Android - How to download a file from a webserver

Using Async task

call when you want to download file : new DownloadFileFromURL().execute(file_url);

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    // Progress Dialog
    private ProgressDialog pDialog;
    public static final int progress_bar_type = 0;

    // File url to download
    private static String file_url = "http://www.qwikisoft.com/demo/ashade/20001.kml";

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        new DownloadFileFromURL().execute(file_url);

    }

    /**
     * Showing Dialog
     * */

    @Override
    protected Dialog onCreateDialog(int id) {
        switch (id) {
        case progress_bar_type: // we set this to 0
            pDialog = new ProgressDialog(this);
            pDialog.setMessage("Downloading file. Please wait...");
            pDialog.setIndeterminate(false);
            pDialog.setMax(100);
            pDialog.setProgressStyle(ProgressDialog.STYLE_HORIZONTAL);
            pDialog.setCancelable(true);
            pDialog.show();
            return pDialog;
        default:
            return null;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Background Async Task to download file
     * */
    class DownloadFileFromURL extends AsyncTask<String, String, String> {

        /**
         * Before starting background thread Show Progress Bar Dialog
         * */
        @Override
        protected void onPreExecute() {
            super.onPreExecute();
            showDialog(progress_bar_type);
        }

        /**
         * Downloading file in background thread
         * */
        @Override
        protected String doInBackground(String... f_url) {
            int count;
            try {
                URL url = new URL(f_url[0]);
                URLConnection connection = url.openConnection();
                connection.connect();

                // this will be useful so that you can show a tipical 0-100%
                // progress bar
                int lenghtOfFile = connection.getContentLength();

                // download the file
                InputStream input = new BufferedInputStream(url.openStream(),
                        8192);

                // Output stream
                OutputStream output = new FileOutputStream(Environment
                        .getExternalStorageDirectory().toString()
                        + "/2011.kml");

                byte data[] = new byte[1024];

                long total = 0;

                while ((count = input.read(data)) != -1) {
                    total += count;
                    // publishing the progress....
                    // After this onProgressUpdate will be called
                    publishProgress("" + (int) ((total * 100) / lenghtOfFile));

                    // writing data to file
                    output.write(data, 0, count);
                }

                // flushing output
                output.flush();

                // closing streams
                output.close();
                input.close();

            } catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e("Error: ", e.getMessage());
            }

            return null;
        }

        /**
         * Updating progress bar
         * */
        protected void onProgressUpdate(String... progress) {
            // setting progress percentage
            pDialog.setProgress(Integer.parseInt(progress[0]));
        }

        /**
         * After completing background task Dismiss the progress dialog
         * **/
        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(String file_url) {
            // dismiss the dialog after the file was downloaded
            dismissDialog(progress_bar_type);

        }

    }
}

if not working in 4.0 then add:

StrictMode.ThreadPolicy policy = new StrictMode.ThreadPolicy.Builder().permitAll().build();
StrictMode.setThreadPolicy(policy); 

Simple kotlin version

fun download(link: String, path: String) {
    URL(link).openStream().use { input ->
        FileOutputStream(File(path)).use { output ->
            input.copyTo(output)
        }
    }
}

is there anyway to get the download progress or downloaded size from this method ?

This is the same realization as defined in InputStream.copyTo, but with progress

/*inline*/ fun download(link: String, path: String, progress: ((Long, Long) -> Unit)? = null): Long {
    val url = URL(link)
    val connection = url.openConnection()
    connection.connect()
    val length = if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) connection.contentLengthLong else
        connection.contentLength.toLong()
    url.openStream().use { input ->
        FileOutputStream(File(path)).use { output ->
            val buffer = ByteArray(DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE)
            var bytesRead = input.read(buffer)
            var bytesCopied = 0L
            while (bytesRead >= 0) {
                output.write(buffer, 0, bytesRead)
                bytesCopied += bytesRead
                progress?.invoke(bytesCopied, length)
                bytesRead = input.read(buffer)
            }
            return bytesCopied
        }
    }
}

An example of usage:

val handler = object : Handler(Looper.getMainLooper()) {

    override fun handleMessage(msg: Message) {
        // length may be negative because it is based on http header
        val (progress, length) = msg.obj as Pair<Long, Long>
    }
}

// call this outside of main thread
val totalSize = download("http://example.site/path/to/file", "path/to/file") { progress, length ->
    // handling the result on main thread
    handler.sendMessage(handler.obtainMessage(0, progress to length))
}