Download Files over Internet
(Android phone – how-to/example)
If you need to download a file on your Android from a remote site, here is one option. First it should be a good idea to compress whatever you store on the internet, thus it will transfer much faster. Given Java/Android have implemented the java.util.zip package, zip should be a very good option for your compression.
(for unzipping your files, it may be a good idea to consult the post on this topic)
You will need two packages:
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;
URL u = new URL(url_filename);
HttpURLConnection c = (HttpURLConnection) u.openConnection();
c.setRequestMethod(”GET”);
c.setDoOutput(true);
c.connect();
InputStream in = c.getInputStream();
// use “in” to save the file locally
Note: for a nice status bar you may use c.getContentLength().
Note2: pay attention that not any type of file may be transferred this way; depending on the remote file type – the HTTP will parse your file, and sometimes issue parsing warnings and errors.
