HTTP client : Java Glossary

	recommend book⇒Core Web Programming, Second Edition
		paperback
	ISBN13:	978-0-13-089793-0
	publisher:	Prentice Hall
	published:	2001-06-03
	by:	Marty Hall and Gary Cornell
1250 pages. This is a great doorstop of a book. It has a few chapters on client-server programming in Java, and a section of that is on CGI. I have looked at hundreds of Java books and found nothing that deals in depth with client side Java talking to CGI, except Marty’s book. It is really very simple and he does an excellent job of explaining it. Marty has posted all the source code examples from the book for anyone to use. These contain updates and errata fixes you don’t get on the CD-ROM that comes with the book.
abe books.co.uk abe books.ca amazon.co.uk amazon.ca abe books.de chapters.indigo.ca amazon.de abe books.com abe books.fr amazon.com amazon.fr barnes and noble.com abe books.it powells.com iberlibro.com sony e-books abe books anz

The file IO Amanuensis will generate code for you to handle simple HTTP situations.

You can do your work via general purpose HTTP-client libraries. These are probably overkill in most cases. You would spend more time learning these packages than you would learning how to accomplish the same thing more efficiently with raw sockets or Java’s built-in HTTP using java.net.URLConnection, java.net.HttpURLConnection, javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection and javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection, However, if you have a complex task, check them out.

The main problem with Jakarta HTTPClient is the download is about 3 MB. This is on the plump side for including in an Applet download. You want to get the jar pre-installed at the client in the ext directory or in the Java Web Start cache. The advantage is it behaves the same way on every browser, and it handles most of the client-server interactions at a higher level. You could of course just study the code for use in a stripped down version.