Hi all,
I'm thinking about reworking the way the constructors and startSession
methods work in the HttpClient class. I think it's a little confusing
right now. Currently HttpClient has three constructors:
HttpClient()
HttpClient(URL url)
HttpClient(URL url, String user, String password)
and three startSession methods:
startSession()
startSession(URL url)
startSession(String hostname, String port)
I think that this will introduct too much confusion. For example, what
happens when I do the following?
HttpClient client = new HttpClient(new URL("http://java.sun.com";));
client.startSession();
You may think that you've opened a session on "java.sun.com:80", but what
you've actually done is opened a session for "localhost:80". Even if we
noted this in the javadocs, I still think programmers would screw it
up. Also worthy of note is that the above code instantiates the State
object twice before it is even used. :(
I think a more clear API would be only two constructors and only two start
session methods:
HttpClient()
HttpClient(String user, String password)
startSession(URL url)
startSession(String hostname, String port)
This will have the added advantage of not having to instantiate the State
objects multiple times for a single request.
Also, the javadocs should note that using startSession(URL) only populates
the hostname and port, not the path of any subsequent HttpMethods.
- Morgan
