GZIP has no effect on web call - android

I've an app that call a webservice. I've logged the time it takes to complete this call with and without GZIP. I ran the app 5 times with and 5 time without GZIP and it actually took longer with GZIP. So i can only think GZIP had no effect or i have implemented it badly. Any ideas why there is no change?
public String connect(String url) {
HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
// Prepare a request object
HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet(url);
httpget.addHeader("Accept-Encoding", "gzip");
// Execute the request
HttpResponse response;
try {
long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
// Examine the response status
Log.i(TAG, response.getStatusLine().toString());
// Get hold of the response entity
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
// If the response does not enclose an entity, there is no need
// to worry about connection release
if (entity != null) {
InputStream instream = response.getEntity().getContent();
Header contentEncoding = response.getFirstHeader("Content-Encoding");
if (contentEncoding != null && contentEncoding.getValue().equalsIgnoreCase("gzip")) {
instream = new GZIPInputStream(instream);
}
// A Simple JSON Response Read
//InputStream instream = entity.getContent();
result = convertStreamToString(instream);
Log.i(TAG, result);
// A Simple JSONObject Creation
//json = new JSONObject(result);
// Closing the input stream will trigger connection release
instream.close();
long end = System.currentTimeMillis();
long elapsed = (end - start);
Log.e(TAG, "web call took ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^" + elapsed);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
return result;
}
.
RESULTS:
Without GZIP: average of 5 runs = 2923ms
With GZIP: average of 5 runs = 3179ms

There are at least two major contributions in the timing:
client side: connection speed vs. decoding speed
server side: connection speed vs. encoding speed
The gzip encoding can be static or dynamic on the server side. For some content it would make sense to store query data in already compressed form. For some content it can't be done and the server may have the "compression engine" occupied.
The timings are likely to change between ADSL, WLAN or direct ethernet connections.

Related

Blocking HTTP call seems to timeout

I want to fire a blocking call to my php file which queries my db. I want it to be blocking and not async as i don't want the user shown anything until this call is successful or not.
I run the below code, it stops at response = httpclient.execute(httpget); for a minute or two before going into catch for error. I cant see an error in the e item.
Anybody know whats going on here - my php file works with async task.
public static String blockingHttpCallToUrl(String url)
{
String result="nothingReturned";
HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
// Prepare a request object
HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet(url);
// Execute the request
HttpResponse response;
try {
response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
// Examine the response status
Log.i("Praeda", response.getStatusLine().toString());
// Get hold of the response entity
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
// If the response does not enclose an entity, there is no need
// to worry about connection release
if (entity != null) {
// A Simple JSON Response Read
InputStream instream = entity.getContent();
result= convertStreamToString(instream);
// now you have the string representation of the HTML request
instream.close();
}
} catch (Exception e) {}
return result;
}

Android - How can I open a persistent HTTP connection that receives chunked responses?

I'm trying to establish a persistent HTTP connection to an API endpoint that publishes chunked JSON responses as new events occur. I would like to provide a callback that is called each time the server sends a new chunk of data, and keep the connection open indefinitely. As far as I can tell, neither HttpClient nor HttpUrlConnection provide this functionality.
Is there a way to accomplish this without using a TCP socket?
One solution would be to use a delimeter such as \n\n to separate each json event. You could remove blank lines from original json before sending. Calling setChunkedStreamingMode(0) allows you to read content as it comes in (rather than after the entire request has been buffered). Then you can simply go through each line, storing them, until a blank line is reached, then parse the stored lines as JSON.
HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
conn.setChunkedStreamingMode(0);
conn.connect();
InputStream is = conn.getInputStream();
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8"));
StringBuffer sBuffer = new StringBuffer();
String line;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
if (line.length() == 0) {
processJsonEvent(sBuffer.toString());
sBuffer.delete(0, sBuffer.length());
} else {
sBuffer.append(line);
sBuffer.append("\n");
}
}
As far as I can tell, Android's HttpURLConnection doesn't support receiving chunks of data across a persistent HTTP connection; it instead waits for the response to fully complete.
Using HttpClient, however, works:
HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
try {
HttpUriRequest request = new HttpGet(new URI("https://www.yourStreamingUrlHere.com"));
} catch (URISyntaxException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
try {
HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(request);
InputStream responseStream = response.getEntity().getContent();
BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(responseStream));
String line;
do {
line = rd.readLine();
// handle new line of data here
} while (!line.isEmpty());
// reaching here means the server closed the connection
} catch (Exception e) {
// connection attempt failed or connection timed out
}

Android HttpDefaultClient times out only after another device makes a similar but not identical request

Some quick background. We have multiple devices running a scanner app which checks against a database to see whether an id has been scanned in or not. I can scan in with Device A as many times as I like without issue. I then pick up Device B and scan in, also as many or few times as I like. If I pick Device A back up and scan, the HttpClient will hang for approximately 60 seconds refusing to send any further requests. The code below has commented the point of failure.
// Asynchronous get request
private class aGETRequest extends AsyncTask<String, Void, String> {
#Override
protected String doInBackground(String... urls) {
String response = "";
for (String url : urls) {
DefaultHttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
client.setKeepAliveStrategy(null);
HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url);
try {
HttpResponse httpResponse = client.execute(httpGet); //Hangs Here
HttpEntity httpEntity = httpResponse.getEntity();
InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(httpEntity.getContent());
BufferedReader buffer = new BufferedReader(isr);
String s = "";
while ((s = buffer.readLine()) != null) {
response += s;
}
httpEntity.consumeContent();
isr.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
httpGet.abort();
client.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
}
return response;
}
#Override
protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
results(result);
}
}
The client hangs and even snooping traffic shows no requests sent at all from Device A after the failure. You ready for the best part? If the devices are going through a Proxy server, it works. W.T.F?
Android is java 6 compat . right.
BufferedReader on java 7 makes me nervous and the while read loop appears to be whats hanging.....
I would try a different different read loop class thats solid on java 6 or i would find someone else's pattern for httpclient that's solid.
My wild guess is that your code is never getting out of the following...
while ((s = buffer.readLine()) != null)
Maybe the server is returing chunked encoding or something like that with a diff protocol ( pattern of length=0 followed by \r\n or something.

