how to send a string to a servlet from a java program

I have a simple piece of code to attempt connecting to the servlet url and invoke the doPost in the servlet to send along a string (actually I am trying to send some xml strings eventually, but just want to see if this simple string will work first). I put a break point in the servlet doGet or doPost method and it's not stopping there at all! But when I just go straight to that servlet from Internet explorer by typing in http://localhost:8080/Testing Servlets/hello in the address, it hit the servlet's break point, so that's why I know that this piece of HTTP_poster code does not seem to hit that servlet when I run it on the command line. It doesn't even print the "cannot send the string to servlet" in the catch! So I am not sure where it sent to then! I am running the servlet in a simple Tomcat 6.0 environment. Any help or wisdom would be very appreciated. Thanks!

import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;

public class HTTP_poster
	{
	    static URL u;
	    public static void main(String args[])
	    {
	    	HttpURLConnection conn = null;
	    	  BufferedReader br = null;
	    	  DataOutputStream dos = null;
	    	  DataInputStream inStream = null;
	    	  String boundary =  "*****";

String urlString = "http://localhost:8080/Testing Servlets/hello";
	    	
		try
		{
		                 URL url = new URL(urlString);

// Open a HTTP connection to the URL

conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
			   conn.setDoInput(true);
			   conn.setDoOutput(true);
			   conn.setUseCaches(false);

// Use a post method.
			   conn.setRequestMethod("POST");

conn.setRequestProperty("Connection", "Keep-Alive");
			   conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "multipart/form-data;boundary="+boundary);
			   dos = new DataOutputStream( conn.getOutputStream() );
			   dos.writeBytes("Hello Servlet");
			   dos.flush();
			   dos.close();
                                            }catch (Exception ex) {
                                                  System.out.println("cannot send the string to servlet");                                            }
                                }
                     }

The servlet code is also quite simple:

public class HelloServlet extends HttpServlet {
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

/**
	 * @see HttpServlet#doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
	 */
	protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
		Object obj;
		StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
		PrintWriter out= response.getWriter();

try {
		        sb.append("<html><body bgcolor=purple text=red>");
		sb.append("<h1 align=center> Hurrah got your line</hr><hr>");
		sb.append("</body></html>");
		out.println(sb);
		out.close();
		} catch (Exception ex) {
			
			sb.append("<html><body bgcolor=pink text=red>");
			sb.append("<h1 align=center> Cannot get your line</hr><hr>");
			sb.append("</body></html>");
			out.println(sb);
			out.close();
		}
                 }
	
	protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
		doPost(request,response);
	}

}

For one thing the URL in your sending program is not well-formed. It needs to be URL-encoded: so instead of "http://localhost:8080/Testing Servlets/hello" it should be "http://localhost:8080/Testing%20Servlets/hello". (Browsers do this on your behalf without telling you.)

However I would fix that by not having a space in the application's context name -- that space leads to too much confusion.