Using Java to Call RESTful web services

The following code snippet demonstrates how to call a RESTful web service that requires BASIC Authentication:

public static String connectToResource() {

     String result = "";
     String status = "";

     try {
         URL url = new URL("http://localhost:8080/WEB_APP/RESOURCE/PRODUCT_ID");
         HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
         connection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", "Basic " + 
              new String(com.sun.jersey.core.util.Base64.encode(username + ":" + password)));
         connection.setRequestMethod("GET");
         BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(connection.getInputStream()));
         while ((result = in.readLine()) != null)
              status += result;
         in.close();
     }
     catch (MalformedURLException e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
     }
     catch (IOException e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
     }
     return status;
}