fix: apply the client timeout to reading, not just connecting

[jvmvik]

Why CI keeps failing

HomeDepotTest has failed 4 of the last 7 runs, always identically:

serpapi.SerpApiException: java.net.http.HttpTimeoutException: request timed out
	at serpapi.SerpApiHttp.get(SerpApiHttp.java:93)

Not flake in the usual sense, and nothing to do with the recent error-handling or markdown work — the home_depot engine intermittently takes longer than a minute, and the request is cut off at 60s.

Root cause

SerpApi.timeout was applied to one timeout only:

public Integer timeout = 60000;
...
this.client.setHttpConnectionTimeout(this.timeout);   // read timeout never set

So the read timeout — the one actually expiring — was never configured and kept SerpApiHttp's own 60s default. That is backwards: a 60s connection timeout is meaningless, since connecting takes milliseconds, while 60s to read is tight for engines that scrape.

Change

Apply the timeout to both, and raise the default to 120s.

This is a library fix, not a test fix. Any caller searching a slow engine hit the same wall, and setHttpReadTimeout existed but nothing wired it up. The only behavioral change for users is that a hung request now waits 120s instead of 60s before failing; anyone wanting the old bound can still set timeout themselves.

TimeoutTest covers both halves and runs offline.

Also: the README generator was broken

snippet in README.md.erb sliced examples at a hardcoded lines[23..stop-1], assuming every example body starts at line 24. Quarantining GoogleEventsTest shifted that file, so regenerating pulled the @Ignore and its explanation into the docs as if they were usage code:

  @Ignore("google_events engine returns 'Fully empty' for all queries; not a client bug")
  @Test
  public void search() throws SerpApiException {
// skip test if no api_key provided
if("your_api_key" == null)

Now anchored on the // setup serpapi client marker, which every one of the 21 example tests has exactly once. README regenerated: the google_events example is correct again, and a stray blank line in the google play example is gone.

Verification

Offline tests pass locally. The real check is whether HomeDepotTest stays green across CI runs — one green run does not prove much given it has passed 3 of 7 on its own.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code