How can I programmatically test an HTTP connection?

Question

Using Java, how can I test that a URL is contactable, and returns a valid response?

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Answer 1

Since java 5 if i recall, the InetAdress class contains a method called isReachable(); so you can use it to make a ping implementation in java. You can also specify a timeout for this method. This is just another alternative to the unit test method posted above, which is probably more efficient.