The code finally used is the following from:
http://www.java2s.com/Code/Java/File-Input-Output/ConvertInputStreamtoString.htm
public static String convertStreamToString(InputStream is) throws Exception {
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
String line = null;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
sb.append(line).append("\n");
}
reader.close();
return sb.toString();
}
public static String getStringFromFile (String filePath) throws Exception {
File fl = new File(filePath);
FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream(fl);
String ret = convertStreamToString(fin);
//Make sure you close all streams.
fin.close();
return ret;
}