Impossible to set read timeout for particular HttpExchange

Yes, this is currently not possible because we use the jetty Timeout class, one instance for the httpclient and the timeout implementation has the duration specified applied to all tasks in the queue. I understand the desire for ultimate flexibility but is there a good use case that makes this a requirement over simply a nice to have?

Different HttpExchanges are involved into different WebService interactions. This causes different requirements for read timeout.

E.g. there are the following destinations:
http://www.myws.com/long-running-but-can-be-executed-in-the-background-operations/
http://www.myws.com/very-fast-and-executed-synchronously-operations/

I guess it's strange to use different HttpClient instances for these destinations, isn't it?

Greg, could you please review this ticket? Thanks!

We now have a maxIdleTime per endpoint, so we can have different timeouts for each connection. If somebody wants to suggest an API for using this, then we can consider it.

I also need this feature (custom timeout per exchange) to be introduced to Jetty 6.x. That is why I created simple fix against http://svn.codehaus.org/jetty/jetty/branches/jetty-6.1. The patch is attached to this JIRA and contains both the fix and a testcase.

This fix introduces a new property to the HttpExchange - a property that holds a delay to be added to the default timeout used inside HttpClient.
Alternatively, a new method could be introduced to the HttpClient:
public void send(HttpExchange exchange,long timeoutDelay)
However, this would require one or two methods to be added to the HttpDestination class and one would also need to be added to HttpConnection. That is why I chose the first approach (with modifying HttpExchange).

Thanks,
Bartek

Bartek,

Jetty7 has support for this use case I believe...we are not really adding on new features to jetty6 at this time but if there is a compelling reason on why you can't use jetty7 then maybe we can look a bit deeper.

the latest release of jetty7 is 7.1.6.v20100715

cheers,
jesse

Nevermind, we talked it over on irc and we'll apply the patch after modifying a bit of naming with it and update the api on jetty7 with a corresponding method.

I'll note that since we had a 6 release shortly ago that it will likely be a couple months at least before another jetty6 release as there are not significant changes occurring on this codebase.

cheers!
jesse

Hi Jesse,

Thanks a lot for applying the patch.

We'll evaluate the possibility of moving to Jetty7.

Thanks,
Bartek

commit 6162 on codehaus and 2204 on eclipse svn

Jesse,

Once again, thanks for applying the patch.

I used the name 'timeoutDelay' instead of 'timeout', because I thought that without additional documentation this property might be a little bit misleading. The Timeout class does not let you to specify the the overall timeout value. The property that was introduced in the HttpExchange will be treated as a delay that will be added to the default duration of the timeout specified in the HttpClient. This means that the real timeout for a given exchange will be equal to: (client.getTimeout() + httpExchange.getTimeout()).

Thanks,
Bartek