Handle response properly when used HttpClient

I am developing a android app where I am using Zend framework to build APIs. I am calling API using this code. This is code in IntentService class.
HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
// Set timeout values
client.getParams().setIntParameter(
CoreConnectionPNames.CONNECTION_TIMEOUT,
CONNECTION_TIMEOUT * 1000);
client.getParams().setIntParameter(CoreConnectionPNames.SO_TIMEOUT,
SOCKET_TIMEOUT * 1000);try {
HttpUriRequest httpRequest = null;
HttpResponse response = null;
// Set HttpUriRequest based on type of HTTP method
if (method.equals("GET")) {
HttpGet request = new HttpGet(url);
httpRequest = request;
}
// Get response
response = client.execute(httpRequest);
BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
response.getEntity().getContent()));
// Read the response
String responseString = readResponseContent(rd);
Log.e(TAG, "length of response is " + responseString.length());
Log.e(TAG, "response :" + responseString);
// If status code 200 then send response
}catch (Exception e) {
MyLog.e(TAG, "Exception while connecting to URL : " + url);
e.printStackTrace();
sendUnknownError();
}
Now the problem is I have created one API which response is very long. But After getting this I am sending broadcast to where it is called. It returns response in chunks So when it receives response first time but actually response is not yet completed. So that's causing some issues later on. So How can I wait for full response before calling broadcast method.
So I need to wait for it to get full response. How I can do this ?

Android HTTP Client freezes

I'm experiencing some odd behavior in my HTTP requests. I have some users that are saying that this call isn't ever coming back (the spinner marking it's asynchronous call never goes away). I have seen this happen before, but I attributed it to the emulator going through Charles Proxy. I haven't yet seen it on actual phone until now.
I'm not sure what would cause this to happen, which is why I'm posting it here. Here's the call, using Jackson to deserialize the result into a Value Object. The two spots I saw the emulator freeze are httpclient.execute(httpGet); and getObjectMapper().readValue(jp, SyncVO.class);.
While debugging, stepping over the offending statement caused the debugger to never gain control back of stepping. Meanwhile, I see the request go out AND come back from the server through Charles. It's just that the app doesn't seem to get the response and just sits there.
So, here's the code. Thanks for any help!
public SyncVO sync(String userId, long lastUpdate, boolean includeFetch) throws IOException {
SyncVO result = null;
String url = BASE_URL + "users/" + userId + "/sync" + "?" + "fetch=" + includeFetch;
if (lastUpdate > 0) {
url += "&updatedSince=" + lastUpdate;
}
DefaultHttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url);
httpGet.setHeader("Accept", "application/json");
httpGet.setHeader("Accept-Encoding", "gzip");
httpGet.setHeader(AUTHORIZATION, BEARER + " " + mOAuthToken);
httpclient.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.USER_AGENT, USER_AGENT_STRING);
httpclient.getParams().setBooleanParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.USE_EXPECT_CONTINUE, false);
HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpGet);
if (isUnauthorized(response)) {
APPLICATION.needReauthentication();
return null;
}
if (response != null) {
InputStream stream = response.getEntity().getContent();
Header contentEncoding = response.getFirstHeader("Content-Encoding");
if (contentEncoding != null && contentEncoding.getValue().equalsIgnoreCase("gzip")) {
stream = new GZIPInputStream(stream);
}
InputStreamReader inReader = new InputStreamReader(stream, "UTF-8");
JsonParser jp = mJsonFactory.createJsonParser(inReader);
result = getObjectMapper().readValue(jp, SyncVO.class);
}
return result;
}
private ObjectMapper getObjectMapper() {
return (new ObjectMapper()
.configure(Feature.AUTO_DETECT_FIELDS, true)
.configure(Feature.FAIL_ON_UNKNOWN_PROPERTIES, false)
.configure(JsonParser.Feature.ALLOW_UNQUOTED_CONTROL_CHARS, true));
}
don't forget to consume entities content after each request.
HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
try {
if (entity != null)
entity.consumeContent();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
You should definitely use connection timeout and socket read and be prepared for the worst from the server. Network operations will never be 100% predictable and there is not much your client can do then so make sure you code optimally.
httpParameters = httpclient.getParams();
HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(httpParameters, 5000);
HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(httpParameters, 10000);
You can also cancel a task with asyncTask.cancel(true);
The reason is because you have left stream open. As such, the response is left in limbo. This means your global variable httpClient is also left in limbo, and unable to get a new entity when it re-uses the client.
You should call close() after finishing with the stream.
stream.close();
Network calls take a while and will block the UI thread. Same with your jackson deserialization code. This stuff needs to be put on a separate thread. See AsyncTask for an easy way to do it.

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