Proper timeout handling with Apache HttpClient

I’ve seen some really bad things happen when developers don’t code in proper timeout handling. Occasionally I’ve been asked what the best way to handle timeouts is - so I thought I’d share my take on it:

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MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager connectionManager =  new MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager();
HttpConnectionManagerParams params = connectionManager.getParams();

params.setConnectionTimeout(connectiontimeout); //set connection timeout (how long it takes to connect to remote host)
params.setSoTimeout(sotimeout); //set socket timeout (how long it takes to retrieve data from remote host)

HttpMethodBase baseMethod = null;

try {
  HttpClient httpClient = new HttpClient(connectionManager);
  httpClient.getParams().setParameter("http.connection-manager.timeout", poolTimeout); //set timeout on how long we'll wait for a connection from the pool

  baseMethod = new GetMethod(...);
  int statusCode = httpClient.executeMethod(...);

  ...
}
catch (ConnectTimeoutException cte ){
  //Took too long to connect to remote host
}
catch (SocketTimeoutException ste){
  //Remote host didn't respond in time
}
catch (Exception se){
  //Some other error occurred
}
finally {
  if (baseMethod != null)
    baseMethod.releaseConnection();
}