HTTP Status Code question

General
1

With Xojo v2018r4, I’ve been using this code to get the status (As Integer) of a particular URL:

Dim s As New HTTPSecureSocket s.ConnectionType = SSLSocket.SSLv23 s.Secure = True Dim x As String = s.SendRequest("HEAD", <url As String>, 5) Return s.HTTPStatusCode

That code is run hourly. Now I’m wondering if it’s creating (and not destroying) a socket hourly. Should I add these two lines to the end of that code:

s.Close s = Nil

And if I finally upgrade to Xojo 2019r1.1, can I change all that to this:

Dim u As New URLConnection Dim x As String = u.SendSync("HEAD", <url As String>, 5) Return u.HTTPStatusCode u.Disconnect u = Nil

2

The web server would likely close their end of the connection in a minute or two, assuming it leaves the connection open at all. You can instruct the server to close the connection right away by including the Connection: close header in the request.

Setting a local variable to Nil is usually superfluous. If the socket is not connected then it will be destroyed automatically when the method exits.

[quote]

Dim u As New URLConnection Dim x As String = u.SendSync("HEAD", <url As String>, 5) Return u.HTTPStatusCode u.Disconnect u = Nil[/quote]
The return statement prevents the following lines from being executed.

I would do something like this:

If s.IsConnected Then s.Close Return s.HTTPStatusCode

3

So it sounds like if I’m running this only once an hour, I can forget about closing this connection explicitly. Even if I later use URLConnection.

4

Hmm…thinking this over again. What if the connection isn’t closed until shortly after the method ends (because it might take a minute or two for the connection to close)? Won’t the socket fail to be destroyed when the method exits in such a situation, and stay in existence after that?

5

A connected socket with zero references will continue to exist until the other side disconnects, at which point it will be destroyed.

6

Thanks for your patience on this, Andrew.