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we have a Spring project that is about to go into production. Currently, the project is using Apache Http Client. There is a thought of using RestTemplate as HttpClient.

I am digging around to see any notable advantage of using RestTemplate over Apache's. Also, it would be interesting to know what HTTP transport does RestTemplate in its implementation. Apache Http Client has been used by several groups for many years and has a good reputation.

would we be risking moving to RestTemplate?

Further, this blog points that RestTemplate needs to be configured for production, although the configuration is minimal.

Thanks

brain storm
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1 Answers1

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RestTemplate and HttpClient don't operate at the same abstraction level.

HttpClient is a general-purpose library to communicate using HTTP, whereas RestTemplate is a higher-level abstraction, dealing with JSON/XML transformation of entities, etc.

RestTemplate delegates to a ClientHttpRequestFactory, and one of the implementations of this interface uses Apache's HttpClient.

So, if the goal is to communicate with a Restful API, and you still want to use HttpClient, you can use RestTemplate over HttpClient.

Note that what I just said is exactly what the blog you linked to explains:

So, the solution is to use the org.springframework.http.client.HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory, which is a ClientHttpRequestFactory delegating the creation of the requests to an HttpClient.

JB Nizet
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    but what's the difference? they seem to provide the same function – user2441441 Jun 18 '20 at 22:44
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    @user2441441 Think of it like one those garden tools with a fancy handle where you can switch out the actual tool head from a rake to a hoe or something. RestTemplate is the fancy handle which is nice to use. It happens to come with a head installed, but you can switch out the head with something else. In this case, the head is HttpClient, which you can use by itself, but it's a bit clunky, and it's good practice to use an abstraction. – MichaelRom May 15 '21 at 16:06