Working with the HTTP client

In this section, we will review Java's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client, starting with a look at the old, pre-Java 9 client and then diving into the new HTTP client that is part of the current Java platform. Finally, we will take a look at the limitations of the current HTTP client. This approach is needed to support an understanding of the changes.

The pre-Java 9 HTTP client

JDK version 1.1 introduced the HttpURLConnection API that supported HTTP-specific features. This was a robust class that included the following fields:

chunkLength fixedContentLength fixedContentLengthLong HTTP_ACCEPTED HTTP_BAD_GATEWAY HTTP_BAD_METHOD HTTP_BAD_REQUEST HTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT HTTP_CONFLICT HTTP_CREATED...