How Retrieve Response Body with RxAndroid and Retrofit 2?

Question

I am using Retrofit 2 (beta 4), and I was looking to move from using the standard Call response to the RxAndroid Observable response. I was successful in switching most of my calls with a simple swap from Call<List<ExampleObject>> to Observable<List<ExampleObject>>. A few of my calls use Call<okhttp3.ResponseBody>, which works great, but when I swapped out Call, I was met with an error:

03-03 15:21:44.237 27333-27333/com.example.app E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
        Process: com.example.app, PID: 27333
        java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Unable to create call adapter for rx.Observable<okhttp3.ResponseBody>
            for method AuthenticationService.getLoginForm
            at retrofit2.Utils.methodError(Utils.java:119)
            at retrofit2.MethodHandler.createCallAdapter(MethodHandler.java:52)
            at retrofit2.MethodHandler.create(MethodHandler.java:25)
            at retrofit2.Retrofit.loadMethodHandler(Retrofit.java:164)
            at retrofit2.Retrofit$1.invoke(Retrofit.java:145)
            at java.lang.reflect.Proxy.invoke(Proxy.java:393)
            at $Proxy6.getLoginForm(Unknown Source)
            at com.example.app.ui.fragment.LoginFragment.login(LoginFragment.java:214)
            at com.example.app.ui.fragment.LoginFragment.lambda$onContinue$1(LoginFragment.java:168)
            at com.example.app.ui.fragment.LoginFragment.access$lambda$1(LoginFragment.java)
            at com.example.app.ui.fragment.LoginFragment$$Lambda$4.onClick(Unknown Source)
            at android.view.View.performClick(View.java:5204)
            at android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:21153)
            at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:739)
            at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
            at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:148)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5417)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:726)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:616)
        Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not locate call adapter for rx.Observable<okhttp3.ResponseBody>.
         Tried:
          * retrofit2.ExecutorCallAdapterFactory
           at retrofit2.Retrofit.nextCallAdapter(Retrofit.java:230)
           at retrofit2.Retrofit.callAdapter(Retrofit.java:194)
           at retrofit2.MethodHandler.createCallAdapter(MethodHandler.java:50)
              ... 18 more

The reason I am using the ResponseBody instead of another object as usual, is because in these cases I need to parse HTML, and as far as I know, there is no Retrofit converter for an HTML parser. I know I probably could create one on my own, but I would rather not for the small amount of HTML I have to parse.

My question is why doesn't the Retrofit 2 RxJava Adapter support ResponseBody when Retrofit 2 itself does? Is there another way I can obtain the response string from an Observable?

---

My Service:

public interface AuthenticationService() {

    @GET("cas/login")
    Observable<Response<ResponseBody>> login();
}

Relevant Retrofit code:

public static Retrofit getRetrofit() {
    if(mRetrofit == null) {
        return new Retrofit.Builder()
                .addCallAdapterFactory(RxJavaCallAdapterFactory.create())
                .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create(getGson()))
                .client(getOkHttpClient())
                .build();
    } return mRetrofit;
}

public static AuthenticationService getAuthenticationService() {
    return getRetrofit().create(AuthenticationService.class);
}

Response attempt:

private void login() {
    RestClient.getAuthenticationService().login()
            .observeOn(ASchedulers.newThread())
            .subscribeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
            .doOnNext(this::onLoginResponse);
}

private void onLoginResponse(Response<ResponseBody>> response) {
    try {
        parseResponse(response.body().string());
    } catch (IOException) {
        Timber.w(throwable, "Failed to login");
    }
}

New stack trace:

03-03 16:14:57.848 26866-26866/com.example.app E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
        Process: com.example.app, PID: 26866
        java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Unable to create call adapter for rx.Observable<retrofit2.Response<okhttp3.ResponseBody>>
            for method AuthenticationService.getLoginForm
            at retrofit2.Utils.methodError(Utils.java:119)
            at retrofit2.MethodHandler.createCallAdapter(MethodHandler.java:52)
            at retrofit2.MethodHandler.create(MethodHandler.java:25)
            at retrofit2.Retrofit.loadMethodHandler(Retrofit.java:164)
            at retrofit2.Retrofit$1.invoke(Retrofit.java:145)
            at java.lang.reflect.Proxy.invoke(Proxy.java:393)
            at $Proxy3.getLoginForm(Unknown Source)
            at com.example.app.ui.fragment.LoginFragment.login(LoginFragment.java:206)
            at com.example.app.ui.fragment.LoginFragment.lambda$onContinue$1(LoginFragment.java:160)
            at com.example.app.ui.fragment.LoginFragment.access$lambda$1(LoginFragment.java)
            at com.example.app.ui.fragment.LoginFragment$$Lambda$4.onClick(Unknown Source)
            at android.view.View.performClick(View.java:5204)
            at android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:21153)
            at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:739)
            at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
            at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:148)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5417)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:726)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:616)
        Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not locate call adapter for rx.Observable<retrofit2.Response<okhttp3.ResponseBody>>.
         Tried:
          * retrofit2.ExecutorCallAdapterFactory
           at retrofit2.Retrofit.nextCallAdapter(Retrofit.java:230)
           at retrofit2.Retrofit.callAdapter(Retrofit.java:194)
           at retrofit2.MethodHandler.createCallAdapter(MethodHandler.java:50)
              ... 18 more

Solution

Try something like this:

import okhttp3.ResponseBody;
import retrofit2.Response;

@GET("/whatever")
Observable<Response<ResponseBody>> getWhatever();

Edit: Don't forget you have to specify the adapter for RxJava:

    new Retrofit.Builder()
            ...
            .addCallAdapterFactory(RxJavaCallAdapterFactory.create())
            .build()
            .create(Api.class);

Comments

[Tudor Luca]

Please post the actual code.

[Bryan]

@TudorLuca Updated with code

[Bryan]

@TudorLuca I'm sorry for wasting your time. I found out that I actually was using a Retrofit object (that I should've deleted) that didn't have an RxJavaCallAdapterFactory. I am tearing apart the current code, and it's a bit of a mess. Thank you for you help anyway.

[tir38]

@Bryan can you clarify that last statement?

[Bryan]

@tir38 It was a dumb mistake, at the time I was trying to fix some old code. I had accidentally set up two Retrofit objects within my code, one with the RxJavaCallAdapterFactory set up and one without it. I querying the old Retrofit object without the adapter factory, which is why I couldn't get an Observable<ResponseBody>.

[Bryan]

Tried that, same result :/ I also tried a plain okhttp3.Respone, that doesn't work either.

[Bryan]

Yes, I have the RxJavaCallAdapterFactory set up correctly, as my other Observable<Example> responses work as expected.

[Tudor Luca]

It won't work with okhttp3.Respone, you need Retrofit's Response.

[Bryan]

I had been using retrofit2.Response, along with okhttp3.ResponseBody (okHttp3 doesn't have a Response<T>, just a Response). Have you gotten this to work in the past?

[Tudor Luca]

My answer should work just fine. Post the entire code you're using, and the stacktrace you get with my code.

[Bryan]

It also works with just the Observable<ResponseBody>, without the need for Response<T>.