By default, JAX-RS runtime generates a WebApplicationException with a HTTP 503 (Service unavailable) error response status code. A custom time-out handler may be set on an asynchronous response instance to provide custom time-out event resolution.

In case of a suspend time-out event, a custom time-out handler takes typically one of the following actions:

• Resumes the suspended asynchronous response using a custom response or a custom exception
• Cancels the response by calling one of the AsyncResponse cancel(...) methods.
• Extends the suspend period of the response by setting a new suspend time-out

If the registered time-out handler does not take any of the actions above, the default time-out event processing continues and the response is resumed with a generated WebApplicationException containing the HTTP 503 status code.

Following example illustrates the use of a custom TimeoutHandler:

 public class MyTimeoutHandler implements TimeoutHandler {
     …
     public void handleTimeout(AsyncResponse ar) {
         if (keepSuspended) {
             ar.setTimeout(10, SECONDS);
         } else if (cancel) {
             ar.cancel(retryPeriod);
         } else {
             ar.resume(defaultResponse);
         }
     }
     …
 }

 @Path("/messages/next")
 public class MessagingResource {
     …
     @GET
     public void readMessage(@Suspended AsyncResponse ar) {
         ar.setTimeoutHandler(new MyTimeoutHandler());
         suspended.put(ar);
     }
     …
 }