I am trying to grab some data from Delicious, using URL class,
URL url = URL(u); url.openStream(); open stream fails with 401,
url i am using is,
String("https://" + creds + "@api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/recent");
creds is a base64 encoded string e.g. user:pass encoded, i also tried non encoded form that fails also, can someone tell me what i am missing?
UPDATE: As pointed out below, the URL class does have some mechanism for handling user authentication. However, the OP is correct that the del.icio.us service returns a 401 using code as shown above (verified with my own account, and I am providing the correct credentials .. sending them in the url unencoded).
Modifying the code slightly, however, works just fine by specifying the Authorization header manually:
URL url = new URL("https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/suggest"); byte[] b64 = Base64.encodeBase64("username:pass".getBytes()); URLConnection conn = url.openConnection(); conn.setRequestProperty("Authorization", "Basic " + new String(b64)); BufferedReader r = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream())); while(r.ready()){ System.out.println(r.readLine()); } 
You need to provide a password authenticator like this,
Authenticator.setDefault( new Authenticator() { @Override protected PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication() { return new PasswordAuthentication(username, password.toCharArray() ); } } ); However, this will add a round-trip because it has to wait for 401. You can set authentication header preemptively like this,
String credential = username + ":" + password; String basicAuth = "Basic " + Base64.encode(credential.getBytes("UTF-8")); urlConnection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", basicAuth); 
