Using RxJava and Okhttp

It's easier and safer to use Observable.defer() instead of Observable.create():

final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
Observable.defer(new Func0<Observable<Response>>() {
    @Override public Observable<Response> call() {
        try {
            Response response = client.newCall(new Request.Builder().url("your url").build()).execute();
            return Observable.just(response);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            return Observable.error(e);
        }
    }
});

That way unsubscription and backpressure are handled for you. Here's a great post by Dan Lew about create() and defer().

If you wished to go the Observable.create() route then it should look more like in this library with isUnsubscribed() calls sprinkled everywhere. And I believe this still doesn't handle backpressure.

I realise this post is a bit old, but there's a new and more convenient way of doing this now

Observable.fromCallable {
        client.newCall(Request.Builder().url("your url").build()).execute()
    }

More info: https://artemzin.com/blog/rxjava-defer-execution-of-function-via-fromcallable/

I came late to the discussion but, if for some reason the code need to stream the response body, then defer or fromCallable won't do it. Instead one can employ the using operator.

Single.using(() -> okHttpClient.newCall(okRequest).execute(), // 1
             response -> { // 2
                 ...

                 return Single.just((Consumer<OutputStream>) fileOutput -> {
                     try (InputStream upstreamResponseStream = response.body().byteStream();
                          OutputStream fileOutput = responseBodyOutput) {
                         ByteStreams.copy(upstreamResponseStream, output);
                     }
                 });
             },
             Response::close, // 3
             false) // 4
      .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io()) // 5
      .subscribe(copier -> copier.accept(...), // 6
                 throwable -> ...); // 7

1. The first lambda executes the response after upon subscription.
2. The second lambda creates the observable type, here with Single.just(...)
3. The third lambda disposes the response. With defer one could have used the try-with-resources style.
4. Set the eager toggle to false to make the disposer called after the terminal event, i.e. after the subscription consumer has been executed.
5. Of course make the thing happen on another threadpool
6. Here's the lambda that will consume the response body. Without eager set to false, the code will raise an IOException with reason 'closed' because the response will be already closed before entering this lambda.
7. The onError lambda should handle exceptions, especially the IOException that cannot be anymore caught with the using operator as it was possible with a try/catch with defer.

Okhttp3 with RxSingle background API call.

     Disposable disposables = Single.fromCallable(() -> {
        Log.e(TAG, "clearData: Thread[" + Thread.currentThread().getName() + "]");
        OkHttpClient client = Util.getHttpClient();
        Request request = new Request.Builder()
                .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer " + Util.getUserToken())
                .url(BuildConfig.BASE_URL + ApiConstants.DELETE_FEEDS)
                .build();

        Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();
        if(response.isSuccessful()) {
           ...
           return ; // Any  type
        } else {
           return ; // Any type        
        }
    }).subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
      .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
      .subscribe((result) -> {
           Log.d(TAG, "api() completed");
      });


    compositeDisposable.add(disposables);