Sending HTTP DELETE request in Android

Question

My client\'s API specifies that to remove an object, a DELETE request must be sent, containing Json header data describing the content. Effectively it\'s the same call as ad

Answer 1

Try below method for call HttpDelete method, it works for me, hoping that work for you as well

String callHttpDelete(String url){

             try {
                    HttpParams httpParams = new BasicHttpParams();
                    HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(httpParams, 15000);
                    HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(httpParams, 15000);

                    //HttpClient httpClient = getNewHttpClient();
                    HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();// httpParams);


                    HttpResponse response = null;    
                    HttpDelete httpDelete = new HttpDelete(url);    
                    response = httpClient.execute(httpDelete); 

                    String sResponse;

                    StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder();

                    while ((sResponse = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                        s = s.append(sResponse);
                    }

                    Log.v(tag, "Yo! Response recvd ["+s.toString()+"]");
                    return s.toString();
                } catch (Exception e){
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
              return s.toString();
        }

Answer 2

The problematic line is con.setDoOutput(true);. Removing that will fix the error.

You can add request headers to a DELETE, using addRequestProperty or setRequestProperty, but you cannot add a request body.

Answer 3

This is a limitation of HttpURLConnection, on old Android versions (<=4.4).

While you could alternatively use HttpClient, I don't recommend it as it's an old library with several issues that was removed from Android 6.

I would recommend using a new recent library like OkHttp:

OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
Request.Builder builder = new Request.Builder()
    .url(getYourURL())
    .delete(RequestBody.create(
        MediaType.parse("application/json; charset=utf-8"), getYourJSONBody()));

Request request = builder.build();

try {
    Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();
    String string = response.body().string();
    // TODO use your response
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}