org.openqa.selenium.remote.internal.ApacheHttpClient is deprecated in Selenium 3.14.0 - What should be used instead?

Question

I am currently using Selenium 3.14.0 library in which org.openqa.selenium.remote.internal.ApacheHttpClient is deprecated with no other information. Which should be used instead?

The class is already removed in the next version, 3.141.59.

I am using it with EdgeDriver Service like following:

final int connectionTimeout = 2 * 60 * 1000;
final int socketTimeout = 10 * 60 * 1000; // 10 minute timeout
final ApacheHttpClient.Factory clientFactory = new ApacheHttpClient.Factory(
    new HttpClientFactory(connectionTimeout, socketTimeout));

...

edgeDriverService = new EdgeDriverService.Builder()
                        .usingDriverExecutable(edgeDriver)
                        .usingAnyFreePort()
                        .build();
edgeDriverService.start();
HttpCommandExecutor executor = new HttpCommandExecutor(
    new HashMap<>(), edgeDriverService.getUrl(), clientFactory);
WebDriver driver = new RemoteWebDriver(executor, new EdgeOptions());

Answer 1

The HTTP client was switched to okhttp: http://square.github.io/okhttp/

This is mentioned in the Selenium Java CHANGELOG of version 3.11.0 and also you can see it in the source code.

Answer 2

A couple of facts:

• The Java RemoteWebDriver client uses a CommandExecutor to send commands to a RemoteWebDriver. By default, RemoteWebDriver uses an HttpCommandExecutor which uses the Apache HttpClient library to send the commands.
• As per the CHANGELOG
  • The HttpClient implementation details were out of HttpCommandExecutor right from Selenium v2.45.0.
  • With the availability of Selenium v3.11, Selenium Grid was switched to use OkHttp rather than the Apache HttpClient.
  • Further with the release of Selenium v3.141.0, Apache HttpClient was removed from selenium-server-standalone which drastically reduced the size of selenium server distribution package.
  • Even the apache-backed httpclient was also removed.