Android download binary file problems

java android download httpurlconnection fileoutputstream
Isaac Waller picture Isaac Waller · Feb 23, 2009 · Viewed 78.4k times · Source

I am having problems downloading a binary file (video) in my app from the internet. In Quicktime, If I download it directly it works fine but through my app somehow it get's messed up (even though they look exactly the same in a text editor). Here is a example:

    URL u = new URL("http://www.path.to/a.mp4?video");
    HttpURLConnection c = (HttpURLConnection) u.openConnection();
    c.setRequestMethod("GET");
    c.setDoOutput(true);
    c.connect();
    FileOutputStream f = new FileOutputStream(new File(root,"Video.mp4"));


    InputStream in = c.getInputStream();

    byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
    int len1 = 0;
    while ( (len1 = in.read(buffer)) > 0 ) {
         f.write(buffer);
    }
    f.close();

Answer

Ry4an Brase picture Ry4an Brase · Feb 23, 2009

I don't know if it's the only problem, but you've got a classic Java glitch in there: You're not counting on the fact that read() is always allowed to return fewer bytes than you ask for. Thus, your read could get less than 1024 bytes but your write always writes out exactly 1024 bytes possibly including bytes from the previous loop iteration.

Correct with:

 while ( (len1 = in.read(buffer)) > 0 ) {
         f.write(buffer,0, len1);
 }

Perhaps the higher latency networking or smaller packet sizes of 3G on Android are exacerbating the effect?

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