Obtaining URL from http response when no location header is sent

Question

When communicating with http to http://forecast.weather.gov/zipcity.php I need to obtain the URL that is generated from a request.

I have printed out the headers and their values from the http response message but there is no location header. How can I obtain this URL? (I'm using HttpClient)

Solution

It should be similar to:

HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpParams params = client.getParams();
HttpClientParams.setRedirecting(params, false);
HttpGet method = new HttpGet("http://forecast.weather.gov/zipcity.php?inputstring=90210");
HttpResponse resp = client.execute(method);
String location = resp.getLastHeader("Location").getValue();

EDIT: I had to make a couple minor tweaks, but I tested and the above works.

Comments

[joepetrakovich]

How were you able to find that out? I am using the .getAllHeaders() function and printing them all out and a location header was not listed.

[Matthew Flaschen]

@Petra, using LiveHttpHeaders and Firebug. I will post an example shortly. Which version of HttpClient are you using?

[joepetrakovich]

the org.apache.http.client module on Android 2.2

[joepetrakovich]

I downloaded those tools you mentioned and they are awesome! It appears the first response is a redirection to the URL that I am looking for, but when I communicate with the server via HttpClient it seems to be giving me the last http response with a 200 status. Any ideas on obtaining the header info for that very first http response message?

[joepetrakovich]

That looks perfect, what does the .setRedirecting() function doing? I could look it up but since you may be active... My first guess would be that it stops all future http communication after that very first redirection response?

[Matthew Flaschen]

@Petra, that's correct. It just tells the library not to follow the redirects on its own. See also this answer; however, you don't need to create a new params object.