connect-timeout

What is connect-timeout?

The connect-timeout npm package is a middleware for Connect/Express applications that allows you to set a timeout for HTTP requests. If a request takes longer than the specified timeout, it will be aborted and a timeout error will be sent to the client.

What are connect-timeout's main functionalities?

Setting a basic timeout

This feature allows you to set a basic timeout for all incoming HTTP requests. If a request takes longer than the specified time (in this case, 5 seconds), it will be aborted and a timeout error will be sent to the client.

const express = require('express');
const timeout = require('connect-timeout');

const app = express();

// Set a timeout of 5 seconds
app.use(timeout('5s'));

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  // Simulate a long-running request
  setTimeout(() => {
    res.send('Hello, world!');
  }, 6000);
});

app.use((err, req, res, next) => {
  if (req.timedout) {
    res.status(503).send('Service unavailable. Please try again later.');
  } else {
    next(err);
  }
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});

Custom timeout handler

This feature allows you to define a custom timeout handler. If a request times out, the custom handler will send a specific message to the client.

const express = require('express');
const timeout = require('connect-timeout');

const app = express();

// Set a timeout of 5 seconds
app.use(timeout('5s'));

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  // Simulate a long-running request
  setTimeout(() => {
    res.send('Hello, world!');
  }, 6000);
});

// Custom timeout handler
app.use((req, res, next) => {
  if (req.timedout) {
    res.status(503).send('Custom timeout message: Service unavailable.');
  } else {
    next();
  }
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});

Conditional timeout

This feature allows you to set a conditional timeout based on the request path. In this example, the '/slow' endpoint has a longer timeout of 10 seconds, while other endpoints do not have a timeout.

const express = require('express');
const timeout = require('connect-timeout');

const app = express();

// Set a conditional timeout
app.use((req, res, next) => {
  if (req.path === '/slow') {
    timeout('10s')(req, res, next);
  } else {
    next();
  }
});

app.get('/slow', (req, res) => {
  // Simulate a long-running request
  setTimeout(() => {
    res.send('This is a slow endpoint.');
  }, 11000);
});

app.get('/fast', (req, res) => {
  res.send('This is a fast endpoint.');
});

app.use((err, req, res, next) => {
  if (req.timedout) {
    res.status(503).send('Service unavailable. Please try again later.');
  } else {
    next(err);
  }
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});

Other packages similar to connect-timeout

express-timeout-handler

The express-timeout-handler package provides similar functionality to connect-timeout by allowing you to set timeouts for HTTP requests in Express applications. It also offers more advanced features such as custom error messages and different timeout strategies. Compared to connect-timeout, express-timeout-handler provides more flexibility and customization options.

express-timeout

The express-timeout package is another middleware for setting timeouts in Express applications. It is simpler and more lightweight compared to connect-timeout, making it a good choice for projects that require basic timeout functionality without additional features.

README

connect-timeout

Times out a request in the Connect/Express application framework.

Install

$ npm install connect-timeout

API

NOTE This module is not recommend as a "top-level" middleware (i.e. app.use(timeout('5s'))) unless you take precautions to halt your own middleware processing. See as top-level middleware for how to use as a top-level middleware.

While the library will emit a 'timeout' event when requests exceed the given timeout, node will continue processing the slow request until it terminates. Slow requests will continue to use CPU and memory, even if you are returning a HTTP response in the timeout callback. For better control over CPU/memory, you may need to find the events that are taking a long time (3rd party HTTP requests, disk I/O, database calls) and find a way to cancel them, and/or close the attached sockets.

timeout(time, [options])

Returns middleware that times out in time milliseconds. time can also be a string accepted by the ms module. On timeout, req will emit "timeout".

Options

The timeout function takes an optional options object that may contain any of the following keys:

respond

Controls if this module will "respond" in the form of forwarding an error. If true, the timeout error is passed to next() so that you may customize the response behavior. This error has a .timeout property as well as .status == 503. This defaults to true.

req.clearTimeout()

Clears the timeout on the request. The timeout is completely removed and will not fire for this request in the future.

req.timedout

true if timeout fired; false otherwise.

Examples

as top-level middleware

Because of the way middleware processing works, once this module passes the request to the next middleware (which it has to do in order for you to do work), it can no longer stop the flow, so you must take care to check if the request has timedout before you continue to act on the request.

var express = require('express');
var timeout = require('connect-timeout');

// example of using this top-level; note the use of haltOnTimedout
// after every middleware; it will stop the request flow on a timeout
var app = express();
app.use(timeout('5s'));
app.use(bodyParser());
app.use(haltOnTimedout);
app.use(cookieParser());
app.use(haltOnTimedout);

// Add your routes here, etc.

function haltOnTimedout(req, res, next){
  if (!req.timedout) next();
}

app.listen(3000);

express 3.x

var express = require('express');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var timeout = require('connect-timeout');

var app = express();
app.post('/save', timeout('5s'), bodyParser.json(), haltOnTimedout, function(req, res, next){
  savePost(req.body, function(err, id){
    if (err) return next(err);
    if (req.timedout) return;
    res.send('saved as id ' + id);
  });
});

function haltOnTimedout(req, res, next){
  if (!req.timedout) next();
}

function savePost(post, cb){
  setTimeout(function(){
    cb(null, ((Math.random()* 40000) >>> 0));
  }, (Math.random()* 7000) >>> 0));
}

app.listen(3000);

connect

var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var connect = require('connect');
var timeout = require('connect-timeout');

var app = require('connect');
app.use('/save', timeout('5s'), bodyParser.json(), haltOnTimedout, function(req, res, next){
  savePost(req.body, function(err, id){
    if (err) return next(err);
    if (req.timedout) return;
    res.send('saved as id ' + id);
  });
});

function haltOnTimedout(req, res, next){
  if (!req.timedout) next();
}

function savePost(post, cb){
  setTimeout(function(){
    cb(null, ((Math.random()* 40000) >>> 0));
  }, (Math.random()* 7000) >>> 0));
}

app.listen(3000);

License

MIT