[ANNOUNCEMENT] HttpComponents Client 5.2 GA Released

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

The Apache HttpComponents project is pleased to announce 5.2 GA release
of HttpComponents HttpClient.

This is the first GA release in the 5.2 release series. This release
finalizes the 5.2 APIs and corrects several minir defects discovered
since the previous release.

Please note that 5.2 upgrades the minimal JRE level to version 8 (8u251
is required).

Please note this is likely to be the last release series with support
for SPNEGO and NTLM authentication. As of version 5.3 GSS-API-based
authentication schemes (Kerberos, SPNEGO) and NTLM authentication
schemes are going to be deprecated and disabled by default.

Notable changes and features included in the 5.2 series:

* Upgrade to Java 8.

* Improved support for TLS upgrade and HTTP protocol upgrade (async).

* Support for H2 tunneling via HTTP/1.1 proxy.

* Conformance to RFC 7617 (The 'Basic' HTTP Authentication Scheme).

* Migration to Java 8 Time primitives in State Management and Cache
APIs.

* Connection and TLS configuration on a per route basis.

* Base64 codec based on Commons Codec replaced with JRE Base64 codec.
Dependency on Commons Codec dropped.

* Optional support for BR (Brotli) decompression.

Download - <http://hc.apache.org/downloads.cgi>
Release notes -
<https://www.apache.org/dist/httpcomponents/httpclient/RELEASE_NOTES-5.2.x.txt
HttpComponents site - <http://hc.apache.org/>

About HttpComponents HttpClient

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