Android: How to set a HTTP connection timeout and react to it?

Question

I am working on an Android app that needs to read a line from a web page right when it starts. I am doing this with the following code:

try{
        URL url = new URL("http://www.example.com");
        HttpURLConnection con = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(con.getInputStream()));
        line = reader.readLine();
}
catch(Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
}

It is working fine, but sometimes the connection or the server are slow, and the app freezes or crashes.

I want to put a timeout of 5 seconds, and should it reach that timeout I want to show a toast to the user saying the network is busy, asking him to try again later.

I tried the HttpURLConnection setConnectTimeout() method but it didn't work.

Any clues how I can achieve this? Thanks forehand.

Maxim · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-19 22:29:00Z

3

Probably better solution if you setConnectionTimeout to 5 sec, catch SocketTimeoutException and show Toast from there. When you set ConnectionTimeout to some value and connection didn't get response code will throw SocketTimeoutException. Here you can catch it and call handler to show a toast in UI. Finally will close the connection and release memory.

class MyHttpClient extends DefaultHttpClient {
    @Override
    protected ClientConnectionManager createClientConnectionManager() {
        registry.register(new Scheme("http", PlainSocketFactory.getSocketFactory(), 80));
        registry.register(new Scheme("https", 
            mSSLSocketFactory != null 
            ? mSSLSocketFactory 
            : SSLSocketFactory.getSocketFactory(), 
            443));

    return new SingleClientConnManager(getParams(), registry);
}

   MyHttpClient httpClient = new MyHttpClient();

    // set http params
    HttpParams params = httpClient.getParams();
    params.setParameter(CoreConnectionPNames.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT, new Integer(30000));
    params.setParameter(CoreConnectionPNames.SO_TIMEOUT, new Integer(30000));
    httpClient.setParams(params);

    ....
    httpClient.execute(httpUriRequest)

edited Sep 19, 2013 at 22:29

answered Jul 24, 2012 at 20:22

Maxim

4,2448 gold badges53 silver badges77 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

Daniel Scocco Over a year ago

OK, but I am guessing I need to set the timeout before I call the "HttpURLConnection con = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();" line, right? Cause I guess that line actually performs the connection?

Maxim Over a year ago

@DanielS Ask more if something doesn't work I will update with more details.

Noman Over a year ago

@Maxim.. you have any idea about this stackoverflow.com/questions/16996820/…

Alexander · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-24 20:45:12Z

1

Consider using AndroidHttpClient class instead, it has nice preset timeouts so you wouldn't have to do anything.

answered Jul 24, 2012 at 20:45

Alexander

48.4k40 gold badges110 silver badges163 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Android: How to set a HTTP connection timeout and react to it?

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related