The HTTP Client defines types that support publishing and subscribing to HTTP request and response bodies, respectively. These types, HttpRequest.BodyPublisher and HttpResponse.BodySubscriber, add some HTTP protocol specific behavior and API semantics beyond that of their supertypes, Flow.Publisher and Flow.Subscriber, respectively.

It is desirable for the HTTP Client to operate with "regular" Flow.Subscribers and Flow.Publishers without every developer having to write their own wrappers or adapters, which could lead to bugs. Supporting "regular" Flow.Subscribers and Flow.Publishers broadens the possible set of body processors that can be used, and enables better integration with existing technologies that already use RX Flow.

This issue is being filed as a result of feedback received on JEP 321, from James Roper at lightbend dot com [1].


[1] http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/net-dev/2017-December/thread.html#11063