Establishing https Connection using java 6

[kart siri]

Hi,
I am running java 6 and want to know how to establish an https connection.

Basically I am trying to connect an https url through a program running on the same machine.

[John Jai]

You shall check the javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection class and search code samples on how https connection is established using the class.

[Rob Spoor]

You start with java.net.URL to get a URLConnection. For http URLs this is an instance of an unknown sub class of HttpURLConnection so you can cast it. For https URLs it should be an instance of an unknown sub class of HttpsURLConnection so you can cast it as well, or cast to HttpURLConnection if you don't need any methods of HttpsURLConnection.

Alternatively you can use a third party library like HttpComponents (previously HttpClient) or HtmlUnit.

[kart siri]

I have used URL.openConnection() to open an https connection, but i always get the below exception on execution of connection.getResponseCode()

javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.fatal(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.processMessage(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.processLoop(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.process_record(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(Unknown Source)
at java.net.HttpURLConnection.getResponseCode(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getResponseCode(Unknown Source)

I have enabled HTTPS port on my tomcat and i have .keystore file in home directory.
I have used "keytool" to generate the .keystore file.