I need to know how to determine if the salesforce services are available, perferably without using the salesforce API itself (i.e. without SforceServiceLocator, LoginResult, etc).

I am reasoning that since the salesforce API uses Web Services, which are based on HTTP, then it is reasonable to assume that if
https://www.salesforce.com/login.jsp
does not return anything then that means that the salesforce Web Services are also not available.

I am also basing this theory on the fact that one time I was trying to use the DataLoader and kept getting some kind of connection error (it said "PartnerClient connection error" or something like that). When I went to
https://www.salesforce.com/login.jsp
it was also unavailable. About 10 minutes later the DataLoader was able to connect ok, and I was also able to retrieve a page from
https://www.salesforce.com/login.jsp,
which makes me think that it is a reasonable assumption.

So basically, I am hoping that I can get away with doing something simple like this:

//test if sfdc web services are available
try {
    URL url = new URL("https://www.salesforce.com/login.jsp");
    URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
    /**
    * Check if the value of the first header value is null (if
    * everything is ok then it should be something like "HTTP/1.1 200
    * OK")
    */
    String headerName = conn.getHeaderFieldKey(0);
    String headerValue = conn.getHeaderField(0);
    if (headerValue != null) {
        //success
    } else {
        //failure

    }
    conn = null;
} catch (Exception e) {
    //exception
}



The only question I have is if this will always correctly tell me if the salesforce services are available.

Thanks for any help!

Message Edited by Nashorn on 04-04-2006 03:10 AM