HTTP Client Attributes

[Cantor, Scott]

> Okay, I think I understand but let me ask: Are the following statements true?
> 
> - Regardless of the value of the httpCaching attribute, a
> FileBackedHTTPMetadataProvider caches the response headers (but not the
> response body) and subsequently performs HTTP conditional GET.

It caches one of the two caching headers so it can do conditional GET, I wouldn't really say it caches "the headers" overall.

> - Regardless of the value of the httpCaching attribute, a
> DynamicHTTPMetadataProvider never performs HTTP conditional GET.

That depends how you draw the lines. The code inside that plugin doesn’t, it expects the HttpClient it uses to do it if that's what somebody wants it to do.

Both of them as a functional component do conditional GET, they just do so in different ways in response to different settings because one of them is designed to entirely hide the HttpClient bean (there's virtually no reason to care about that layer for the batch plugin) and the other is almost certainly relying on a custom bean in any real world deployment.

If I'm using an HTTP client lookup in real time, you can be damn sure I am configuring every last bit of that bean.

Wiki structure aside, the settings we're talking about really should be buried in the FileBacked case as "you're never going to touch these, but if you care..."
 
-- Scott