How to use webview or open URL in AndEngine - Android

Question

I'm utilizing a game engine called AndEngine (which I'm completely new to) in my Android app. I need to load a different URL from the application based on what position an onscreen joystick is in (uploading to a .cgi server). The dilemma is that I cannot open a URL connection! This may seem simple, but I've looked everywhere, tried multiple solutions and nothing's worked. In basic Android, I've always used a WebView (loadUrl() method), and it worked well. However, I have no idea to how to create a webview while also using AndEngine. My preference is that the connection did not show (loaded underneath the AndEngine scene?) because I will need the screen for other things. I've also tried other solutions. I just tried this code, but when I checked the server, nothing was opened:

    @Override
public void onLoadResources() {

    //methods n/a to this question

    try {
        URL url = new URL(setUrl);
        HttpURLConnection con = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
        readStream(con.getInputStream());
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return scene; // AndEngine return statement
}

private void readStream(InputStream in) {
    BufferedReader reader = null;
    try {
        reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
        String line = "";
        while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
            System.out.println(line);
        }
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } finally {
        if (reader != null) {
            try {
                reader.close();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
}

**I've tried using the HTTPConnection class before (without AndEngine) to open up a URL, but to no avail. So it may be that I was just doing something wrong here. Using AndEngine GLES2. If more info is needed, let me know (this is my first question on SO).

Also tried setting up my .xml layout on AndEngine using

@Override
protected int getLayoutID() {
return R.layout.main;
}

but it says: "The method getLayoutID() of type Control must override or implement a supertype method"

Edit in response to Nicolas Gramlich: Internet permissions were set and compiler was originally at 1.6. Still don't know what the issue is.

Answer 1

I solved my issue. I had to run all network operations on a thread separate from the main one (else it will throw a NetworkOnMainThread exception). I don't know why nothing else worked, but this did the trick! Here I'm creating a new thread with the action I want to perform, and then starting it after exceptions are taken care of. I found my answer here

new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpContext localContext = new BasicHttpContext();
HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet("your_url");
try {
HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpGet, localContext);
} catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}).start();