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How to get the current substate and the parent state out of the Spring Statemachine?

I am running a hierachical Spring Statemachine and - after walking through the inital transitions into state UP with the default substate STOPPED - want to use statemachine.getState(). Trouble is, it gives me only the parent state UP, and I cannot find an obvious way to retrieve both the parent state and the sub state.
The machine has states constructed like so:
StateMachineBuilder.Builder<ToolStates, ToolEvents> builder = StateMachineBuilder.builder();
builder.configureStates()
.withStates()
.initial(ToolStates.UP)
.state(ToolStates.UP, new ToolUpEventAction(), null)
.state(ToolStates.DOWN
.and()
.withStates()
.parent(ToolStates.UP)
.initial(ToolStates.STOPPED)
.state(ToolStates.STOPPED,new ToolStoppedEventAction(), null )
.state(ToolStates.IDLE)
.state(ToolStates.PROCESSING,
new ToolBeginProcessingPartAction(),
new ToolDoneProcessingPartAction());
...
builder.build();
ToolStates and ToolEvents are just enums. In the client class, after running the builder code above, the statemachine is started with statemachine.start(); When I subsequently call statemachine.getState().getId(); it gives me UP. No events sent to statemachine before that call.
I have been up and down the Spring statemachine docs and examples. I know from debugging that the entry actions of both states UP and STOPPED have been invoked, so I am assuming they are both "active" and would want to have both states presented when querying the statemachine. Is there a clean way to achieve this ? I want to avoid storing the substate somewhere from inside the Action classes, since I believe I have delegated all state management issues to the freakin Statemachine in the first place and I would rather like to learn how to use its API for this purpose.
Hopefully this is something embarrasingly obvious...
Any advice most welcome!

The documentation describes getStates():
https://docs.spring.io/spring-statemachine/docs/current/api/org/springframework/statemachine/state/State.html
java.util.Collection<State<S,E>> getStates()
Gets all possible states this state knows about including itself and substates.
stateMachine.getState().getStates();

to wrap it up after SMA's most helpful advice: turns out the stateMachine.getState().getStates(); does in my case return a list of four elements:
a StateMachineState instance containing UP and STOPPED
three ObjectState instances containing IDLE, STOPPED and PROCESSING,
respectively.
this leads me to go forward for the time being with the following solution:
public List<ToolStates> getStates() {
List<ToolStates> result = new ArrayList<>();
Collection<State<ToolStates, ToolEvents>> states = this.stateMachine.getState().getStates();
Iterator<State<ToolStates, ToolEvents>> iter = states.iterator();
while (iter.hasNext()) {
State<ToolStates, ToolEvents> candidate = iter.next();
if (!candidate.isSimple()) {
Collection<ToolStates> ids = candidate.getIds();
Iterator<ToolStates> i = ids.iterator();
while (i.hasNext()) {
result.add(i.next());
}
}
}
return result;
}
This maybe would be more elegant with some streaming and filtering, but does the trick for now. I don't like it much, though. It's a lot of error-prone logic and I'll have to see if it holds in the future - I wonder why there isn't a function in the Spring Statemachine that gives me a list of the enum values of all the currently active states, rather than giving me everything possible and forcing me to poke around in it with external logic...

Pause execution of a method until callback is finished

I am fairly new to Java and extremely new to concurrency. However, I have worked with C# for a while. It doesn't really matter, but for the sake of example, I am trying to pull data off a table on server. I want method to wait until data is completely pulled. In C#, we have async-await pattern which can be used like this:
private async Task<List<ToDoItem>> PullItems ()
{
var newRemoteItems = await (from p in remoteTable select p).ToListAsync();
return newRemoteItems;
}
I am trying to have similar effect in Java. Here is the exact code I'm trying to port (Look inside SynchronizeAsync method.)! However, Java Azure SDK works with callbacks. So, I have a few options:
Use wait and notify pattern. Following code doesn't work since I don't understand what I'm doing.
final List<TEntity> newRemoteItems = new ArrayList<TEntity>();
synchronized( this ) {
remoteTable.where().field("lastSynchronized").gt(currentTimeStamp)
.execute(new TableQueryCallback<TEntity>() {
public void onCompleted(List<TEntity> result,
int count,
Exception exception,
ServiceFilterResponse response) {
if (exception == null) {
newRemoteItems.clear();
for (TEntity item: result) {
newRemoteItems.add(item);
}
}
}
});
}
this.wait();
//DO SOME OTHER STUFF
My other option is to move DO SOME OTHER STUFF right inside the callback's if(exception == null) block. However, this would result in my whole method logic chopped off into the pieces, disturbing the continuous flow. I don't really like this approach.
Now, here are questions:
What is recommended way of doing this? I am completing the tutorial on Java concurrency at Oracle. Still, clueless. Almost everywhere I read, it is recommended to use higher level stuff rather than wait and notify.
What is wrong with my wait and notify?
My implementation blocks the main thread and it's considered a bad practice. But what else can I do? I must wait for the server to respond! Also, doesn't C# await block the main thread? How is that not a bad thing?

