We Keep Coding

Java - synchronous callback

I have the following code which is executed asynchronously. I would like to make it synchronous in order to follow some logical flow but I cannot work out how.
You will see that scanning is set to true to indicate that the method is still working, at the beginning - I then initiate a findPrinters(...) command - this contains a DiscoveryHandler which runs asynchronously - foundPrinter() is called each time an item is discovered. discoveryFinished() is when the discovery process is successfully completed, and discoveryError(...) is called whenever an error occurs.
I rely on something being set in my DiscoveryHandler before I would like to return from this method. Hence why I have while (scanning) underneath it. But this feels like a hack to me, and not the correct way of doing things. I cannot get wait() and notify() working. Can someone tell me what the correct way to do this is please?
private boolean findPrinter(final Context ctx) {
try {
scanning = true;
BluetoothDiscoverer.findPrinters(ctx, new DiscoveryHandler() {
public void foundPrinter(DiscoveredPrinter device) {
if (device instanceof DiscoveredPrinterBluetooth) {
DiscoveredPrinterBluetooth btDevice = (DiscoveredPrinterBluetooth) device;
if (btDevice.friendlyName.startsWith("XXXX")) {
try {
connection = new BluetoothConnection(btDevice.address);
connection.open();
if (connection.isConnected()) {
address = btDevice.address;
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
}
}
}
}
public void discoveryFinished() {
scanning = false;
}
public void discoveryError(String arg0) {
scanning = false;
}
});
} catch (Exception ex) {
}
while (scanning) {}
return false;
}

You could do this with CountDownLatch, which might be the lightest synchronization primitive in java.util.concurrent:
private boolean findPrinter(final Context ctx) {
final CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(1);
final boolean[] result = {false};
...
BluetoothDiscoverer.findPrinters(ctx, new DiscoveryHandler() {
...
public void discoveryFinished() {
result[0] = true;
latch.countDown();
}
public void discoveryError(String arg0) {
result[0] = false;
latch.countDown();
}
...
}
// before final return
// wait for 10 seconds for the response
latch.await(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
//return the result, it will return false when there is timeout
return result[0];
}

There are a bunch of ways you can do this and wait()/notify() is probably not the best since you probably want to return something from your async method. As such I suggest using something like a BlockingQueue. Here is a simplified example of how you can do this:
private boolean findPrinter(final Context ctx) {
final BlockingQueue<?> asyncResult = new SynchronousQueue<?>();
try {
BluetoothDiscoverer.findPrinters(ctx, new DiscoveryHandler() {
public void foundPrinter(DiscoveredPrinter device) {
if (device instanceof DiscoveredPrinterBluetooth) {
DiscoveredPrinterBluetooth btDevice = (DiscoveredPrinterBluetooth) device;
if (btDevice.friendlyName.startsWith("XXXX")) {
try {
connection = new BluetoothConnection(btDevice.address);
connection.open();
if (connection.isConnected()) {
address = btDevice.address;
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
}
}
}
}
public void discoveryFinished() {
asyncResult.put(true);
}
public void discoveryError(String arg0) {
asyncResult.put(arg0);
}
});
} catch (Exception ex) {
}
Object result = asyncResult.take();
if (result instanceof Boolean) {
return (Boolean) result;
} else if (result instanceof String) {
logError((String) result);
}
return false;
}
One problem with using SynchronousQueue here though is that if discoveryFinished()/discoveryError() is called more than once, then the thread executing the code asynchronously will block forever since the SynchronousQueue assumes there will be exactly one take() per every put() and will block if a put() is made without a corresponding take() or vice versa. So if in your case those methods can be called more than once you would probably use a different kind of BlockingQueue instead (see documentation).

SwingWorker issue, method doInBackground not executed?

