Using RxJava and Okhttp

Question

I want to request to a url using okhttp in another thread (like IO thread) and get Response in the Android main thread, But I don\'t know how to create an

Answer 1

It's easier and safer to use Observable.defer() instead of Observable.create():

final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
Observable.defer(new Func0<Observable<Response>>() {
    @Override public Observable<Response> call() {
        try {
            Response response = client.newCall(new Request.Builder().url("your url").build()).execute();
            return Observable.just(response);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            return Observable.error(e);
        }
    }
});

That way unsubscription and backpressure are handled for you. Here's a great post by Dan Lew about create() and defer().

If you wished to go the Observable.create() route then it should look more like in this library with isUnsubscribed() calls sprinkled everywhere. And I believe this still doesn't handle backpressure.

Answer 2

I realise this post is a bit old, but there's a new and more convenient way of doing this now

Observable.fromCallable {
        client.newCall(Request.Builder().url("your url").build()).execute()
    }

More info: https://artemzin.com/blog/rxjava-defer-execution-of-function-via-fromcallable/

Answer 3

Okhttp3 with RxSingle background API call.

     Disposable disposables = Single.fromCallable(() -> {
        Log.e(TAG, "clearData: Thread[" + Thread.currentThread().getName() + "]");
        OkHttpClient client = Util.getHttpClient();
        Request request = new Request.Builder()
                .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer " + Util.getUserToken())
                .url(BuildConfig.BASE_URL + ApiConstants.DELETE_FEEDS)
                .build();

        Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();
        if(response.isSuccessful()) {
           ...
           return ; // Any  type
        } else {
           return ; // Any type        
        }
    }).subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
      .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
      .subscribe((result) -> {
           Log.d(TAG, "api() completed");
      });


    compositeDisposable.add(disposables);

Answer 4

I came late to the discussion but, if for some reason the code need to stream the response body, then defer or fromCallable won't do it. Instead one can employ the using operator.

Single.using(() -> okHttpClient.newCall(okRequest).execute(), // 1
             response -> { // 2
                 ...

                 return Single.just((Consumer<OutputStream>) fileOutput -> {
                     try (InputStream upstreamResponseStream = response.body().byteStream();
                          OutputStream fileOutput = responseBodyOutput) {
                         ByteStreams.copy(upstreamResponseStream, output);
                     }
                 });
             },
             Response::close, // 3
             false) // 4
      .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io()) // 5
      .subscribe(copier -> copier.accept(...), // 6
                 throwable -> ...); // 7

1. The first lambda executes the response after upon subscription.
2. The second lambda creates the observable type, here with Single.just(...)
3. The third lambda disposes the response. With defer one could have used the try-with-resources style.
4. Set the eager toggle to false to make the disposer called after the terminal event, i.e. after the subscription consumer has been executed.
5. Of course make the thing happen on another threadpool
6. Here's the lambda that will consume the response body. Without eager set to false, the code will raise an IOException with reason 'closed' because the response will be already closed before entering this lambda.
7. The onError lambda should handle exceptions, especially the IOException that cannot be anymore caught with the using operator as it was possible with a try/catch with defer.

Answer 5

First add RxAndroid to your dependencies, then create your Observable like this:

 Subscription subscription =   Observable.create(new Observable.OnSubscribe<Response>() {
        OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
          @Override
          public void call(Subscriber<? super Response> subscriber) {
            try {
              Response response = client.newCall(new Request.Builder().url("your url").build()).execute();
              if (response.isSuccessful()) {
                  if(!subscriber.isUnsubscribed()){
                     subscriber.onNext(response);
                  }
                  subscriber.onCompleted();
              } else if (!response.isSuccessful() && !subscriber.isUnsubscribed()) {
                  subscriber.onError(new Exception("error"));
                }
            } catch (IOException e) {
              if (!subscriber.isUnsubscribed()) {
                  subscriber.onError(e);
              }
            }
          }
        })
            .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
            .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
            .subscribe(new Subscriber<Response>() {
              @Override
              public void onCompleted() {

              }

              @Override
              public void onError(Throwable e) {

              }

              @Override
              public void onNext(Response response) {

              }
            });

It will request your url in another thread (io thread) and observe it on android main thread.

And finally when you leave the screen use subsribtion.unsubscribe() to avoid memory leak.

When you use Observable.create, you should write a lot of boilerplate code, also you must handle subscription by your own. A better alternative is to use defer. Form the doc:

do not create the Observable until the observer subscribes, and create a fresh Observable for each observer

The Defer operator waits until an observer subscribes to it, and then it generates an Observable, typically with an Observable factory function. It does this afresh for each subscriber, so although each subscriber may think it is subscribing to the same Observable, in fact each subscriber gets its own individual sequence.

So as Marcin Koziński mentioned, you just need to do this:

final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
Observable.defer(new Func0<Observable<Response>>() {
    @Override public Observable<Response> call() {
        try {
            Response response = client.newCall(new Request.Builder().url("your url").build()).execute();
            return Observable.just(response);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            return Observable.error(e);
        }
    }
});