public static String httpGet(final URL url) {
		Assert.notNull(url, "The URL must be specified");
		RestTemplate template = new RestTemplate();

		try {
			String result = template.getForObject(url.toURI(), String.class);
			return result;
		}
		catch (URISyntaxException uriException) {
			throw new IllegalStateException(uriException.getMessage(), uriException);
		}
	}
Executes a http get for the client and returns the results as a string

@param url The location to execute the get against.
@return the string result of the get
spring-xd-integration-test/src/main/java/org/springframework/xd/integration/util/StreamUtils.java