Sometimes the doInBackgorund() method of my SwingWorker seems not to be executed, it goes directly to the done() method without saving or printing anything on some of my clients machines, so i suppose it's a random thing , and i can't figure out why. Here 's my code :
public class saveCmdWorker extends SwingWorker<Integer, Integer> {
Order ord;
public saveCmdWorker(Order ord) {
this.ord = ord;
}
#Override
public Integer doInBackground() {
if(999 != ord.getCaissier().getIdCaissier())
saveCmd(ord); // database queries
else
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Error",JOptionPane.WARNING_MESSAGE);
if(ord.isIsProd() == false){
try {
// print via serial port
Printer.print(ord, false, Restaurant.numCaisse);
} catch (Exception ex) {
PosO2.errorLogger.log(Level.SEVERE, "Printing error", ex);
}
}
try {
Printer.printFacture(ord, false);
if(btnDuplicata.getForeground() == Color.red)
Printer.printFacture(ord, true);
} catch (Exception ex) {
PosO2.errorLogger.log(Level.SEVERE, "Printing error", ex);
}
return 1;
}
#Override
protected void done() {
try {
btnDuplicata.setForeground(Color.black);
ARendre = 0.0;
ord.clear();
for (int j = 0; j < tab_paiement.size(); j++) {
tab_paiement.get(j).setVisible(true);
}
montantRestant.setBackground(Color.red);
} catch(Exception e) {
PosO2.errorLogger.log(Level.SEVERE, "Refresh Error", e);
}
}
}
I execute this worker via this actionlistener :
ActionListener encaissListener = new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
worker = new saveCmdWorker(cmd);
worker.execute();
}
};
I don't have any logs available so i assume no exception is caught. I saw that a JOptionPane was fired in the doInBackground()(consider as ui modification in an other thread?) but the problem exists when the application doesn't go in the else statement. Can this be the cause of my problems? I don't have this bug on my computer, it just works fine.

As per the SwingWorker documentation (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/swing/SwingWorker.html#execute()):
SwingWorker is only designed to be executed once. Executing a SwingWorker more than once will not result in invoking the doInBackground method twice.
So, it looks like you need to create a new instance of your subclass each time you want to run the execute method properly.

How to automatically shut down an JMXConnectorServer

I'm trying to start a JMXConnectorServer for management and debug purposes. But I don't want this service to prevent application from exiting normally when the last non-daemon thread is terminated.
In other words, I want the following program to terminate immediately:
public class Main {
public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException {
MBeanServer mbs = ManagementFactory.getPlatformMBeanServer();
JMXServiceURL jmxUrl = new JMXServiceURL("rmi", null, 0);
JMXConnectorServer connectorServer =
JMXConnectorServerFactory.newJMXConnectorServer(jmxUrl, null, mbs);
connectorServer.start();
}
}

I play with similar issue and wrote this class:
public final class HardDaemonizer extends Thread {
private final Runnable target;
private final String newThreadName;
public HardDaemonizer(Runnable target, String name, String newThreadName) {
super(name == null ? "Daemonizer" : name);
setDaemon(true);
this.target = target;
this.newThreadName = newThreadName;
}
#Override
public void run() {
try {
List<Thread> tb = getSubThreads();
target.run();
List<Thread> ta = new java.util.ArrayList<>(getSubThreads());
ta.removeAll(tb);
for (Thread thread : ta) {
thread.setName(newThreadName);
}
Thread.sleep(Long.MAX_VALUE);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(HardDaemonizer.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
public static Thread daemonize(String daemonizerName, String newThreadName, Runnable target) {
HardDaemonizer daemonizer = new HardDaemonizer(target, daemonizerName, newThreadName);
daemonizer.start();
return daemonizer;
}
private static List<Thread> getSubThreads() {
ThreadGroup group = Thread.currentThread().getThreadGroup().getParent();
Thread[] threads = new Thread[group.activeCount()];
group.enumerate(threads);
return java.util.Arrays.asList(threads);
}
}
You can use it in this way:
HardDaemonizer.daemonize(null, "ConnectorServer", new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run() {
try {
connectorServer.start();
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(Ralph.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
});
Be careful - it's tricky!
EDIT
Agh... It's not solution for you. It hard-daemonize connector thread only and this thread will be killed when jvm stops. Additionaly you can customize name of this thread.
Alternatively you can add flag completed and sleep in loop in daemonize method until connector server start up.
SIMPLIFIED
This is simplified daemonizer without tricky thread renaming:
public abstract class Daemonizer<T> extends Thread {
private final T target;
private boolean completed = false;
private Exception cause = null;
public Daemonizer(T target) {
super(Daemonizer.class.getSimpleName());
setDaemon(true);
this.target = target;
}
#Override
public void run() {
try {
act(target);
} catch (Exception ex) {
cause = ex;
}
completed = true;
try {
Thread.sleep(Long.MAX_VALUE);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(Daemonizer.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
public abstract void act(final T target) throws Exception;
public static void daemonize(Daemonizer daemonizer) throws Exception {
daemonizer.start();
while (!daemonizer.completed) {
Thread.sleep(50);
}
if (daemonizer.cause != null) {
throw daemonizer.cause;
}
}
}
Usage:
Daemonizer.daemonize(new Daemonizer<JMXConnectorServer>(server) {
#Override
public void act(JMXConnectorServer server) throws Exception {
server.start();
}
});

