Distinguish between read and connection timeouts in HttpURLConnection

Question

I want to distinguish between a connection timeout and a read timeout when using HttpURLConnection . It throws SocketTimeoutException when any of the two happen.

In case a connection timeout happens, a message is included as the exception message. Example:

failed to connect to /192.168.X.X (port X) after Xms

In case a read timeout happens, no message is included.

Relevant:

• setConnectTimeout
• setReadTimeout

Of course I could distinguish them by the fact that one seems to include a message and the other does not, but doesn't seem sensible. If the implementation changes the code breaks.

I would have expected two different exceptions. Perhaps there's something I'm missing.

Answer 1

Once the timeout values are set using the setters, you can do the following

try {
  connection.connect();
  try {
    yourCustomReadMethodThatThrowsSocketTimeoutException(connection);
  } catch (SocketTimeoutException e) {
    Log.e("asdf", "this is a read timeout");
  }
} catch (SocketTimeoutException e) {
  Log.e("asdf", "this is a connect timeout");
}