Hi All,
I am working on a website that communicates with an Unreal Engine project through a custom programming integration, and I am running into one specific problem where updated data from the website does not consistently appear inside the Unreal Engine application even though the website API request itself completes successfully. The basic workflow is that the Unreal project requests data from my website, receives the response, and then uses that information to update an in-game system or UI element. Under normal circumstances this works as expected, and the latest values returned by the website are displayed correctly. However, after certain updates are made on the website, Unreal Engine sometimes continues displaying the previous values instead of the newly returned data. The website itself shows the updated information correctly, and the API endpoint also appears to return a successful response, so the main issue seems to occur somewhere in the process of taking the response received by the Unreal Engine code and applying that new data to the relevant runtime object.
The behavior is intermittent rather than completely reproducible, which is what makes it difficult to determine where the problem is occurring. For example, I can change a value on the website, trigger the corresponding request from Unreal Engine, and sometimes see the new value immediately, while on another request the application continues showing the previous value even though the request finishes without an obvious error. If I restart the Unreal application, the latest website data can then appear correctly, which makes me wonder whether the old value is remaining somewhere inside the Unreal runtime rather than the website continuing to return stale information. I have checked the response received by the Unreal-side code using logging and the request appears to complete normally, but I am still trying to determine whether the data is being cached by the HTTP layer, stored in an object that is not being refreshed, or simply not propagated to the UI after the response is processed. The important part is that I am not dealing with a complete connection failure; the request succeeds, but the newly returned value is not always reflected in the running Unreal project.
I have already checked the website side to make sure that the updated information is actually saved before Unreal requests it, and I have also compared the API response with the value eventually displayed inside the Unreal application. This comparison makes the situation particularly confusing because there are cases where the response contains the correct updated value, but the visible Unreal Engine element still shows the previous value. I am using Unreal Engine programming code to make the HTTP request and process the returned data, after which the result is assigned to the corresponding runtime data structure and used by the UI. I have added logging around the request and response handling so I can see when the callback is triggered and what information is received, but I am not yet sure whether the assignment is happening on the correct execution path or whether another part of the application subsequently writes the older value back. I have also tried forcing the relevant UI element to refresh after receiving the response, but I would prefer to understand the underlying lifecycle issue rather than continuously forcing redraws as a workaround.
One area I am particularly interested in is how Unreal Engine handles asynchronous HTTP requests and the lifetime of the objects responsible for processing their responses. The website request is asynchronous, so the data is only available after the request callback executes, and I suspect there may be a timing issue between receiving the response and updating the Unreal object that owns the displayed value. There are also other parts of the application that can read the same data, so I want to make sure an older value is not being applied after the newer response has already been processed. I am not currently trying to solve several unrelated networking problems; the specific issue is that a successful website response containing the latest value does not consistently result in that same value being visible in the running Unreal application. I would like to know whether there are recommended Unreal Engine patterns for handling asynchronous HTTP responses, updating UObject or component state safely, and ensuring that an older callback cannot overwrite newer data when multiple requests are made close together.
The issue becomes easier to notice when several updates are made within a relatively short period because the Unreal application can appear to lag behind the current state of the website. For instance, if the website value changes from one value to another and then changes again shortly afterward, the application may occasionally display an earlier value even though a later request has already completed. This makes me wonder whether multiple asynchronous requests are completing in an order different from the order in which they were started. I have considered adding delays between requests, but that feels more like hiding the underlying synchronization problem than solving it. I would rather know whether I should associate each request with a version, timestamp, sequence number, or some other identifier and ignore responses that are older than the currently applied data. I am also interested in whether Unreal Engine has a recommended approach for cancelling previous requests, tracking request state, or ensuring that only the most recent successful response updates a particular object and its UI.
Has anyone worked with a similar Unreal Engine setup where an external website provides changing data through an HTTP API and the Unreal application occasionally continues displaying an older value even though the API response contains the latest information? I would especially appreciate guidance on how to debug the complete path from the asynchronous HTTP callback through the data assignment and finally to the UI update, because I want to identify exactly where the old value is being retained or reapplied. If this is commonly caused by overlapping asynchronous requests, object state, callback ordering, or an Unreal-specific data-update pattern, an example of the recommended implementation would be very helpful. My goal is to make sure that when Unreal receives a successful response from my website, the corresponding runtime data and UI reliably reflect that response without requiring an application restart or repeated requests. Thanks!