Yeah, you will need to so a connectorServer.stop(); at some point.
Edit:
In reading your comments, it sounds like you should do something like:
connectorServer.start();
try {
// create thread-pool
ExecutorService threadPool = Executors...
// submit jobs to the thread-pool
...
threadPool.shutdown();
// wait for the submitted jobs to finish
threadPool.awaitTermination(Long.MAX_LONG, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
} finally {
connectorServer.stop();
}
#Nicholas' idea of the shutdown hook is a good one. Typically, however, I had my main thread wait on some sort of variable that is set from a shutdown() JMX operation. Something like:
public CountDownLatch shutdownLatch = new CountDownLatch(1);
...
// in main
connectorServer.start();
try {
// do the main-thread stuff
shutdownLatch.await();
} finally {
connectorServer.stop();
}
// in some JMX exposed operation
public void shutdown() {
Main.shutdownLatch.countDown();
}
As an aside, you could use my SimpleJMX package to manage your JMX server for you.
JmxServer jmxServer = new JmxServer(8000);
jmxServer.start();
try {
// register our lookupCache object defined below
jmxServer.register(lookupCache);
jmxServer.register(someOtherObject);
} finally {
jmxServer.stop();
}

From my experience, the JMXConnectorServer is only running in a user thread when you create it explicitly.
If you instead configure RMI access for the platform MBean server via system properties, the implicitly created JMX connector server will run as daemon process and not prevent the JMV shutdown. To do this, your code would shrink to the following
public class Main {
public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException {
MBeanServer mbs = ManagementFactory.getPlatformMBeanServer();
}
}
but you'll need to set the following system properties:
-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=1919
-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false
-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false

You could add a JVM Shutdown Hook to stop the connector server.
===== UPDATE =====
Not sure why your shutdown hook doesn't work. Perhaps you can supply your sample code. Here's an example:
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
log("Creating Connector Server");
final JMXConnectorServer jcs = JMXConnectorServerFactory.newJMXConnectorServer(new JMXServiceURL("rmi", "localhost", 12387), null, ManagementFactory.getPlatformMBeanServer());
Thread jcsStopper = new Thread("JCS-Stopper") {
public void run() {
if(jcs.isActive()) {
try {
jcs.stop();
log("Connector Server Stopped");
} catch (Exception e) {
log("Failed to stop JCS");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
};
jcsStopper.setDaemon(false);
Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(jcsStopper);
log("Registered Server Stop Task");
jcs.start();
log("Server Started");
Thread.sleep(3000);
System.exit(0);
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace(System.err);
}
}
Output is:
[main]:Creating Connector Server
[main]:Registered Server Stop Task
[main]:Server Started
[JCS-Stopper]:Connector Server Stopped

String port = getProperty("com.sun.management.jmxremote.port");
if (port == null) {
port = String.valueOf(getAvailablePort());
System.setProperty("com.sun.management.jmxremote.port", port);
System.setProperty("com.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl", "false");
System.setProperty("com.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate", "false");
sun.management.Agent.startAgent();
}
log.info(InetAddress.getLocalHost().getCanonicalHostName() + ":" + port);

