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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html><head><title>HttpClient - HttpClient Home</title><style type="text/css" media="all">

@import url("./style/maven-base.css");

@import url("./style/maven-theme.css");@import url("./style/project.css");</style><link rel="stylesheet" href="./style/print.css" type="text/css" media="print"></link><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"></meta><meta name="author" content="HttpComponents Team"></meta><meta name="email" content="httpcomponents-dev@jakarta.apache.org"></meta><meta name="author" content="Rodney Waldhoff"></meta><meta name="email" content="rwaldhoff@apache.org"></meta><meta name="author" content="Jeff Dever"></meta><meta name="email" content="jsdever@apache.org"></meta></head><body class="composite"><div id="banner"><a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/" id="organizationLogo"><img alt="Apache Software Foundation" src="http://jakarta.apache.org/images/jakarta-logo.gif"></img></a><a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/httpcomponents/httpclient-3.x/" id="projectLogo"><img alt="HttpClient" src="./images/httpclient_logo.png"></img></a><div class="clear"><hr></hr></div></div><div id="breadcrumbs"><div class="xleft">Last published: 18 August 2007

<span class="separator">|</span>�Doc for 3.1

</div><div class="xright"></div><div class="clear"><hr></hr></div></div><div id="leftColumn"><div id="navcolumn"><div id="menuOverview"><h5>Overview</h5><ul><li class="none"><a href="features.html">Features</a></li><li class="none"><a href="news.html">News</a></li><li class="none"><a href="status.html">Status</a></li><li class="none"><a href="downloads.html">Download</a></li><li class="none"><a href="http://wiki.apache.org/jakarta-httpclient/" class="externalLink" title="External Link">Wiki</a></li><li class="expanded"><a href="userguide.html">User Guide</a><ul><li class="none"><a href="authentication.html">Authentication Guide</a></li><li class="none"><a href="charencodings.html">Character Encodings</a></li><li class="none"><a href="cookies.html">Cookies</a></li><li class="none"><a href="exception-handling.html">Exception Handling</a></li><li class="none"><a href="logging.html">Logging Guide</a></li><li class="none"><a href="methods.html">Methods</a></li><li class="none"><a href="performance.html">Optimization Guide</a></li><li class="none"><a href="preference-api.html">Preference Architecture</a></li><li class="none"><a href="redirects.html">Redirects Handling</a></li><li class="none"><a href="http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/jakarta/httpcomponents/oac.hc3x/trunk/src/examples/" class="externalLink" title="External Link">Sample Code</a></li><li class="none"><a href="sslguide.html">SSL Guide</a></li><li class="none"><a href="threading.html">Threading</a></li><li class="none"><a href="troubleshooting.html">Trouble Shooting</a></li><li class="none"><a href="tutorial.html">Tutorial</a></li></ul></li><li class="none"><a href="developerguide.html">Developer Guide</a></li></ul></div><div id="menuProject_Documentation"><h5>Project Documentation</h5><ul><li class="none"><strong><a href="index.html">About</a></strong></li><li class="collapsed"><a href="project-info.html">Project Info</a></li><li class="collapsed"><a href="maven-reports.html">Project Reports</a></li><li class="none"><a href="development-process.html">Development Process</a></li></ul></div><div id="legend"><h5>Legend</h5><ul><li class="externalLink">External Link</li><li class="newWindow">Opens in a new window</li></ul></div><a href="http://maven.apache.org/" title="Built by Maven" id="poweredBy"><img alt="Built by Maven" src="./images/logos/mavenlogo_builtby_w.png"></img></a></div></div><div id="bodyColumn"><div class="contentBox"><div class="section"><a name="Introduction"></a><h2>Introduction</h2>

<p>

The Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is perhaps the most

significant protocol used on the Internet today.

Web services, network-enabled appliances and the growth

of network computing continue to expand the role of the HTTP

protocol beyond user-driven web browsers, while increasing the

number of applications that require HTTP support.

</p>

<p>

Although the <tt>java.net</tt>

package provides basic functionality for accessing resources via HTTP,

it doesn't provide the full flexibility or functionality needed

by many applications. The Jakarta Commons <em>HttpClient</em>

component 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. See the <a href="features.html">Features</a> page

for more details on standards compliance and capabilities.

</p>

<p>

Designed for extension while providing robust support for the

base HTTP protocol, the <em>HttpClient</em> component 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.

</p>

<p>

There are many projects that use <em>HttpClient</em> to provide the core HTTP functionality.

Some of these are open source with project pages you can find on the web

while others are closed source that you would never see or hear about.

The Apache Source License provides maximum flexibility for source and binary

reuse. Please see the <a href="http://wiki.apache.org/jakarta-httpclient/HttpClientPowered" class="externalLink" title="External Link">

Applications</a> page for projects using <em>HttpClient</em>.

</p>

</div><div class="section"><a name="History"></a><h2>History</h2>

<p>

<em>HttpClient</em> was started in 2001 as a subproject of the

Jakarta Commons, based on code developed by the

<a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/slide/">Jakarta Slide</a> project.

It was promoted out of the Commons in 2004, graduating to a separate

Jakarta project. In 2005, the

<a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/httpcomponents/">HttpComponents</a>

project at Jakarta was created, with the task of developing a successor

to <em>HttpClient 3.x</em> and to maintain the existing codebase until

the new one is ready to take over.

The <a href="http://commons.apache.org/" class="externalLink" title="External Link">Commons</a> project,

cradle of <em>HttpClient</em>,

left <a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/">Jakarta</a>

in 2007 to become an independent Top Level Project.

For the time being, <em>HttpClient</em> still has it's home with

<em>HttpComponents</em> at Jakarta.

</p>

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