android httpclient hangs on second request to the server (connection timed out)

Question

I'm struggling with the following problem: My App makes sequence of requests to the http server using HttpClient. I use HttpPut for sending data to the server. First request goes well and fast, second request hangs for 40 sec and then I catch Connection timed out exception. I'm trying to reuse my HttpClient and send second request through the same instance. If I create new HttpClient together with new ConnectionManager, then everything works fine.

Why is this happening? And how to fix it and do not create new HttpClient each time?

Thanks in advance.

Here is my code: (if I comment readClient = newHttpClient(readClient) in doPut, then the problem arises.

public class WebTest
{
private HttpClient readClient;
private SchemeRegistry httpreg;
private HttpParams params;

private URI url; //http://my_site.net/data/

protected HttpClient newHttpClient(HttpClient oldClient)
{
    if(oldClient != null)
        oldClient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();

    ClientConnectionManager cm = new SingleClientConnManager(params, httpreg);
    return new DefaultHttpClient(cm, params);
}

protected String doPut(String data)
{
    //****************************
    //Every time we need to send data, we do new connection
    //with new ConnectionManager and close old one
    readClient = newHttpClient(readClient);

    //*****************************


    String responseS = null;
    HttpPut put = new HttpPut(url);
    try
    {
        HttpEntity entity = new StringEntity(data, "UTF-8");
        put.setEntity(entity);
        put.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
        put.setHeader("Accept", "application/json");
        put.setHeader("User-Agent", "Apache-HttpClient/WebTest");

        responseS = readClient.execute(put, responseHandler);
    }
    catch(IOException exc)
    {
        //error handling here
    }
    return responseS;
}

public WebTest()
{
    httpreg = new SchemeRegistry();
    Scheme sch = new Scheme("http", PlainSocketFactory.getSocketFactory(), 80);
    httpreg.register(sch);

    params = new BasicHttpParams();
    ConnPerRoute perRoute = new ConnPerRouteBean(10);
    ConnManagerParams.setMaxConnectionsPerRoute(params, perRoute);
    ConnManagerParams.setMaxTotalConnections(params, 50);
    ConnManagerParams.setTimeout(params, 15000);
    int timeoutConnection = 15000;
    HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(params, timeoutConnection);
    // Set the default socket timeout (SO_TIMEOUT) 
    // in milliseconds which is the timeout for waiting for data.
    int timeoutSocket = 40000;
    HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(params, timeoutSocket);
}

private ResponseHandler<String> responseHandler = new ResponseHandler<String>() 
{
    @Override
    public String handleResponse(HttpResponse response)
            throws ClientProtocolException, IOException
    {
        StatusLine statusLine = response.getStatusLine();
        if (statusLine.getStatusCode() >= 300) 
        {
            throw new HttpResponseException(statusLine.getStatusCode(),
                    statusLine.getReasonPhrase());
        }

        HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
        if(entity == null)
            return null;

        InputStream instream = entity.getContent();
        return this.toString(entity, instream, "UTF-8");
    }

    public String toString(
            final HttpEntity entity, 
            final InputStream instream, 
            final String defaultCharset) throws IOException, ParseException 
    {
        if (entity == null) 
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("HTTP entity may not be null");
        }

        if (instream == null) 
        {
            return null;
        }
        if (entity.getContentLength() > Integer.MAX_VALUE) 
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("HTTP entity too large to be buffered in memory");
        }
        int i = (int)entity.getContentLength();
        if (i < 0) 
        {
            i = 4096;
        }
        String charset = EntityUtils.getContentCharSet(entity);
        if (charset == null) 
        {
            charset = defaultCharset;
        }
        if (charset == null) 
        {
            charset = HTTP.DEFAULT_CONTENT_CHARSET;
        }

        Reader reader = new InputStreamReader(instream, charset);

        StringBuilder buffer=new StringBuilder(i);
        try 
        {
            char[] tmp = new char[1024];
            int l;
            while((l = reader.read(tmp)) != -1) 
            {
                buffer.append(tmp, 0, l);
            }
        } finally 
        {
            reader.close();
        }

        return buffer.toString();
    }
}; 

}

Answer 1

Sounds like you don't consume the entity after you finish handling the response. Ensure you put the following code in the finally block:

if (httpEntity != null) {
    try {
        httpEntity.consumeContent();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        Log.e(TAG, "", e);
    }
}

I suggest you read the HttpClient Tutorial.