Wrapping try-catch that fetches from internet, in a while

So I have a tr开发者_运维知识库y-catch statement in a java program that fetches things from the internet. How do I handle timeouts? Would I just wrap the try catch in a while statement and after some number of failed iterations tell the user to try later?

How do I handle timeouts? Would I just wrap the try catch in a while statement and after some number of failed iterations tell the user to try later?

I don't think that would be a good idea. IMO, the best thing to do is to pick a timeout that corresponds to the time that you think that the user should have to wait, and not use a loop. As @BalusC points out, any decent Http client API will give you a way to set the timeout before you make the request. Use it.

The problem with using a loop is that you are potentially adding load to an already overloaded server. Suppose that the real reason for the timeout is that the server is trying to handle too many requests in parallel, and each request is taking a long time. If you (the client) time out a request and then immediately retry it, you are probably just adding extra load ... making things worse.

The chances are that some users will hammer the retry button anyway. You don't need to do the hammering for them.