Sending a POST to a RESTful Web Service in Java/WebSphere Commerce

During one of the projects i had to make a post to a RESTful Web Service, and with IBM Info-center not coming to rescue as is the case in 50% of the times, i was able to achieve this using the following code. Thought will share with you all, in case someone is on the same boat ...

import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.ResponseHandler;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.BasicResponseHandler;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.protocol.HTTP;

public class RestfulPostExample {
     public final static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
         String parms = "Customer=001b000000BBJTw&TransactionDate=2013-09-10&LoyaltyPoints=100";
         HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
         try {
             HttpPost httpRequest = new HttpPost("https://blah.blah.blah/services/rest/transaction");
             httpRequest.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");

            HttpEntity httpEntity = new StringEntity(parms, HTTP.UTF_8);
             httpRequest.setEntity(httpEntity);
             
             System.out.println("Executing Request: " + httpRequest.getURI());
             
             // Create a response handler
             ResponseHandler<String> responseHandler = new BasicResponseHandler();
             String responseBody = httpclient.execute(httpRequest, responseHandler);
             System.out.println("----------------------------------------");
             System.out.println(responseBody);
             System.out.println("----------------------------------------");

        } finally {
             // When HttpClient instance is no longer needed,
             // shut down the connection manager to ensure
             // immediate deallocation of all system resources
             httpclient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
         }
     }   
 }