public String readResponse(HttpResponse response) { String output = ""; HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity(); try { trapException(response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode()); } catch (CrowdFlowerException e1) { e1.printStackTrace(); } InputStream instream; try { instream = entity.getContent(); BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(instream)); // do something useful with the response output = output + reader.readLine(); instream.close(); } catch (IllegalStateException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } return output; }