Sending and receiving data from a web service using Android

This is the method I wrote to handle just that. In my case, I am using JSON for the data I receive because it is much more compact than XML. I suggest using the Google GSON library to convert objects to and from json:

Gson gson = new Gson();
JsonReply result = gson.fromJson(jsonResult, JsonReply.class);

      

        
        
        
      

    

Where JsonReply is just a pojo to store some data. You can see google java docs on how to use gson in your case. Also, I must say that this method works with all types of characters. I use it mainly for cyrillic sendign data.

public String postAndGetResult(String script, List<NameValuePair> postParameters){
    String returnResult = "";
    BufferedReader in = null;
    try {
        HttpParams httpParameters = new BasicHttpParams();
        HttpProtocolParams.setContentCharset(httpParameters, "UTF-8");
        HttpProtocolParams.setHttpElementCharset(httpParameters, "UTF-8");
        HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient(httpParameters);
        client.getParams().setParameter("http.protocol.version",
                HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);
        client.getParams().setParameter("http.socket.timeout",
                new Integer(2000));
        client.getParams().setParameter("http.protocol.content-charset",
                "UTF-8");
        httpParameters.setBooleanParameter("http.protocol.expect-continue",
                false);
        HttpPost request = new HttpPost(SERVER + script + "?sid="
                + String.valueOf(Math.random()));
        request.getParams().setParameter("http.socket.timeout",
                new Integer(5000));
        UrlEncodedFormEntity formEntity = new UrlEncodedFormEntity(
                postParameters, "UTF-8");
        request.setEntity(formEntity);
        HttpResponse response = client.execute(request);
        in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(response.getEntity()
                .getContent()));
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer("");
        String line = "";
        String NL = System.getProperty("line.separator");
        while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
            sb.append(line + NL);
        }
        in.close();
        returnResult = sb.toString();
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        return "";
    } finally {
        if (in != null) {
            try {
                in.close();
            } catch (IOException e) {
            }
        }
    }
    return returnResult;
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

Hope this helps. Good luck :)