Features
      
        
          - Standards based, pure Java, implementation of HTTP versions 1.0 and 1.1
          
- Full implementation of all HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, 
              HEAD, OPTIONS, and TRACE) in an extensible OO framework.
          
- Supports encryption with HTTPS (HTTP over SSL) protocol.
          
- Granular non-standards configuration and tracking.
          
- Transparent connections through HTTP proxies.
          
- Tunneled HTTPS connections through HTTP proxies, via the CONNECT method.
          
- Transparent connections through SOCKS proxies (version 4 & 5) using native Java 
              socket support.
          
- Authentication using Basic, Digest and the encrypting NTLM (NT Lan Manager) methods.
          
- Plug-in mechanism for custom authentication methods.
          
- Multi-Part form POST for uploading large files.
          
- Pluggable secure sockets implementations, making it easier to use third party solutions
          
- Connection management support for use in multi-threaded applications.  Supports setting the
              maximum total connections as well as the maximum connections per host.  Detects and closes 
              stale connections.
          
- Automatic Cookie handling for reading Set-Cookie: headers from the server and sending
            them back out in a Cookie: header when appropriate.
          
- Plug-in mechanism for custom cookie policies.
          
- Request output streams to avoid buffering any content body by streaming
            directly to the socket to the server.
          
- Response input streams to efficiently read the response body by streaming
            directly from the socket to the server.
          
- Persistent connections using KeepAlive in HTTP/1.0 and persistance in HTTP/1.1
          
- Direct access to the response code and headers sent by the server.
          
- The ability to set connection timeouts.
          
- HttpMethods implement the Command Pattern to allow for parallel requests
            and efficient re-use of connections.
          
- Source code is freely available under the Apache Software License.
          
Standards Compliance
      
        HttpClient implements the following specifications
        endorsed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 
        and the internet at large:
        
          - RFC1945
            Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.0
          
- RFC2616
            Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1
          
- RFC2617
            HTTP Authentication: Basic and Digest Access Authentication
          
- RFC2109
            HTTP State Management Mechanism (Cookies)
          
- RFC2396
            Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax
          
- RFC1867
            Form-based File Upload in HTML
          
Product Comparision
      
        The HTTP protocol is so ubiquitous on the internet that you can find other
        client side implementations written in Java.  The jdk has the HttpUrlConnection
        which is limited and in many ways flawed.  This is one reason why Jakarta, and
        others free and commercial vendors, have implemented independant HTTP clients.
        To help you choose the right solution, one of those commercial vendors, Oakland Software, has a fair 
        product comparison.