttpClient 4.0 API

• org.apache.http.client.HttpClient
• org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient
 HttpClient 4.0 API

• org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet
• org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost
• org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPut
• org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpDelete
 HttpClient 4.0 API

• org.apache.http.HttpResponse
• org.apache.http.StatusLine
• org.apache.http.HttpEntity
• org.apache.http.utils.EntityUtils
 HttpClient programming

• HTTP response status code

• I/O exceptions
• timeouts
• gzip?
HttpClient programming

synchronous invocation
public HttpResponse execute(HttpUriRequest request)

asynchronous invocation
public HttpResponse execute(HttpUriRequest request,

ResponseHandler handler)
 Android UI thread

• user clicks on button

• onClick listener
• Don’t block the UI thread!
• Tip: use java.lang.Runnable
 Response formats

• XML
• JSON
• RSS, Atom
• other
 XML processing
• org.w3c.dom package (DOM)
• org.xml.sax package (SAX)
• org.xmlpull package (XPP3)
• XStream
• JDOM
• Apache XmlBeans *

* does not work on Android 1.0

 JSON processing
• org.json package
• Google GSON library *

• XStream + Jettison
*

• json-lib
*

* does not work on Android 1.0

 Client libraries
• code.google.com/p/jfireeagle
• code.google.com/p/jpoco
• code.google.com/p/meetup-java-client
• code.google.com/p/upcoming-java-client
• code.google.com/p/gdata-java-client
• flickrj.sourceforge.net
 Conclusion

• HttpClient API
• use XStream for XML processing
• use org.json package for JSON processing
• OAuth has a learning curve
• OAuth affects user experience
Thank you
 Resources

• http://code.google.com/android/documentation.html

• http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client

• http://code.google.com/p/oauth

• http://xstream.codehaus.org