This is the second BETA release of HttpClient 4.3. The most notable features and improvements in the 4.3 branch are:
* Support for Java 7 try-with-resources for resource management (connection release.) * Added fluent Builder classes for HttpEntity, HttpRequest, HttpClient and SSLContext instances. * Deprecation of preference and configuration API based on HttpParams interface in favor of constructor injection and plain configuration objects. * Reliance on object immutability instead of access synchronization for thread safety. Several old classes whose instances can be shared by multiple request exchanges have been replaced by immutable equivalents. * DefaultHttpClient, DecompressingHttpClient, CachingHttpClient and similar classes are deprecated in favor of builder classes that produce immutable HttpClient instances. * HttpClient builders now dynamically construct a request execution pipeline tailored specifically to the user configuration by physically excluding unnecessary protocol components. * There is now an option to construct a minimal HttpClient implementation that can only execute basic HTTP message exchanges without redirects, authentication, state management or proxy support. This feature might be of particular use in web crawler development. * There is now option to avoid strict URI syntax for request URIs by executing HTTP requests with an explicitly specified target host. HttpClient will no longer attempt to parse the request URI if it does not need to extract the target host from it. * Better OSGi integration when running inside an OSGi containter. The summary of the new HttpClient configuration and preference API can be found here: http://wiki.apache.org/HttpComponents/HttpClientConfiguration This release also includes all fixes from the stable 4.2.x release branch. ------------------- Download - <http://hc.apache.org/downloads.cgi> Release notes - <http://www.apache.org/dist/httpcomponents/httpclient/RELEASE_NOTES.txt> HttpComponents site - <http://hc.apache.org/> ------------------- About Apache HttpClient Although the java.net package provides basic functionality for accessing resources via HTTP, it doesn't provide the full flexibility or functionality needed by many applications. HttpClient seeks to fill this void by providing an efficient, up-to-date, and feature-rich package implementing the client side of the most recent HTTP standards and recommendations. Designed for extension while providing robust support for the base HTTP protocol, HttpClient may be of interest to anyone building HTTP-aware client applications such as web browsers, web service clients, or systems that leverage or extend the HTTP protocol for distributed communication.
