Android Question HTTP File Download fails on Android 4,5 but not on A6

[alfcen]

The code below ties up to the HTTP library. The files are correctly downloaded with an Android 6.0 phone, but produce a "Forbidden" or "Phone offline" error message with Anroid 4.x and 5.x. The remote server is online. My user says it did work before with Android 5.1 in that I am at a loss. Using B4A Ver 6.5 target Sdk=19.

If I am using obsolete or depreciated code it should not work with the latest Android version.

#Region Module Attributes
    #StartAtBoot: False
#End Region

'Service module
Sub Process_Globals
    Dim hc As HttpClient
End Sub

Sub Service_Create
    hc.Initialize("hc")
End Sub

Sub Service_Start'(StartingIntent As Intent)
    Dim Request1 As HttpRequest
    Request1.InitializeGet("http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_HMII.jpg")
    hc.Execute(Request1, 0)
    Dim Request2 As HttpRequest
    Request2.InitializeGet("http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_0304.jpg")
    hc.Execute(Request2, 1)       
End Sub

Sub Service_Destroy

End Sub

Sub hc_ResponseSuccess (Response As HttpResponse, TaskId As Int)
    Response.GetAsynchronously("ImageResponse", File.OpenOutput(File.DirInternal, TaskId, False), True, TaskId)   
End Sub

Sub hc_ResponseError (Response As HttpResponse, Reason As String, StatusCode As Int, TaskId As Int)
    If StatusCode = -1 Then Reason = "Phone is offline"
    ToastMessageShow(Reason ,False)
    If Response <> Null Then Response.Release
    ProgressDialogHide
End Sub

Sub ImageResponse_StreamFinish (Success As Boolean, TaskId As Int)
    If Success = False Then
        ToastMessageShow(LastException.Message, False)
        Return
    End If
    CallSub2(sunspots,"DownloadComplete", TaskId)
End Sub

 

[Erel]

You should never use HttpClient directly.

The first step is to use OkHttpUtils2. It will be simpler.
You might need to add a user agent header: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/set-http-request-header-with-httputils2.39413/#content

 

[alfcen]

Thank you, Erel. Since the direct approach with HttpClient always worked until recently,
is it reasonable to assume that the download site is newly expecting a request header while
only Android 6 appears to send a header without my doing?

 

[Erel]

Hard to say. However the first step should be to switch to OkHttpUtils2 as OkHttp includes many improvements and OkHttpUtils2 is simpler to use.