How to make API requests using Volley for Android App Development

In this blog post we'll go over how to make API requests using the Volley Android library, for Android app development.

Steps for sending an API request using Volley:

1. Instantiate the RequestQueue object. This RequestQueue object does two things: transports requests along a network and caches the requests sent along it. The network that Volley uses by default is the BasicNetwork class. Here is an example of a RequestQueue object being instantiated:

RequestQueue queue = Volley.newRequestQueue(this);

2. Create a request using Request Constructors. The four parameters that they use are in the following order: HTTP Request type, Request URL, the Success response listener, the Error response listener. Here is an example code snippet demonstrating the use of the StringRequest request constructor:

StringRequest stringRequest = new StringRequest(Request.Method.GET, URL,
            new Response.Listener<String>() {
    @Override
    public void onResponse(String response) {
        // Display the first 500 characters of the response string.

    }
}, new Response.ErrorListener() {
    @Override
    public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {

    }
});

3. Add the request to the RequestQueue object via the following command:

queue.add(request);

After running the above command, Volley will send the API request immediately. If it is a success, the success callback function will be triggered(the 3rd argument in the StringRequest() object). If it fails, then the error callback function will be executed(the 4th argument in the StringRequest() object)

That is all that is required to send an API request using the Volley Android Library. I hope this tutorial was helpful!

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this blog post!

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