Polly Retry (How It Works For Developers)

Installing Polly

You can install Polly via the NuGet Package Manager Console using the following command:

Install-Package Polly

Or via .NET CLI:

dotnet add package Polly

Adding Polly using statements

In your C# file, include the Polly namespace:

using Polly;

using Polly;

Exponential Backoff

Exponential backoff is a popular retry strategy where the delay between requests and retries increases exponentially. Polly provides a convenient way to implement exponential backoff using WaitAndRetry().

var retryPolicy = Policy
    .Handle<HttpRequestException>()
    .WaitAndRetry(
        retryCount: 3, // Max retry attempts
        sleepDurationProvider: attempt => TimeSpan.FromSeconds(Math.Pow(2, attempt)), // Exponential delay
        onRetry: (exception, timeSpan, retryCount, context) =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Retry {retryCount} due to {exception.Message}");
        });

var retryPolicy = Policy
    .Handle<HttpRequestException>()
    .WaitAndRetry(
        retryCount: 3, // Max retry attempts
        sleepDurationProvider: attempt => TimeSpan.FromSeconds(Math.Pow(2, attempt)), // Exponential delay
        onRetry: (exception, timeSpan, retryCount, context) =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Retry {retryCount} due to {exception.Message}");
        });

Retry with Circuit Breaker

Combining retry with a circuit breaker can further enhance resilience by preventing repeated retries when a service is consistently failing. Polly allows you to combine retry and circuit breaker policies easily.

// Define a circuit breaker policy
var circuitBreakerPolicy = Policy
    .Handle<HttpRequestException>()
    .CircuitBreaker(
        exceptionsAllowedBeforeBreaking: 3, // Number of exceptions before breaking
        durationOfBreak: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30), // Time circuit stays open
        onBreak: (ex, breakDelay) =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Circuit broken due to {ex.Message}. Retry after {breakDelay.TotalSeconds} seconds.");
        },
        onReset: () =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Circuit reset.");
        });

// Define a retry policy
var retryPolicy = Policy
    .Handle<HttpRequestException>()
    .WaitAndRetry(
        retryCount: 3, // Max retry attempts
        sleepDurationProvider: attempt => TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2), // Fixed retry delay
        onRetry: (exception, timeSpan, retryCount, context) =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Retry {retryCount} due to {exception.Message}");
        });

// Combine both policies into a single policy wrap
var policyWrap = Policy.Wrap(circuitBreakerPolicy, retryPolicy);

// Define a circuit breaker policy
var circuitBreakerPolicy = Policy
    .Handle<HttpRequestException>()
    .CircuitBreaker(
        exceptionsAllowedBeforeBreaking: 3, // Number of exceptions before breaking
        durationOfBreak: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30), // Time circuit stays open
        onBreak: (ex, breakDelay) =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Circuit broken due to {ex.Message}. Retry after {breakDelay.TotalSeconds} seconds.");
        },
        onReset: () =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Circuit reset.");
        });

// Define a retry policy
var retryPolicy = Policy
    .Handle<HttpRequestException>()
    .WaitAndRetry(
        retryCount: 3, // Max retry attempts
        sleepDurationProvider: attempt => TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2), // Fixed retry delay
        onRetry: (exception, timeSpan, retryCount, context) =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Retry {retryCount} due to {exception.Message}");
        });

// Combine both policies into a single policy wrap
var policyWrap = Policy.Wrap(circuitBreakerPolicy, retryPolicy);

In this example:

• CircuitBreaker() defines a circuit breaker policy that breaks after 3 exceptions and stays open for 30 seconds.
• Policy.Wrap() combines the circuit breaker and retry policies into a single policy.

Polly Retry with IronPDF

When working with IronPDF, there might be scenarios where you need to fetch data from external sources or perform complex operations before generating a PDF.

In such cases, you might encounter transient faults or temporary issues that could lead to PDF generation failures. To handle these transient faults gracefully, you can use Polly Retry in conjunction with IronPDF.

Installing IronPDF and Polly

Before getting started, make sure to install the IronPDF NuGet package in your project.

