Java Utililty Methods URL Open

BufferedReader openReader(String aUrl)
convenience method for opening a buffered reader to an url, standard timeout is set to 500 milliseconds

URL myURL = new URL(aUrl);
HttpURLConnection c = (HttpURLConnection) myURL.openConnection();
c.setConnectTimeout(500);
return new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new BufferedInputStream(c.getInputStream()), "UTF-8"));

BufferedInputStream openStream(String aURL)
open Stream

URL myURL = new URL(aURL);
HttpURLConnection c = (HttpURLConnection) myURL.openConnection();
c.setConnectTimeout(500);
return new BufferedInputStream(c.getInputStream());

InputStream openURL(URL source_url)
Note1: it is the caller's responsibility to close the returned InputStream.

if (false) {
 System.out.println("Util::openUrl( " + source_url + " )");
InputStream input_stream = null;
URLConnection url_connection = source_url.openConnection();
url_connection.setUseCaches(true);
if (url_connection instanceof HttpURLConnection) {
 HttpURLConnection http_conn = (HttpURLConnection) url_connection;
...

HttpURLConnection openURLConnection(final URL couchdbURL)
open URL Connection

try {
 return (HttpURLConnection) couchdbURL.openConnection();
} catch (IOException ioe) {
 throw new RuntimeException(ioe);