Async HttpWebRequest with no wait from within a web application

asp.netasynchronoushttpwebrequest

In my web application (ASP.NET) I have a block of code that uses HttpWebRequest to make a call to a REST service and continue execution. Right now it's taking longer than I would like to complete the full web request. The thing is that what the REST service returns isn't useful. Ideally I would like to send an Async web request to the REST service and then NOT wait for a response. The problem is that I've tried it out using

request.BeginGetResponse(New AsyncCallback(AddressOf myFunc), Nothing)

To start an async request and instead of NOT waiting (which I would assume would be the default behavior of an async request) it continuously executes the callback function before executing the next line of code after BeginGetResponse.

I'm suspecting that ASP.NET may convert it to a sync request when it's within a web application. I'm led to believe this because there's a IAsyncResult result object that is passed into the callback function and when I examine its CompletedSynchronously property it's always set to true.

Does anyone know if it's possible to do an async HttpWebRequest (with no wait) from within an ASP.NET web application or is it always converted to a synchronous request?

Best Answer

HttpWebRequest myRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(myUrl);
//set up web request...
ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(o=>{ myRequest.GetResponse(); });

Also known as Fire-and-Forget.

Related Solutions

.net – ASP.NET Web Site or ASP.NET Web Application

Website:

The Web Site project is compiled on the fly. You end up with a lot more DLL files, which can be a pain. It also gives problems when you have pages or controls in one directory that need to reference pages and controls in another directory since the other directory may not be compiled into the code yet. Another problem can be in publishing.

If Visual Studio isn't told to re-use the same names constantly, it will come up with new names for the DLL files generated by pages all the time. That can lead to having several close copies of DLL files containing the same class name, which will generate plenty of errors. The Web Site project was introduced with Visual Studio 2005, but it has turned out not to be popular.

Web Application:

The Web Application Project was created as an add-in and now exists as part of SP 1 for Visual Studio 2005. The main differences are the Web Application Project was designed to work similarly to the Web projects that shipped with Visual Studio 2003. It will compile the application into a single DLL file at build time. To update the project, it must be recompiled and the DLL file published for changes to occur.

Another nice feature of the Web Application project is it's much easier to exclude files from the project view. In the Web Site project, each file that you exclude is renamed with an excluded keyword in the filename. In the Web Application Project, the project just keeps track of which files to include/exclude from the project view without renaming them, making things much tidier.

The article ASP.NET 2.0 - Web Site vs Web Application project also gives reasons on why to use one and not the other. Here is an excerpt of it:

You need to migrate large Visual Studio .NET 2003 applications to VS 2005? use the Web Application project.

You want to open and edit any directory as a Web project without creating a project file? use Web Site project.

You need to add pre-build and post-build steps during compilation? use Web Application project.

You need to build a Web application using multiple Web projects? use the Web Application project.

You want to generate one assembly for each page? use the Web Site project.

You prefer dynamic compilation and working on pages without building entire site on each page view? use Web Site project.

You prefer single-page code model to code-behind model? use Web Site project.

Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects (MSDN) explains the differences between the web site and web application projects. Also, it discusses the configuration to be made in Visual Studio.

R – Stopping an Async HttpWebRequest

you can use this

ManualResetEvent allDone = new ManualResetEvent(false);
bool isRequestFnishedInCorrectTime=allDone.WaitOne(5000);
if(isRequestFnishedInCorrectTime==false)
    request.Abort();
else
    //request success

the important point here after get response you have to set this:

allDone.Set();

if request can't finish in 5 seconds request will abort.

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