Install-Package IronPdf

Using Polly Retry with IronPDF

Let's look at an example where we use Polly Retry to handle transient faults when generating a PDF using IronPDF. In the following example, we'll simulate fetching data from an external API and then generating a PDF based on that data. We'll use Polly Retry to execute the data fetching operation in case of failures.

using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using IronPdf;
using Polly;

namespace IronPdfWithPollyRetry
{
    public class Program
    {
        public static async Task Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Define a retry policy with async capability
            var retryPolicy = Policy
                .Handle<HttpRequestException>() // Specify exception type to handle
                .WaitAndRetryAsync(
                    3, // Retry attempts
                    retryAttempt => TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2), // Calculated retry delay
                    (exception, timeSpan, retryCount, context) =>
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Retry " + retryCount + " due to " + exception.Message);
                    });

            // Execute the retry policy asynchronously
            var pdf = await retryPolicy.ExecuteAsync(async () =>
            {
                var data = await FetchDataFromExternalApiAsync(); // Fetch data from an external source
                return GeneratePdfFromData(data); // Generate PDF using fetched data
            });

            pdf.SaveAs("GeneratedDocument.pdf");
        }

        // Simulate fetching data from an external API
        static async Task<string> FetchDataFromExternalApiAsync()
        {
            await Task.Delay(100); // Simulate delay
            throw new HttpRequestException("Failed to fetch data from external API");
        }

        // Generate PDF using IronPDF based on the fetched data
        static PdfDocument GeneratePdfFromData(string data)
        {
            var htmlContent = "<html><body><h1>Data: " + data + "</h1></body></html>";
            var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
            return renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(htmlContent);
        }
    }
}

using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using IronPdf;
using Polly;

namespace IronPdfWithPollyRetry
{
    public class Program
    {
        public static async Task Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Define a retry policy with async capability
            var retryPolicy = Policy
                .Handle<HttpRequestException>() // Specify exception type to handle
                .WaitAndRetryAsync(
                    3, // Retry attempts
                    retryAttempt => TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2), // Calculated retry delay
                    (exception, timeSpan, retryCount, context) =>
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Retry " + retryCount + " due to " + exception.Message);
                    });

            // Execute the retry policy asynchronously
            var pdf = await retryPolicy.ExecuteAsync(async () =>
            {
                var data = await FetchDataFromExternalApiAsync(); // Fetch data from an external source
                return GeneratePdfFromData(data); // Generate PDF using fetched data
            });

            pdf.SaveAs("GeneratedDocument.pdf");
        }

        // Simulate fetching data from an external API
        static async Task<string> FetchDataFromExternalApiAsync()
        {
            await Task.Delay(100); // Simulate delay
            throw new HttpRequestException("Failed to fetch data from external API");
        }

        // Generate PDF using IronPDF based on the fetched data
        static PdfDocument GeneratePdfFromData(string data)
        {
            var htmlContent = "<html><body><h1>Data: " + data + "</h1></body></html>";
            var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
            return renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(htmlContent);
        }
    }
}

This C# code demonstrates how to use the Polly library for implementing retry policies with IronPDF to generate a PDF document. The Main method initializes a retry policy using Polly's WaitAndRetryAsync method.

This policy specifies that it should handle HttpRequestException and retry the operation up to 3 times with a delay of 2 seconds between the initial attempt and retries. If a retry failure occurs, a message is printed to the console indicating the retry attempt number and the exception message.

Inside the Main method, the retry policy logic is executed asynchronously using retryPolicy.ExecuteAsync(). Within this execution, two asynchronous operations are chained together: FetchDataFromExternalApiAsync() and GeneratePdfFromData(data).

If FetchDataFromExternalApiAsync() fails (as it's intentionally set up to do with a simulated exception), the retry policy will catch the HttpRequestException, log the retry attempt, and retry the operation.

The FetchDataFromExternalApiAsync() method simulates fetching data from an external API with a delay and intentionally throws an HttpRequestException to simulate failed requests.