Either put DO SOME OTHER STUFF into callback, or declare a semaphore, and call semaphore.release in the callback and call semaphore.aquire where you want to wait. Remove synchronized(this) and this.wait.

Any Java API in Azure to get existing ServiceBusContract?

I am using the tutorial here for pushing data and consuming, data from Azure Service Bus. When I run the example the second time, I get back an error PUT https://asbtest.servicebus.windows.net/TestQueue?api-version=2012-08 returned a response status of 409 Conflict, which is way of saying you have already a configuration with that name, so do not create it another time. Most probably, this is the guilty code
Configuration config =
ServiceBusConfiguration.configureWithWrapAuthentication(
"HowToSample",
"your_service_bus_owner",
"your_service_bus_key",
".servicebus.windows.net",
"-sb.accesscontrol.windows.net/WRAPv0.9");
ServiceBusContract service = ServiceBusService.create(config);
QueueInfo queueInfo = new QueueInfo("TestQueue");
That is recalling create() is causing the problem, I would guess. But all methods in com.microsoft.windowsazure.services.serviceBus.ServiceBusService from http://dl.windowsazure.com/javadoc/ are only create, and I am unable to find a method like
ServiceBusContract service = A_class_that_finds_existing_bus_contract.find(config);
Am I thinking the wrong way, or is there another way out. Any pointers are appreciated.
EDIT:
I realized my code example for what I was asking was config, not service bus contract. Updated it, to reflect so.

Turns out I was wrong. The create() function in ServiceBusService does not throw any exception, as I gathered from Javadocs. Also, you can create the service bus contracts multiple times, as it being only a connection. The exception arises, when you attempt to create a queue with a name that already exists. That is this line.
String path = "TestQueue";
QueueInfo queueInfo = new QueueInfo(path);
To overcome this, you can go this way.
import com.microsoft.windowsazure.services.serviceBus.Util;
...
...
Iterable<QueueInfo> iqnf = Util.iterateQueues(service);
boolean queue_created = false;
for( QueueInfo qi : iqnf )
{
if( path.toLowerCase().equals( qi.getPath() ))
{
System.out.println(" Queue already exists. Do not create one.");
queue_created = true;
}
}
if ( !queue_created ) {
service.createQueue(queueInfo);
}
Hope, this helps anybody who may be stuck on create conflicts for queue on Azure.
EDIT: Even after I got the path code, my code refused to work. Turns out there is another caveat. Azure makes all queue names in lower case. I have edited the code to use toLower() for this work around.

I upvoted Soham's Question and Answer. I did not know about lowercase though I have not verified it. It did confirm the problem I am having right now as well.
The way #Soham has addressed it is good but not good for large ServicebUs where we may have tons of Queues it's added overhead to iterate it. The only way is to catch the ServiceException which is very generic and ignore that Exception.
Example:
QueueInfo queueInfo = new QueueInfo(queName);
try {
CreateQueueResult qr = service.createQueue(queueInfo);
} catch (ServiceException e) {
//Silently ignore for now.
}
The right way would be for the Azure library to extend the ServiceException and throw "ConcflictException" for e.g. which is present in httpStatusCode of ServiceException but unfortunately it's set to Private.
Since it is not We would have to extend the ServiceException and override the httpStatusCode setter.
Again, not the best way but the library can improve if we list as feedback on their Github issues.
Note: ServiceBus is still in preview phase.

