Use URI builder in Android or create URL with variables

Question

I'm developing an Android app. I need to build a URI for my app to make an API request. Unless there's another way to put a variable in a URI, this is the easiest way I've found. I found that you need to use Uri.Builder, but I'm not quite sure how to. My url is:

http://lapi.transitchicago.com/api/1.0/ttarrivals.aspx?key=[redacted]&mapid=value 

My scheme is http, authority is lapi.transitchicago.com, path is /api/1.0, path segment(s) is ttarrivals.aspx, and query string is key=[redacted]&mapid=value.

My code is below:

Intent intent = getIntent();
String value = intent.getExtras().getString("value");
Uri.Builder builder = new Uri.Builder();
builder.scheme("http")
    .authority("www.lapi.transitchicago.com")
    .appendPath("api")
    .appendPath("1.0")
    .appendPath("ttarrivals.aspx")
    .appendQueryParameter("key", "[redacted]")
    .appendQueryParameter("mapid", value);

I understand that I can do URI.add, but how do I integrate it into the Uri.Builder? Should I add everything like URI.add(scheme), URI.add(authority) and so on? Or is that not the way to do it? Also, is there any other easier way to add a variable to a URI/URL?

Answer 1

Let's say that I want to create the following URL:

https://www.myawesomesite.com/turtles/types?type=1&sort=relevance#section-name

To build this with the Uri.Builder I would do the following.

Uri.Builder builder = new Uri.Builder();
builder.scheme("https")
    .authority("www.myawesomesite.com")
    .appendPath("turtles")
    .appendPath("types")
    .appendQueryParameter("type", "1")
    .appendQueryParameter("sort", "relevance")
    .fragment("section-name");
String myUrl = builder.build().toString();