public static String downloadFromUrl(String my_url) { URL url; InputStream is = null; BufferedReader br; String line; String content = ""; try { url = new URL(my_url); is = url.openStream(); // throws an IOException br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is)); while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) { content += line; } } catch (MalformedURLException mue) { return null; } catch (IOException ioe) { return null; } finally { try { if (is != null) { is.close(); } } catch (IOException ioe) { // nothing to see here } } return content; }