[ANNOUNCEMENT] HttpComponents Client 4.4-alpha1 Released

[Oleg Kalnichevski <ol...@apache.org>]

The Apache HttpComponents project is pleased to announce 4.4-alpha1
release of HttpComponents HttpClient. Notable features and enhancements
included in the 4.4 series are:

* More efficient stale connection checking: indiscriminate connection
checking which results in approximately 20 to 50 ms overhead per request
has been deprecated in favor of conditional connection state validation
(persistent connections are to be re-validated only if a specified
period inactivity has elapsed)

* Native Windows Negotiate/NTLM via JNA: when running on Windows OS
HttpClient configured to use native NTLM or SPNEGO authentication
schemes can make use of platform specific functionality via JNA and
authenticate with current user system credentials

* Authentication cache thread-safety: authentication caches used by
HttpClient is now thread-safe and can be shared by multiple threads in
order to re-use authentication state for subsequent requests

This release also includes all fixes from the stable 4.3.x release
branch.

Please note that as of 4.4 HttpClient requires Java 1.6 or newer.

Please note that new features included in this release are still
considered experimental and their API may change in the future 4.4 alpha
and beta releases.

Download -
<http://hc.apache.org/downloads.cgi>
Release notes -
<https://www.apache.org/dist/httpcomponents/httpclient/RELEASE_NOTES-4.4.x.txt>
HttpComponents site -
<http://hc.apache.org/>

About HttpComponents HttpClient

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.

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.