Network Communication (HTTP Layer) - Android

• Network Communication (HTTP Layer) - Android
• Creating a HTTP request
• Triggering the HTTP request
• Response call back
• Execute Request when app is in background

This section describes the methods required by the mobile app for communicating with server(s), for transmitting or receiving data over REST APIs.

Note: This layer does not support image or file downloads.

Creating a HTTP request

To create a connection for transmitting the data, the first step involves creating a ORARequest object. The object could be created in different ways.

Creating a ORARequest object with URL

The URL must be a valid URL or you will encounter the ORAInvalidRequestException.

public ORARequest(String url);

Creating a ORARequest object with URL and Payload as a map

public ORARequest(String url, Map<String, String> payload);

Creating a ORARequest object with URL and Payload as a String

public ORARequest(String url, String jsonPayload);

Creating a ORARequest - Alternative method

Set the URL

public void setUrl(String url);

Set the payload

If the payload is null, you will encounter the ORAInvalidRequestException

public void setPayload(String jsonPayload);

Set the request method

The default request method is POST. You can override it with the below method.

public void setRequestType(@RequestType int requestType);

Configuring the Request Object

Compressing the payload

This method helps to compress the payload for faster transmission over the network. The default setting is set to false.

public void setCompress(boolean compress);

Retrying failed data transmissions

This method helps to set the number of retries if the event data transmission fails. The default set to 1. The minimum is 0 and maximum is 15.

public void setRetryCount(int retryCount);

Priority for data transmission

This method can be used to set the priority for behavior data transmission to the data collections servers. The default priority is set to normal (PRIORITY_NORMAL).

public void setPriority(@Priority int priority);

The available priorities are PRIORITY_NORMAL and PRIORITY_IMMEDIATE. HTTP requests created with PRIORITY_IMMEDIATE are transmitted with higher preference over HTTP requests with PRIORITY_NORMAL.

Set unique ID for HTTP request

You can create a unique ID and pass it along with each HTTP request. This ID is echoed in the response object. You can check whether a particular request has been successfully processed with the help of the ID in the response object. The default value returned is NULL.

public void setTAG(String tag)

Setting the callback

This method is used to set the call back function for the HTTP request. The status of the HTTP can be known by this method.

public void setCallback(ORAHTTPResponseCallback callback);

Adding header parameters to the request

Adding a single header to the request

You can use this method to add multiple a header statement to the HTTP request.

public void addRequestHeader(String key, String value);

Adding a multiple headers to the request

You can use this method to add multiple header statements to the HTTP request.

public void addRequestHeaders(Map<String, String> headers);

Sample Request Object

ORARequest request = new ORARequest("https://YOUR_END_POINT");
request.setPayload("YOUR_PAYLOAD");
request.addRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
request.setTAG("some_id");
request.setRequestType(ORARequest.REQUEST_TYPE_POST);

Triggering the HTTP request

Once the ORARequest object is ready, we can trigger the HTTP request using the ORAHTTPManager.addRequest() method. You can use the addResponse() method to add the HTTP request to the queue to be executed after the execution of the current process in the queue.

ORAHTTPManager.getInstance(context).addRequest(request, new ORAHTTPResponseCallback() {
                @Override
                public void onResponse(ORAResponse oraResponse) {
                    // code to handle response here
                }
            });

Response call back

Triggering a response for HTTP request

If the ORAHTTPResponseCallback is included in the HTTP request, whenever a response is available for the request, the onResponse method is triggered automatically.

void onResponse(ORAResponse oraResponse);

ORAResponse has the following methods that help to interpret the response.

Status of HTTP request

This method provides the response code for the HTTP request.

public int getResponseCode();

Response message for HTTP request

This message provides the response message for the HTTP request.

public String getMessage();

Response message body for HTTP request

This message provides the response body for the HTTP request.

public String getBody();

Exception encountered when processing HTTP request

This method returns the details of the exception encountered, if any, when processing the HTTP request. If no exception is encountered, it returns a NULL.

public Exception getException();

Unique ID passed in the HTTP request

This method could be used to retrieve the unique ID that is passed along with the HTTP request. If no ID is passed, this method returns a NULL value.

public String getRequestTAG();

Execute Request when app is in background

The default behavior for the HTTP request queue processing when an app is backgrounded. When an app is backgrounded, the HTTP requests in the queue are paused. If any HTTP request is under execution when the app is backgrounded, the request is executed and subsequent requests in the queue are paused. Once the app is resumed and is foregrounded, the HTTP requests resume executing. This is the default.

The default behavior of the queue can be overridden by using HTTP_BACKGROUND_TASK_ENABLED configuration. The HTTP_BACKGROUND_TASK_ENABLED configuration is set to false by default. If the HTTP_BACKGROUND_TASK_ENABLED configuration is set to true, then all HTTP requests are processed, even if the application is backgrounded.

ORACoreDataContainer container = new ORACoreDataContainer(context);
container.putValue(ORABaseConfigSettings.HTTP_BACKGROUND_TASK_ENABLED, "true");

An alternative way to enable processing HTTP requests when the app is backgrounded is by adding the following line to the oracle.json file in the Core module.

"ora_dc_http_background_task_enabled" : "true"