Java HTTP Client Request with defined timeout

Question

I would like to make BIT (Built in tests) to a number of server in my cloud. I need the request to fail on large timeout.

How should I do this with java?

Trying something like the below does not seem to work.

public class TestNodeAliveness {
 public static NodeStatus nodeBIT(String elasticIP) throws ClientProtocolException, IOException {
  HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
  client.getParams().setIntParameter("http.connection.timeout", 1);

  HttpUriRequest request = new HttpGet("http://192.168.20.43");
  HttpResponse response = client.execute(request);

  System.out.println(response.toString());
  return null;
 }


 public static void main(String[] args) throws ClientProtocolException, IOException {
  nodeBIT("");
 }
}

-- EDIT: Clarify what library is being used --

I'm using httpclient from apache, here is the relevant pom.xml section

 <dependency>
   <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
   <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
   <version>4.0.1</version>
   <type>jar</type>
 </dependency>

Answer 1

HttpParams is deprecated in the new Apache HTTPClient library. Using the code provided by Laz leads to deprecation warnings.

I suggest to use RequestConfig instead on your HttpGet or HttpPost instance:

final RequestConfig params = RequestConfig.custom().setConnectTimeout(3000).setSocketTimeout(3000).build();
httpPost.setConfig(params);

Answer 2

If you are using Http Client version 4.3 and above you should be using this:

RequestConfig requestConfig = RequestConfig.custom().setConnectTimeout(30 * 1000).build();
HttpClient httpClient = HttpClientBuilder.create().setDefaultRequestConfig(requestConfig).build();

Answer 3

I found that setting the time out settings in HttpConnectionParams and HttpConnectionManager did not solve our case. We're limited to using org.apache.commons.httpclient version 3.0.1.

I ended up using an java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService to monitor the HttpClient.executeMethod() call.

Here's a small, self-contained example

import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.EntityEnclosingMethod;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.PostMethod;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.multipart.FilePart;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.multipart.MultipartRequestEntity;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.multipart.Part;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.*;

/**
 * @author Jeff Kirby
 * @since <pre>Jun 17, 2011</pre>
 */
public class Example {

   private static final String SITE = "http://some.website.com/upload";
   private static final int TIME_OUT_SECS = 5;

   // upload a file and return the response as a string
   public String post(File file) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
      final Part[] multiPart = { new FilePart("file", file.getName(), file) };
      final EntityEnclosingMethod post = new PostMethod(SITE);
      post.setRequestEntity(new MultipartRequestEntity(multiPart, post.getParams()));
      final ExecutorService executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
      final List<Future<Integer>> futures = executor.invokeAll(Arrays.asList(new KillableHttpClient(post)), TIME_OUT_SECS, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
      executor.shutdown();
      if(futures.get(0).isCancelled()) {
         throw new IOException(SITE + " has timed out. It has taken more than " + TIME_OUT_SECS + " seconds to respond");
      }
      return post.getResponseBodyAsString();
   }

   private static class KillableHttpClient implements Callable<Integer> {

      private final EntityEnclosingMethod post;

      private KillableHttpClient(EntityEnclosingMethod post) {
         this.post = post;
      }

      public Integer call() throws Exception {
         return new HttpClient().executeMethod(post);
      }
   }
}

Answer 4

It looks like you are using the HttpClient API, which I know nothing about, but you could write something similar to this using core Java.

try {

   HttpURLConnection con = (HttpURLConnection) new URL(url).openConnection();
   con.setRequestMethod("HEAD");
   con.setConnectTimeout(5000); //set timeout to 5 seconds
   return (con.getResponseCode() == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK);

} catch (java.net.SocketTimeoutException e) {
   return false;
} catch (java.io.IOException e) {
   return false;
}

Answer 5

HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(params, 10*60*1000);// for 10 mins i have set the timeout

You can as well define your required time out.

Answer 6

This was already mentioned in a comment by benvoliot above. But, I think it's worth a top-level post because it sure had me scratching my head. I'm posting this in case it helps someone else out.

I wrote a simple test client and the CoreConnectionPNames.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT timeout works perfectly in that case. The request gets canceled if the server doesn't respond.

Inside the server code I was actually trying to test however, the identical code never times out.

Changing it to time out on the socket connection activity (CoreConnectionPNames.SO_TIMEOUT) rather than the HTTP connection (CoreConnectionPNames.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT) fixed the problem for me.

Also, read the Apache docs carefully: http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-core-ga/httpcore/apidocs/org/apache/http/params/CoreConnectionPNames.html#CONNECTION_TIMEOUT

Note the bit that says

Please note this parameter can only be applied to connections that are bound to a particular local address.

I hope that saves someone else all the head scratching I went through. That will teach me not to read the documentation thoroughly!