Tag: OkHttp

Xamarin Component Review: ModernHttpClient

These reviews consist of a Pros/Cons, some things developers might need to be aware of before using or during the use of a given component, and a quick code sample that might help people get started.

Links:
Component – https://components.xamarin.com/view/modernhttpclient
Nuget – https://www.nuget.org/packages/modernhttpclient/
Github – https://github.com/paulcbetts/ModernHttpClient

Pros:

  • Increase HTTP request speeds.
    This really does make a noticeable difference from using the base
    HttpWebRequest,HttpClient, or WebClient. By using native libraries, it can skip through the Mono runtime bottleneck.
  • Ease of Use.
    Probably the easiest to use component you’re going to find, especially if you are already using HttpClient for your requests. It’s a simple one line drop on each instantiation of HttpClient.
new HttpClient(new NativeMessageHandler());
  • Lightweight.
    A common issue with components is that they increase the overall size of your app. Bigger apps get uninstalled quicker if they don’t do anything important for the user.

Cons:

  • Component conflict.
    Most people won’t run into this issue, and it is most prevalent on Android (at least it is the only place I’ve run into it). The problem arises because of ModernHttpClient’s use of OkHttp from Square. The way they include this library is different from some others that are dependent on it. You’ll find components such as Picasso or Rounded Image View that also use OkHttp handle it differently, so that at build time, you’ll get a very deceiving error message.

Things to know:

The only things that I have been made aware of so far in my use of ModernHttpClient are a few out of place errors or bugs I’ve run across. Note that these are only found on Android.
1. The component conflict issue (as stated above): You can see an example from a thread here on this type of issue.
2. Android “crash” while debugging. This is an issue apparent with OkHttp that seems to cause crashes while debugging an Android app, while still maintaining the debugger. It is important to note that this does NOT cause this type of crash if the debugger is not attached. Also, after a crash, upon re-opening the app, the debugger remains attached and usable. Something along the lines of

F/libc( 1044): Fatal signal 5 (SIGTRAP), code -6 in tid 1131 (OkHttp Dispatch)

I haven’t tried the pro version, since the free license does exactly what I need, but if anyone has any insight into the pro license, let me know.

Sample:

...
using ModernHttpClient;
...

public class WebRequestUtils
{
    public async Task<string> GetResponseString(url)
    {
// Instantiate HttpClient with ModernHttpClient handler
using(var client = new HttpClient(new NativeMessageHandler())
        {
            var result = await client.GetAsync(url);
            return await result.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
        }
    }
}

Make sure to keep an eye out for more component reviews as I get around to playing with more in real life situations.

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