How to Exponential Backoff retry on kotlin coroutines

Question

I am using kotlin coroutines for network request using extension method to call class in retrofit like this

public suspend fun <T : Any> Call<T>.await(): T {

  return suspendCancellableCoroutine { continuation -> 

    enqueue(object : Callback<T> {

        override fun onResponse(call: Call<T>?, response: Response<T?>) {
            if (response.isSuccessful) {
                val body = response.body()
                if (body == null) {
                    continuation.resumeWithException(
                            NullPointerException("Response body is null")
                    )
                } else {
                    continuation.resume(body)
                }
            } else {
                continuation.resumeWithException(HttpException(response))
            }
        }

        override fun onFailure(call: Call<T>, t: Throwable) {
            // Don't bother with resuming the continuation if it is already cancelled.
            if (continuation.isCancelled) return
            continuation.resumeWithException(t)
        }
    })

      registerOnCompletion(continuation)
  }
}

then from calling side i am using above method like this

private fun getArticles()  = launch(UI) {

    loading.value = true
    try {
        val networkResult = api.getArticle().await()
        articles.value =  networkResult

    }catch (e: Throwable){
        e.printStackTrace()
        message.value = e.message

    }finally {
        loading.value = false
    }

}

i want to exponential retry this api call in some case i.e (IOException) how can i achieve it ??

Answer 1

I would suggest to write a helper higher-order function for your retry logic. You can use the following implementation for a start:

suspend fun <T> retryIO(
    times: Int = Int.MAX_VALUE,
    initialDelay: Long = 100, // 0.1 second
    maxDelay: Long = 1000,    // 1 second
    factor: Double = 2.0,
    block: suspend () -> T): T
{
    var currentDelay = initialDelay
    repeat(times - 1) {
        try {
            return block()
        } catch (e: IOException) {
            // you can log an error here and/or make a more finer-grained
            // analysis of the cause to see if retry is needed
        }
        delay(currentDelay)
        currentDelay = (currentDelay * factor).toLong().coerceAtMost(maxDelay)
    }
    return block() // last attempt
}

Using this function is very strightforward:

val networkResult = retryIO { api.getArticle().await() }

You can change retry parameters on case-by-case basis, for example:

val networkResult = retryIO(times = 3) { api.doSomething().await() }

You can also completely change the implementation of retryIO to suit the needs of your application. For example, you can hard-code all the retry parameters, get rid of the limit on the number of retries, change defaults, etc.