Catch timeout with HttpException

Question

We have an image upload page that will timeout if the user's upload is taking longer than 15 minutes.

We're catching the HttpException that occurs with a timeout. But how can we know that the exception occurred because of a timeout, so we can return a specific message?

Our code:

try
{
    // do stuff here
}
catch (HttpException ex)
{
    // What can we check to know if this is a timeout exception?
    // if (ex == TimeOutError)
    // {
    //      return "Took too long. Please upload a smaller image.";
    // }
    return "Error with image. Try again.";
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    return "Error with image. Try again.";
}

And what the timeout error looks like:

System.Web.HttpException (0x80004005): Request timed out.
at System.Web.HttpRequest.GetEntireRawContent()
at System.Web.HttpRequest.GetMultipartContent()
at System.Web.HttpRequest.FillInFormCollection()
at System.Web.HttpRequest.EnsureForm()
at System.Web.HttpRequest.get_Form()
at MyStore.upload.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) 

ex.ErrorCode=-2147467259
ex.GetHttpCode=500
ex.WebEventCode=0

I'm hesitant to simply do an if statement that compares the error codes above.

HttpCode 500 seems to be a generic Internal Server Error code that could happen for more than just a timeout exception.

ErrorCode -2147467259 is something I'm unfamiliar with. If that number will remain constant for timeout errors, and will never occur with non-timeout exceptions, then I could do an if comparison on this number.

I'm thinking there has to be a simple way to know if the HttpException is a timeout exception, ala something like:

if (ex == TimeoutError) // what should this be?

UPDATE:

I just now tried catching TimeoutException, like the following, but it still is only caught by the HttpException.

try
{
    // do stuff here
}
catch (TimeoutException ex)
{
    // Timeout doesn't get caught. Must be a different type of timeout.
    // So far, timeout is only caught by HttpException.
    return "Took too long. Please upload a smaller image.";
}
catch (HttpException ex)
{
    // What can we check to know if this is a timeout exception?
    // if (ex == TimeOutError)
    // {
    //      return "Took too long. Please upload a smaller image.";
    // }
    return "Error with image. Try again.";
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    return "Error with image. Try again.";
}

Ya Wang Ya Wang · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-05T18:18:30

You need to use

ex.getType() is subClassException

As TimeoutException is a subclass. That would be how to catch that type of execption if it was a possible throw...

Although, httpexpection will always be thrown even if it did time out (refer https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.httprequest(v=vs.110).aspx from what each method throws). So you need to do something like,

if(e.Message.Contains("timed out"))
   //Do something because it timed out

Catch timeout with HttpException

1 Answers