android - java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal character in query at index 59

Question

What i am doing: I am trying to make a reverse geocoding in android

I am getting error as:: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal character in query at index 59: http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Agram, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India&sensor=false

NOte: that request gets a json response in browser but not from my class below

This line is giving this error::

HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet(url);

---

JSONfunctions.java

public class JSONfunctions {

    public static JSONObject getJSONfromURL(String url) {
        InputStream is = null;
        String result = "";
        JSONObject jArray = null;

        // Download JSON data from URL
        try {
            HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
            HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet(url);

            HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
            is = entity.getContent();

        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e("log_tag", "Error in http connection " + e.toString());
        }

        // Convert response to string
        try {
            BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                    is, "iso-8859-1"), 8);
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            String line = null;
            while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                sb.append(line + "
");
            }
            is.close();
            result = sb.toString();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e("log_tag", "Error converting result " + e.toString());
        }

        try {

            jArray = new JSONObject(result);
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            Log.e("log_tag", "Error parsing data " + e.toString());
        }

        return jArray;
    }
}

Answer 1

Use URLEncoder.encode() to encode the value of your address parameter "Agram, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India" before putting it in the URL string so that it becomes something like

http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Agram,+Bengaluru,+Karnataka,+India&sensor=false

i.e. spaces changed to + and other special octets represented as %xx.

Browsers do smart URL encoding for strings entered in the address bar automatically so that's why it works there.