Question

I’m trying to issue web requests asynchronously. I have my code working fine except for one thing: There doesn’t seem to be a built-in way to specify a timeout on BeginGetResponse. The MSDN example clearly show a working example but the downside to it is they all end up with a

SomeObject.WaitOne()

Which again clearly states it blocks the thread. I will be in a high load environment and can’t have blocking but I also need to timeout a request if it takes more than 2 seconds. Short of creating and managing a separate thread pool, is there something already present in the framework that can help me?

Starting examples:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms227433(VS.100).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.httpwebrequest.begingetresponse.aspx

What I would like is a way for the async callback on BeginGetResponse() to be invoked after my timeout parameter expires, with some indication that a timeout occurred.

The seemingly obvious TimeOut parameter is not honored on async calls.
The ReadWriteTimeout parameter doesn’t come into play until the response returns.
A non-proprietary solution would be preferable.

EDIT:

Here’s what I came up with: after calling BeginGetResponse, I create a Timer with my duration and that’s the end of the “begin” phase of processing. Now either the request will complete and my “end” phase will be called OR the timeout period will expire.

To detect the race and have a single winner I call increment a “completed” counter in a thread-safe manner. If “timeout” is the 1st event to come back, I abort the request and stop the timer. In this situation, when “end” is called the EndGetResponse throws an error. If the “end” phase happens first, it increments the counter and the “timeout” foregoes aborting the request.

This seems to work like I want while also providing a configurable timeout. The downside is the extra timer object and the callbacks which I make no effort to avoid. I see 1-3 threads processing various portions (begin, timed out, end) so it seems like this working. And I don’t have any “wait” calls.

Have I missed too much sleep or have I found a way to service my requests without blocking?

int completed = 0;

this.Request.BeginGetResponse(GotResponse, this.Request);
this.timer = new Timer(Timedout, this, TimeOutDuration, Timeout.Infinite);

private void Timedout(object state)
{
    if (Interlocked.Increment(ref completed) == 1)
    {
        this.Request.Abort();
    }
    this.timer.Change(Timeout.Infinite, Timeout.Infinite);
    this.timer.Dispose();
}

private void GotRecentSearches(IAsyncResult result)
{
    Interlocked.Increment(ref completed);
}

Answer 1

Seems like my original approach is the best thing available.