I am using HttpClient within a servlet to make calls to a resource which I return as the servlets response after some manipulation.
My HttpClient uses PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.
I create the client like so:
private CloseableHttpClient getConfiguredHttpClient(){
return HttpClientBuilder
.create()
.setDefaultRequestConfig(config)
.setConnectionReuseStrategy(NoConnectionReuseStrategy.INSTANCE)
.setConnectionManagerShared(true)
.setConnectionManager(connManager)
.build();
}
I use this client within a Try With Resource within the servlets service method, so it is auto closed. To stop the the connection manager from being closed, I set setConnectionManagerShared to true.
I have seen other code samples that do not close the HttpClient. Should I not be closing this resource?
Thanks
For other versions of httpcomponents, see other answers.
For older versions of httpcomponents (http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-4.2.x/quickstart.html):
You do not need to explicitly close the HttpClient, however, (you may be doing this already but worth noting) you should ensure that connections are released after method execution.
Edit: The ClientConnectionManager within the HttpClient is going to be responsible for maintaining the state of connections.
GetMethod httpget = new GetMethod("http://www.url.com/");
try {
httpclient.executeMethod(httpget);
Reader reader = new InputStreamReader(httpget.getResponseBodyAsStream(), httpget.getResponseCharSet());
// consume the response entity and do something awesome
} finally {
httpget.releaseConnection();
}