Android Gradle Apache HttpClient does not exist?

Question

I am trying to convert an IntelliJ project to the Gradle system of Android Studio but I am running into errors with Apache HttpClient? Am I missing something, the errors I am getting are as follows:

Error:(10, 30) error: package org.apache.http.client does not exist
Error:(11, 30) error: package org.apache.http.client does not exist
Error:(12, 37) error: package org.apache.http.client.entity does not exist
Error:(13, 38) error: package org.apache.http.client.methods does not exist
Error:(14, 38) error: package org.apache.http.client.methods does not exist
Error:(15, 38) error: package org.apache.http.client.methods does not exist
Error:(16, 35) error: package org.apache.http.impl.client does not exist
Error:(134, 33) error: cannot find symbol class HttpUriRequest
Error:(164, 39) error: cannot find symbol class HttpUriRequest
Error:(106, 17) error: cannot find symbol class HttpGet
Error:(106, 39) error: cannot find symbol class HttpGet
Error:(117, 17) error: cannot find symbol class HttpPost
Error:(117, 40) error: cannot find symbol class HttpPost
Error:(125, 43) error: cannot find symbol class UrlEncodedFormEntity
Error:(135, 9) error: cannot find symbol class HttpClient
Error:(135, 33) error: cannot find symbol class DefaultHttpClient
Error:(155, 18) error: cannot find symbol class ClientProtocolException
Error:(165, 9) error: cannot find symbol class HttpClient
Error:(165, 33) error: cannot find symbol class DefaultHttpClient
Error:(185, 18) error: cannot find symbol class ClientProtocolException

My build.gradle file has the following dependencies:

dependencies {
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:+'
    compile 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient:4.2.6'
    compile 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpmime:4.2.6'
    compile files('libs/core.jar')
}

It seems a lot of people are getting a similar problem but neither SO or Google have a solution so I am hoping this question will help future searchers.

Answer 1

I suggest you replace the deprecated apache HttpClient with the new HttpURLConnection.

That's a cleaner solution, it's quite easy to migrate, and generally it's better to stick to the latest SDK changes than trying to hack/patch/workaround: you usually regret it later :)

Step 1

HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url);

becomes:

URL urlObj = new URL(url);

Step 2

HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpContext localContext = new BasicHttpContext();
HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpGet, localContext);
InputStream is = response.getEntity().getContent();

becomes:

HttpURLConnection urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) urlObj.openConnection();
InputStream is = urlConnection.getInputStream();

Step 2 bis

int status = response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode();

becomes:

int status = urlConnection.getResponseCode();