authentication - Download a file from the internet using java : How to authenticate?

Question

Thanks to this thread How to download and save a file from Internet using Java? I know how to download a file, now my problem is that I need to authenticate on the sever from which I'm dowloading. It's an http interface to a subversion server. Which field do I need to look up into ?

Using the code posted in the last comment, I get this exception:

java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 401 for URL: http://myserver/systemc-2.0.1.tgz
    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:1305)
    at java.net.URL.openStream(URL.java:1009)
    at mypackage.Installer.installSystemc201(Installer.java:29)
    at mypackage.Installer.main(Installer.java:38)

Thanks,

Answer 1

You extend the Authenticator class and register it. The javadocs at the link explain how.

I don't know if this works with the nio method that got the accepted answer to the question, but it for sure works for the old fashioned way that was the answer under that one.

Within the authenticator class implementation, you are probably going to use a PasswordAuthentication and override the getPasswordAuthentication() method of your Authenticator implementation to return it. That will be the class which is passed the user name and password you need.

Per your request, here is some sample code:

public static final String USERNAME_KEY = "username";
public static final String PASSWORD_KEY = "password";
private final PasswordAuthentication authentication;

public MyAuthenticator(Properties properties) {
    String userName = properties.getProperty(USERNAME_KEY);
    String password = properties.getProperty(PASSWORD_KEY);
    if (userName == null || password == null) {
        authentication = null;
    } else {
        authentication = new PasswordAuthentication(userName, password.toCharArray());
    }
}

protected PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication() {
    return authentication;
}

And you register it in the main method (or somewhere along the line before you call the URL):

Authenticator.setDefault(new MyAuthenticator(properties));

The usage is simple, but I find the API convoluted and kind of backwards for how you typically think about these things. Pretty typical of singleton design.