Current StatusThe HttpClient development team is pleased to announce the third release candidate of HttpClient 2.0 . We are confident that HttpClient 2.0 has reached the required level of maturity, and we hope to have a final 2.0 release soon. Only critical or major bug fixes and javadocs enhancements will be made to the 2.0 code base before the final release. Meanwhile, the HttpClient development team has been busy working toward a post 2.0 release. The next version of HttpClient is going to build upon the foundation laid with HttpClient 2.0 while addressing those architectural shortcomings and flaws identified in the course of 2.0 development. Several well known and much complained about problems cannot be resolved while maintaining complete 2.0 API compatibility. The primary objective of the next version is to fix those design limitations, breaking 2.0 API compatibility where absolutely unavoidable, while preserving overall compatibility with 2.0 use patterns. We already have a new preference architecture in place that will help us provide a fine-grained control over HttpClient without polluting its API with too many options. We have also completely reworked redirect/authentication/retry logic and can now support cross-host redirects, a much complained about limitation of HttpClient 2.0 . Depending upon how drastic those API changes are going to b e, the next version of HttpClient will be designated as 2.1 , 2.5 or 3.0 . The decision will be made prior to the 2.0 final release. It is important to note that HttpClient CVS HEAD is no longer fully compatible with 2.0 APIs. We strongly encourage using the HTTPCLIENT_2_0_BRANCH until the next version's APIs are stabilized. |