Java PUT example please

Question

I am attempting to send a user update to valance and I am looking for an example of how to do a put, specifically, a put to update a user.

I have looked around but do not see an example of how to use the UserContext to send a json block using Java.

Any pointers to documentation would be appreciated.

Answer 1

After tinkering with this, and with a great number of suggestions from my colleague (Who I am not sure wants to be identified so i will just call him Bill). We came up with the following Java method(should really be split into separate methods but it is understandable)

private static String getValanceResult(ID2LUserContext userContext,
        URI uri, String query, String sPost, String sMethod, int attempts) {

    String sError = "Error: An Unknown Error has occurred";
    if (sMethod == null) {
        sMethod = "GET";
    }

    URLConnection connection;
    try {
        URL f = new URL(uri.toString() + query);

        //connection = uri.toURL().openConnection();
        connection = f.openConnection();
    } catch (NullPointerException e) {
        return "Error: Must Authenticate";
    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
        return "Error: " + e.getMessage();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        return "Error: " + e.getMessage();
    }


    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

    try {
        // cast the connection to a HttpURLConnection so we can examin the
        // status code
        HttpURLConnection httpConnection = (HttpURLConnection) connection;
        httpConnection.setRequestMethod(sMethod);
        httpConnection.setConnectTimeout(20000);
        httpConnection.setReadTimeout(20000);
        httpConnection.setUseCaches(false);
        httpConnection.setDefaultUseCaches(false);
        httpConnection.setDoOutput(true);


        if (!"".equals(sPost)) {
            //setup connection
            httpConnection.setDoInput(true);
            httpConnection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/json");


            //execute connection and send xml to server
            OutputStreamWriter writer = new OutputStreamWriter(httpConnection.getOutputStream());
            writer.write(sPost);
            writer.flush();
            writer.close();
        }

        BufferedReader in;
        // if the status code is success then the body is read from the
        // input stream
        if (httpConnection.getResponseCode() == 200) {
            in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                    httpConnection.getInputStream()));
            // otherwise the body is read from the output stream
        } else {
            in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                    httpConnection.getErrorStream()));
        }

        String inputLine;
        while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
            sb.append(inputLine);
        }
        in.close();

        // Determine the result of the rest call and automatically adjusts
        // the user context in case the timestamp was invalid
        int result = userContext.interpretResult(
                httpConnection.getResponseCode(), sb.toString());
        if (result == ID2LUserContext.RESULT_OKAY) {
            return sb.toString();
            // if the timestamp is invalid and we haven't exceeded the retry
            // limit then the call is made again with the adjusted timestamp
        } else if (result == userContext.RESULT_INVALID_TIMESTAMP
                && attempts > 0) {
            return getValanceResult(userContext, uri, query, sPost, sMethod, attempts - 1);
        } else {
            sError = sb + " " + result;
        }
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
        return "Error: Exception while parsing";
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        // 404
        return "Error: URI Incorrect";
    } catch (IOException e) {
    }
    return sError;
}