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+Title: Apache commons-httpclient vs. self signed certificates
+Date: 2013-10-03
+Tags: httpclient
+Lang: en
+
+Recently I tried to retrieve HTML pages from a host that was using self signed HTTPS certificates. I used the excellent [Apache commons httpclient](http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-4.2.x/index.html) for the job. Their [tutorial](http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-4.2.x/tutorial/html/) is quite extensive and even gives examples about some customizations that can be made in the context of SSL. But being a good open source documentation, the tutorial only tells you the tiny details of tweaking individual settings, leaving the big picture for you to figure out. 
+
+So how does all the talk about socket factories and SSLContext and friends go together with your [HttpClient](http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/httpclient/apidocs/org/apache/http/client/HttpClient.html)?
+
+Let's assume you already have a HttpClient instance at hand:
+
+    HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
+
+Now let's configure all the socket factories and stuff that's required to make HTTPS traffic with self signed certificates work:
+
+    TrustStrategy trustStrategy = new TrustSelfSignedStrategy();
+    X509HostnameVerifier hostnameVerifier = SSLSocketFactory.ALLOW_ALL_HOSTNAME_VERIFIER;
+    SchemeSocketFactory socketFactory = new SSLSocketFactory(trustStrategy, hostnameVerifier);
+
+And now let's put it all together:
+
+    Scheme https = new Scheme("https", 443, socketFactory);
+    SchemeRegistry registry = client.getConnectionManager().getSchemeRegistry();
+    registry.register(https);