When is it necessary to check if a subscriber is subscribed prior to calling onNext() and onError()? - reactive-programming

Question

Consider the following example, it creates an Observable that wraps another API that produces Widgets
public Observable<Widget> createWidgetObservable() {
return Observable.create(new Observable.OnSubscribe<Widget>() {
#Override
public void call(final Subscriber<? super Widget> subscriber) {
WidgetCreator widgetCreator = new WidgetCreator();
widgetCreator.setWidgetCreatorObserver(new WidgetCreator.WidgetCreatorObserver() {
#Override
public void onWidgetCreated(Widget widget) {
if (!subscriber.isUnsubscribed()) {
subscriber.onNext(widget);
}
}
#Override
public void onWidgetError(Throwable e) {
if (!subscriber.isUnsubscribed()) {
subscriber.onError(e);
}
}
});
}
});
}
Are the subscriber.isUnsubscribed() checks necessary prior to calling subscriber.onNext() and subscriber.onError()?
If so, are the checks always necessary or does it depend on the composition / subscriber that's using the observable?
Is it best practice to include the checks?

Answer 1

You can use them to narrow the window between an emission and an unsubscription but if you don't have loops, it is unnecessary most of the time. The more important thing is that if an unsubscription happen, you'd have to "unset" the WidgetCreatorObserver otherwise it will keep receiving and dropping data and keeping alive every reference it may hold.
WidgetCreator widgetCreator = new WidgetCreator();
WidgetCreator.WidgetCreatorObserver wo = new WidgetCreator.WidgetCreatorObserver() {
#Override
public void onWidgetCreated(Widget widget) {
if (!subscriber.isUnsubscribed()) {
subscriber.onNext(widget);
}
}
#Override
public void onWidgetError(Throwable e) {
if (!subscriber.isUnsubscribed()) {
subscriber.onError(e);
}
}
}
widgetCreator.setWidgetCreatorObserver(wo);
wo.add(Subscriptions.create(() -> widgetCreator.removeWidgetCreatorObserver(wo)));