diff --git a/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt b/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt
index 85acdcfcb96..c0ca6fc8f2e 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/CHANGES.txt
@@ -18,6 +18,10 @@ New Features
 ----------------------
 * SOLR-1499: Added SolrEntityProcessor that imports data from another Solr core or instance based on a specified query.
              (Lance Norskog, Erik Hatcher, Pulkit Singhal, Ahmet Arslan, Luca Cavanna, Martijn van Groningen)
+             Additional Work:
+             SOLR-3190: Minor improvements to SolrEntityProcessor. Add more consistency between solr parameters
+             and parameters used in SolrEntityProcessor and ability to specify a custom HttpClient instance.
+             (Luca Cavanna via Martijn van Groningen)
 
 Changes in Runtime Behavior
 ----------------------
diff --git a/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/SolrEntityProcessor.java b/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/SolrEntityProcessor.java
index c2c169e4e73..6a1b411c811 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/SolrEntityProcessor.java
+++ b/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/SolrEntityProcessor.java
@@ -17,16 +17,6 @@ package org.apache.solr.handler.dataimport;
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
-import static org.apache.solr.handler.dataimport.DataImportHandlerException.SEVERE;
-import static org.apache.solr.handler.dataimport.DataImportHandlerException.wrapAndThrow;
-
-import java.net.MalformedURLException;
-import java.net.URL;
-import java.util.Collection;
-import java.util.HashMap;
-import java.util.Iterator;
-import java.util.Map;
-
 import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient;
 import org.apache.commons.httpclient.MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager;
 import org.apache.solr.client.solrj.SolrQuery;
@@ -37,9 +27,20 @@ import org.apache.solr.client.solrj.impl.XMLResponseParser;
 import org.apache.solr.client.solrj.response.QueryResponse;
 import org.apache.solr.common.SolrDocument;
 import org.apache.solr.common.SolrDocumentList;
+import org.apache.solr.common.params.CommonParams;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Iterator;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+import static org.apache.solr.handler.dataimport.DataImportHandlerException.SEVERE;
+import static org.apache.solr.handler.dataimport.DataImportHandlerException.wrapAndThrow;
+
 /**
  * <p>
  * An implementation of {@link EntityProcessor} which fetches values from a
@@ -58,15 +59,8 @@ public class SolrEntityProcessor extends EntityProcessorBase {
   
   public static final String SOLR_SERVER = "url";
   public static final String QUERY = "query";
-  /**
-   * (format="javabin|xml") default is javabin
-   */
-  public static final String FORMAT = "format";
-  public static final String ROWS = "rows";
-  public static final String FIELDS = "fields";
-  public static final String FQ = "fq";
   public static final String TIMEOUT = "timeout";
-  
+
   public static final int TIMEOUT_SECS = 5 * 60; // 5 minutes
   public static final int ROWS_DEFAULT = 50;
   
@@ -75,10 +69,22 @@ public class SolrEntityProcessor extends EntityProcessorBase {
   private int rows = ROWS_DEFAULT;
   private String[] filterQueries;
   private String[] fields;
+  private String queryType;
   private int timeout = TIMEOUT_SECS;
   
   private boolean initDone = false;
-  
+
+  /**
+   * Factory method that returns a {@link HttpClient} instance used for interfacing with a source Solr service.
+   * One can override this method to return a differently configured {@link HttpClient} instance.
+   * For example configure https and http authentication.
+   *
+   * @return a {@link HttpClient} instance used for interfacing with a source Solr service
+   */
+  protected HttpClient getHttpClient() {
+    return new HttpClient(new MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager());
+  }
+
   @Override
   protected void firstInit(Context context) {
     super.firstInit(context);
@@ -89,23 +95,21 @@ public class SolrEntityProcessor extends EntityProcessorBase {
         throw new DataImportHandlerException(DataImportHandlerException.SEVERE,
             "SolrEntityProcessor: parameter 'url' is required");
       }
-      HttpClient client = new HttpClient(
-          new MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager());
+
+      HttpClient client = getHttpClient();
       URL url = new URL(serverPath);
-      
-      if ("xml".equals(context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(FORMAT))) {
-        solrServer = new CommonsHttpSolrServer(url, client,
-            new XMLResponseParser(), false);
+      // (wt="javabin|xml") default is javabin
+      if ("xml".equals(context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(CommonParams.WT))) {
+        solrServer = new CommonsHttpSolrServer(url, client, new XMLResponseParser(), false);
         LOG.info("using XMLResponseParser");
       } else {
         solrServer = new CommonsHttpSolrServer(url, client);
         LOG.info("using BinaryResponseParser");
       }
-      
     } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
       throw new DataImportHandlerException(DataImportHandlerException.SEVERE, e);
     }
-    
+
     this.queryString = context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(QUERY);
     if (this.queryString == null) {
       throw new DataImportHandlerException(
@@ -114,21 +118,21 @@ public class SolrEntityProcessor extends EntityProcessorBase {
       );
     }
     
