Operation timeout on Datascope API

Tina Bateman1

Hi,

we have developed an API which pulls both FX and Interest rates from Datascope.

we are randomly getting time out errors - see below.

we have increased the timeout settings but this hasn't made any difference.

Please can you advise what else we can try?

Starting service..

======= Scripting Service started =======

Logging in.....OK

Getting Token.....

token: XXX

Sending Request.....

======= Error running script =======

msxml6.dll

[Line: 60] The operation timed out

======= Completed running of script =======

zoya faberov

Hello @Tina Bateman1,

As timeouts can happen for multiple reasons, I would try to identify which of them apply to your case.

Are you able to test via Postman tool by issuing "naked" requests, outside the custom application code and reviewing the results? This may help to narrow down the causes:

• If you encounter the same timeout issue with Postman submission, then the cause is likely outside of your application, and is likely related to network connectivity or service response.
• If you submit several of the same requests via Postman, especially, at the time when your app is facing timeouts, and do not reproduce the issue, you can look into the design of your app.

Please see REST API Tutorials Introduction with downloadable starter collection, to get started.

---

The first thing I would check (Postman starter collection can be of help, as this test does not require coding and result is very clear) is the response status of the HTTP REST request, rather then via API/DLL response.

• The response status of a valid request can be 200, request completed.
• Or it can be 202, request is valid and accepted for processing. There are two possibilities:
  • A larger request can be taking longer to complete, the recommended approach is to periodically check status of the job, till it is resulting in 200, and then retrieve the results
  • If the request is intra-day, the content can also be embargoed, in this case, it should be retrieved once the embargo is over, see REST API Tutorial 3: On Demand intraday extraction, embargo for more details on this.

If this is what you confirm, this is the expected behavior, that a custom application should handle appropriately. Would suggest additionally reviewing this previous discussion thread for helpful suggestions on handling of DSS timeouts.

Hope this helps

zoya faberov

Hello @Tina Bateman1,

Could you please tell us more about the issue, in order to try to help narrow down possible causes?

Has this started happening/appeared recently?

Would suggest to run DSS Postman Starter requests to DSS from the same environment to verify if the issue is reproducible outside of the custom application?

Tina Bateman1

Hi Zoya,

this is a new process for us which we only went live with in March this year.

Since we started we have had issues but have had no luck in resolving.

Tina Bateman1

Thank you so much for your advice. I will pass this onto my developer to see if he can troubleshoot this with the approach recommended.

Tina Bateman1

Hi,

my developer has confirmed that Postman works fine. The only issue we have is when using vbscript to connect to the API.

He is going to install a utility called crashdumps to see if this provides more detail about the crashing / timeout. So not resolved just yet.

zoya faberov

Hello @Tina Bateman1,

Postman requests working as expected is a good news, as appears to indicate no connectivity issues.

If the application is intended for production use, especially if it's pulling a large result set, would like to suggest reviewing DataScope Select Best Practices & Fair Usage Policy to help your team design it for efficiency and robustness.