Gateway default-reply-timeout has no effect and still waits for reply (Spring Integration)

Question

I have been trying the reply timeout of Gateway in Spring Integration but it doesn't work in the configuration I've been using below:

    <int:gateway id="TrailerGateway" service-interface="com.12lmdk.gateways.TrailerGateway" 
     default-request-channel="trailerChannel" default-reply-timeout="5000"/>

       <int:channel id="trailerChannel" />

    <int:service-activator input-channel="trailerChannel" 
    ref="trailerService" method="getTrailer"/>

I have read in a stackoverflow question that I should provide a reply channel on the gateway and output channel in the service activator and that channel should be pollable so I tried that as well

    <int:gateway id="TrailerGateway" service-interface="com.12lmdk.gateways.TrailerGateway" default-reply-channel="trailerOutputChannel" default-reply-timeout="5000"/>

    <int:channel id="trailerChannel" />
    <int:channel id="trailerOutputChannel" >
       <int:queue/>
    </int:channel>

    <int:service-activator input-channel="trailerChannel" output-channel="trailerOutputChannel" ref="trailerService" method="getTrailer"/>

This still won't work and the reply-timeout has no effect. (I've tested it by putting a Thread.sleep of 10 seconds in one of the method accessed by the service activator) The gateway still waits for the reply of the service activator which is not what I am expecting.

How can I produce an exception or even a null response from the gateway due to timeout???

Answer 1

The timer doesn't start until the thread returns to the gateway. It is intended for use when the calling thread hands off the work to another thread, for example with a QueueChannel or ExecutorChannel. When the calling thread returns to the gateway, the timer starts.