-    String rowsP = context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(ROWS);
+    String rowsP = context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(CommonParams.ROWS);
     if (rowsP != null) {
       rows = Integer.parseInt(rowsP);
     }
     
-    String fqAsString = context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(FQ);
+    String fqAsString = context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(CommonParams.FQ);
     if (fqAsString != null) {
       this.filterQueries = fqAsString.split(",");
     }
     
-    String fieldsAsString = context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(FIELDS);
+    String fieldsAsString = context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(CommonParams.FL);
     if (fieldsAsString != null) {
       this.fields = fieldsAsString.split(",");
     }
-    
+    this.queryType = context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(CommonParams.QT);
     String timeoutAsString = context.getResolvedEntityAttribute(TIMEOUT);
     if (timeoutAsString != null) {
       this.timeout = Integer.parseInt(timeoutAsString);
@@ -181,6 +185,7 @@ public class SolrEntityProcessor extends EntityProcessorBase {
         solrQuery.addField(field);
       }
     }
+    solrQuery.setQueryType(queryType);
     solrQuery.setFilterQueries(filterQueries);
     solrQuery.setTimeAllowed(timeout * 1000);
     
diff --git a/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/test/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/TestSolrEntityProcessorEndToEnd.java b/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/test/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/TestSolrEntityProcessorEndToEnd.java
index dbd7df085f7..89b95c89402 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/test/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/TestSolrEntityProcessorEndToEnd.java
+++ b/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler/src/test/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/TestSolrEntityProcessorEndToEnd.java
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ public class TestSolrEntityProcessorEndToEnd extends AbstractDataImportHandlerTe
     
     try {
       addDocumentsToSolr(SOLR_DOCS);
-      runFullImport(generateDIHConfig("query='*:*' rows='2' fields='id,desc' onError='skip'", jetty.getLocalPort()));
+      runFullImport(generateDIHConfig("query='*:*' rows='2' fl='id,desc' onError='skip'", jetty.getLocalPort()));
     } catch (Exception e) {
       LOG.error(e.getMessage(), e);
       fail(e.getMessage());
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ public class TestSolrEntityProcessorEndToEnd extends AbstractDataImportHandlerTe
     
     try {
       addDocumentsToSolr(generateSolrDocuments(7));
-      runFullImport(generateDIHConfig("query='*:*' fields='id' rows='2'", jetty.getLocalPort()));
+      runFullImport(generateDIHConfig("query='*:*' fl='id' rows='2'", jetty.getLocalPort()));
     } catch (Exception e) {
       LOG.error(e.getMessage(), e);
       fail(e.getMessage());
@@ -231,7 +231,7 @@ public class TestSolrEntityProcessorEndToEnd extends AbstractDataImportHandlerTe
     assertQ(req("*:*"), "//result[@numFound='0']");
     
     try {
-      runFullImport(generateDIHConfig("query='*:*' rows='2' fields='id,desc' onError='skip'", jetty.getLocalPort()));
+      runFullImport(generateDIHConfig("query='*:*' rows='2' fl='id,desc' onError='skip'", jetty.getLocalPort()));
     } catch (Exception e) {
       LOG.error(e.getMessage(), e);
       fail(e.getMessage());
@@ -244,7 +244,7 @@ public class TestSolrEntityProcessorEndToEnd extends AbstractDataImportHandlerTe
     assertQ(req("*:*"), "//result[@numFound='0']");
     
     try {
-      runFullImport(generateDIHConfig("query='bogus:3' rows='2' fields='id,desc' onError='abort'", jetty.getLocalPort()));
+      runFullImport(generateDIHConfig("query='bogus:3' rows='2' fl='id,desc' onError='abort'", jetty.getLocalPort()));
     } catch (Exception e) {
       LOG.error(e.getMessage(), e);
       fail(e.getMessage());