Question

import java.io.BufferedReader;    
import java.io.InputStreamReader;    
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;    
import java.net.URL;    
import java.io.DataOutputStream;        
import java.io.InputStream;

public class TestingPost {

 public static void main(String args[]) {

    URL url;
    HttpURLConnection connection = null;  
    String targetURL=".....";//here is my local server url
    String urlParameters="{\"clubhash\":\"100457d41b9-ab22-4825-9393-ac7f6e8ff961\",\"username\":\"anonymous\",\"message\":\"simply awesome\",\"timestamp\":\"2012/11/05 13:00:00\"}";

    try {
      //Create connection
      url = new URL(targetURL);
      connection = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
      connection.setRequestMethod("POST");
      connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", 
           "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");

      connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Length", "" + 
               Integer.toString(urlParameters.getBytes().length));
      connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Language", "en-US");  

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

      //Send request
      DataOutputStream wr = new DataOutputStream (
                  connection.getOutputStream ());
      wr.writeBytes (urlParameters);
      wr.flush ();
      wr.close ();

      //Get Response    
      InputStream is = connection.getInputStream();
      BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));
      String line;
      StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer(); 
      while((line = rd.readLine()) != null) {
        response.append(line);
        response.append('\r');
      }
      rd.close();
      System.out.println("message="+response.toString());

    } catch (Exception e) {

      e.printStackTrace();

    } finally {

      if(connection != null) {
        connection.disconnect(); 
      }
    }
  }

}

I am trying to send a JSON Object using the HTTP POST method. Above is the code but I am getting

java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 415 for URL: ....
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(Unknown Source)
at TestingPost.main(TestingPost.java:38)"

What is wrong with my code?

Answer 1

The HTTP response code you get is

415 Unsupported Media Type

This means that the server can not handle the format you sent to it. Your HTTP request sets this header:

Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

This is the content type sent by a browser if a form is submitted. If you want to send JSON, use this header:

Content-Type: application/json