Well, it kinda depends but usually …
no.
As per javadoc;
Each HttpURLConnection instance is used to make a single request but the underlying network connection to the HTTP server may be transparently shared by other instances. Calling the
close()methods on the InputStream or OutputStream of an HttpURLConnection after a request may free network resources associated with this instance but has no effect on any shared persistent connection. Calling thedisconnect()method may close the underlying socket if a persistent connection is otherwise idle at that time.
In simpler terms …
I don’t say it is a mistake. But, disconnect is extreme case (socket close open operations are costly), unless you really want I wouldn’t go for it.
stream.close()releases most of the network resources and should be enough. Again, if your requirement is ok to create socket everytime, there is nothing wrong in calling disconnect.
~ Nambari
Example;
//Initialize variables
InputStream responseInputStream = null;
HttpURLConnection conn = null;
int responseCode = -1;
try {
// Create a connection
URL url = new URL(targetURL);
conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
// SET FANCY DETAILS HERE
// Starts the connection
conn.connect();
// Get the response code
responseCode = conn.getResponseCode();
// Check the response code, if the HTTP response code is 4nn
// (Client Error) or 5nn (Server Error), then you may want to
// read the HttpURLConnection#getErrorStream() to see if the
// server has sent any useful error information.
if (responseCode < 400) {
// Get the response InputStream if all is well
responseInputStream = conn.getInputStream();
}
else if (responseCode >= 400) {
// Get the response ErrorStream if we got an error instead
responseInputStream = conn.getErrorStream();
}
}
catch (IOException e) {
// YOU CAN DO WHATEVER HERE
e.printStackTrace();
}
finally {
// Makes sure that the InputStream is closed after
// we are done with it
if (responseInputStream != null) {
try {
responseInputStream.close();
}
catch (IOException e) {
// YOU CAN DO WHATEVER HERE
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
That should do.