How can I set a timeout against a BufferedReader based upon a URLConnection in Java?

Question

I want to read the contents of a URL but don\'t want to \"hang\" if the URL is unresponsive. I\'ve created a BufferedReader using the URL...

Answer 1

If you have java 1.4:

I assume the connection timeout (URLConnection.setConnectTimeout(int timeout) ) is of no use because you are doing some kind of streaming.

---Do not kill the thread--- It may cause unknown problems, open descriptors, etc.

Spawn a java.util.TimerTask where you will check if you have finished the process, otherwise, close the BufferedReader and the OutputStream of the URLConnection

Insert a boolean flag isFinished and set it to true at the end of your loop and to false before the loop

TimerTask ft = new TimerTask(){
   public void run(){
     if (!isFinished){
       urlConn.getInputStream().close();
      urlConn.getOutputStream().close();
     }
   }
};

(new Timer()).schedule(ft, timeout);

This will probably cause an ioexception, so you have to catch it. The exception is not a bad thing in itself. I'm omitting some declarations (i.e. finals) so the anonymous class can access your variables. If not, then create a POJO that maintains a reference and pass that to the timertask