Why is it that RESTlet takes quite time to print the XML, sometimes

I am implementing REST through RESTlet. This is an amazing framework to build such a restful web service; it is easy to learn, its syntax is compact. However, usually, I found that when somebody/someprogram want to access some resource, it takes time to print/output the XML, I use JaxbRepresentation. Let's see my code:
#Override
#Get
public Representation toXml() throws IOException {
if (this.requireAuthentication) {
if (!this.app.authenticate(getRequest(), getResponse()))
{
return new EmptyRepresentation();
}
}
//check if the representation already tried to be requested before
//and therefore the data has been in cache
Object dataInCache = this.app.getCachedData().get(getURI);
if (dataInCache != null) {
System.out.println("Representing from Cache");
//this is warning. unless we can check that dataInCache is of type T, we can
//get rid of this warning
this.dataToBeRepresented = (T)dataInCache;
} else {
System.out.println("NOT IN CACHE");
this.dataToBeRepresented = whenDataIsNotInCache();
//automatically add data to cache
this.app.getCachedData().put(getURI, this.dataToBeRepresented, cached_duration);
}
//now represent it (if not previously execute the EmptyRepresentation)
JaxbRepresentation<T> jaxb = new JaxbRepresentation<T>(dataToBeRepresented);
jaxb.setFormattedOutput(true);
return jaxb;
}
AS you can see, and you might asked me; yes I am implementing Cache through Kitty-Cache. So, if some XML that is expensive to produce, and really looks like will never change for 7 decades, then I will use cache... I also use it for likely static data. Maximum time limit for a cache is an hour to remain in memory.
Even when I cache the output, sometimes, output are irresponsive, like hang, printed partially, and takes time before it prints the remaining document. The XML document is accessible through browser and also program, it used GET.
What are actually the problem? I humbly would like to know also the answer from RESTlet developer, if possible. Thanks

Logback SMTPAppender Limiting Rate

How can I limit the rate of emails a Logback SMTPAppender, so that it would email me at most once every n minutes?
I have setup my logging according to the Logback appender, but I don't quite see how it be configured or subclassed to implement that.
Is there a hidden feature? Did someone develop a subclass to handle this?

Based on the documentation it appears that the way to do this is to write an EventEvaluator (see example 4.14 and 4.15) which looks at the time stamp for each event to only accept an event when "enough time" has passed since the last event was accepted.
You can use System.currentTimeMillis to get a number you can do math on to calculate time differences. http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/System.html#currentTimeMillis%28%29

As Thorbjørn, it's easy to create an EventEvaluator that limit the rate by which an appender fires a message.
However, I found Logback to support DuplicateMessageFilter, that solves my problem probably in a bitter way: "The DuplicateMessageFilter merits a separate presentation. This filter detects duplicate messages, and beyond a certain number of repetitions, drops repeated messages."

Have a look at the new Whisper appender. It does smart suppression. Available via Maven and github here
Statutory disclaimer: I'm the author.

This tool would do exactly what you want but it's not threadsafe at all: http://code.google.com/p/throttled-smtp-appender/wiki/Usage
I've written a threadsafe version but haven't open sourced it yet.
The reason you would have trouble finding good tools for this is that SMTP isn't a real endpoint. Use a service like loggly, airbrake, or dozens of others, or run your own server using something like logstash.

To solve same problem I've written custom evaluator. It extends ch.qos.logback.classic.boolex.OnMarkerEvaluator, but you can use any other evaluator as base. If there will many acceptable messages in silence interval evaluator will discard these. For my use case it's ok, but if you need different behavior - just add extra checks to the second if.
public class LimitingOnMarkerEvaluator extends OnMarkerEvaluator {
private long lastSend = 0, interval = 0;
#Override
public boolean evaluate(ILoggingEvent event) throws EvaluationException {
if (super.evaluate(event)) {
long now = System.currentTimeMillis();
if (now - lastSend > interval) {
lastSend = now;
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
public long getInterval() {
return interval;
}
public void setInterval(long interval) {
this.interval = interval;
}
}
Config to send maximum one message every 1000 second (about 17 mins):
<evaluator class="package.LimitingOnMarkerEvaluator">
<marker>FATAL</marker>
<interval>1000000</interval>
</evaluator>

I suggest filing a jira item requesting this feature. It is likely to be implemented if only asked.

Btw,
Logback v0.9.26 allows now to set the size of SMTPAppender message buffer. Until yesterday it would send the current contens of the buffer which was up to 256 messages which imho was a pain in the neck as I wanted to show only the last one in the email. Thus it's now possible to implement periodically recurring email warnings that carry only one particular error as per my interpretation of this question.
http://logback.qos.ch/manual/appenders.html#cyclicBufferSize
Have fun.