The Back to the Future example no longer works.

[copenhaverjf]

This is more an FYI.. but I was very confused when I couldn't get your example to work. I had to make the protocol https in order to get it to work properly. I suspect this is because of an internal negotiation on the webpage to switch from http to https but I'm unsure. Just wanted to let you know.

[n0mer]

@copenhaverjf are you going to submit PR ?

[timothystone]

I looked at this too. There is an open PR, #15 that addresses the some redirects. The root cause is found in how HttpURLConnection handles the switch from http (insecure) and https (secure). It just won't do it, it is internally coded not to do this for reasons somewhat lost to history, but discussed online as a decision with Java Networking and Security teams.

HttpURLConnection can do the work, but it requires a loop reading the response for Location: headers and handing max redirects. Some of this is in #15. As noted, HttpURLConnection automatically follows redirects on the same protocol.