Is it wise to create Webclient again and again in Webflux since my base URI is not fixed?

Question

In my MicroService I have to fetch data from places. Some of the URL's are fixed but some are not . So do I need to create WebClient again and again if my base URL changes. If not then is the below way correct to create WebClient.

WebClient.create(); and later is changing the URI again and again whenever I make a call. As per my understanding creating a WebClient must be some heavy operation.

ReactorClientHttpConnector connector = new ReactorClientHttpConnector(
                options -> options.option(ChannelOption.CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MILLIS, requestTimeout).compression(true)
                        .afterNettyContextInit(ctx ->  ctx.addHandlerLast(new ReadTimeoutHandler(readTimeout, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS))));
        return WebClient.builder()
                        .clientConnector(connector)
                        .baseUrl(hostURL)
                        .build();

There's an answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/49107545/10264430 — Alexander Pankin, Dec 19 '18 at 06:00
thanks @AlexanderPankin But found it after posting it here :) — naval jain, Dec 19 '18 at 06:18
Possible duplicate of [Right way to use Spring WebClient in multi-thread environment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49095366/right-way-to-use-spring-webclient-in-multi-thread-environment) — Brian Clozel, Dec 19 '18 at 09:50
@BrianClozel My problem is a bit different . My base URI is going to change most of the time.Explanation provided would still be valid in that case. — naval jain, Dec 19 '18 at 12:01
I am creating ReactorClientHttpConnector for every request. and passing it to WebClient.create().clientConnector(ReactorClientHttpConnector ).baseURL("new URL ").build() — naval jain, Dec 19 '18 at 12:03

score 24 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 24 '23 at 01:02

WebClient instances are meant to be reusable. The only reason you'd need to have different client instances is for specific needs: instrumentation for observability, specific authentication client filters, specific connection/read/write timeouts.

Different base URIs is not a strong reason to create different instances. It's perfectly fine to create an instance and not set a base URI, it's merely a convenience to avoid duplication when calling the same host over and over again.

This is perfectly fine:

WebClient webClient = WebClient.builder()
                               .build();

Mono<Resource> resource = webClient.get()
                                   .uri("http://example.org/resource")
                                   .retrieve()...;

Mono<Project> project = webClient.get()
                                 .uri("http://spring.io/projects/spring-boot")
                                 .retrieve()...;

Note that if you use Spring Boot, you should instead consider building your WebClient instance using the provided WebClient.Builder (see WebClient section for more details).

So the only thing to keep in mind if I am taking control over HTttpConnector then I need to use same instance across the application — naval jain, Dec 20 '18 at 04:42
You can set it I’m on the webclient builder just like in your sample. — Brian Clozel, Dec 20 '18 at 06:06

Is it wise to create Webclient again and again in Webflux since my base URI is not fixed?

1 Answers1