Telling a ThreadPoolExecutor when it should go ahead or not

I have to send a set of files to several computers through a certain port. The fact is that, each time that the method that sends the files is called, the destination data (address and port) is calculated. Therefore, using a loop that creates a thread for each method call, and surround the method call with a try-catch statement for a BindException to process the situation of the program trying to use a port which is already in use (different destination addresses may receive the message through the same port) telling the thread to wait some seconds and then restart to retry, and keep trying until the exception is not thrown (the shipping is successfully performed).
I didn't know why (although I could guess it when I first saw it), Netbeans warned me about that sleeping a Thread object inside a loop is not the best choice. Then I googled a bit for further information and found this link to another stackoverflow post, which looked so interesting (I had never heard of the ThreadPoolExecutor class). I've been reading both that link and the API in order to try to improve my program, but I'm not yet pretty sure about how am I supposed to apply that in my program. Could anybody give a helping hand on this please?
EDIT: The important code:
for (Iterator<String> it = ConnectionsPanel.list.getSelectedValuesList().iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
final String x = it.next();
new Thread() {
#Override
public void run() {
ConnectionsPanel.singleAddVideos(x);
}
}.start();
}
private static void singleAddVideos(String connName) {
String newVideosInfo = "";
for (Iterator<Video> it = ConnectionsPanel.videosToSend.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
newVideosInfo = newVideosInfo.concat(it.next().toString());
}
try {
MassiveDesktopClient.sendMessage("hi", connName);
if (MassiveDesktopClient.receiveMessage(connName).matches("hello")) {
MassiveDesktopClient.sendMessage(newVideosInfo, connName);
}
} catch (BindException ex) {
MassiveDesktopClient.println("Attempted to use a port which is already being used. Waiting and retrying...", new Exception().getStackTrace()[0].getLineNumber());
try {
Thread.sleep(MassiveDesktopClient.PORT_BUSY_DELAY_SECONDS * 1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex1) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, ex1.toString(), "Error", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
}
ConnectionsPanel.singleAddVideos(connName);
return;
}
for (Iterator<Video> it = ConnectionsPanel.videosToSend.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
try {
MassiveDesktopClient.sendFile(it.next().getAttribute("name"), connName);
} catch (BindException ex) {
MassiveDesktopClient.println("Attempted to use a port which is already being used. Waiting and retrying...", new Exception().getStackTrace()[0].getLineNumber());
try {
Thread.sleep(MassiveDesktopClient.PORT_BUSY_DELAY_SECONDS * 1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex1) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, ex1.toString(), "Error", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
}
ConnectionsPanel.singleAddVideos(connName);
return;
}
}
}

Your question is not very clear - I understand that you want to rerun your task until it succeeds (no BindException). To do that, you could:
try to run your code without catching the exception
capture the exception from the future
reschedule the task a bit later if it fails
A simplified code would be as below - add error messages and refine as needed:
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
ScheduledExecutorService scheduler = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(corePoolSize);
final String x = "video";
Callable<Void> yourTask = new Callable<Void>() {
#Override
public Void call() throws BindException {
ConnectionsPanel.singleAddVideos(x);
return null;
}
};
Future f = scheduler.submit(yourTask);
boolean added = false; //it will retry until success
//you might use an int instead to retry
//n times only and avoid the risk of infinite loop
while (!added) {
try {
f.get();
added = true; //added set to true if no exception caught
} catch (ExecutionException e) {
if (e.getCause() instanceof BindException) {
scheduler.schedule(yourTask, 3, TimeUnit.SECONDS); //reschedule in 3 seconds
} else {
//another exception was thrown => handle it
}
}
}
}
public static class ConnectionsPanel {
private static void singleAddVideos(String connName) throws BindException {
String newVideosInfo = "";
for (Iterator<Video> it = ConnectionsPanel.videosToSend.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
newVideosInfo = newVideosInfo.concat(it.next().toString());
}
MassiveDesktopClient.sendMessage("hi", connName);
if (MassiveDesktopClient.receiveMessage(connName).matches("hello")) {
MassiveDesktopClient.sendMessage(newVideosInfo, connName);
}
for (Iterator<Video> it = ConnectionsPanel.videosToSend.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
MassiveDesktopClient.sendFile(it.next().getAttribute("name"), connName);
}
}
}

Java - running jobs async using ReentrantLock?

The code below allows us to run a job while ensuring that only one job at a time can run by using ReentrantLock.
Is there any way to modify this code to run job.call() asynchronously and to return the MyConcurrentJobException to the client prior to starting the thread?
We tried wrapping the try/catch/finally block in a new Thread but the unlock and lock have to happen in the same thread so we get an IllegalMonitorException
??
final static Lock lock = new ReentrantLock();
public Object runJob(String desc, Callable job, boolean wait) {
logger.info("Acquiring lock");
if (!lock.tryLock()) {
throw new MyConcurrentJobException();
}
activeJob = new JobStatus(desc);
logger.info("Lock acquired");
try {
return job.call();
} catch (MarginServiceAssertionException e) {
throw e;
} catch (MarginServiceSystemException e) {
throw e;
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new MarginServiceSystemException(e);
} finally {
activeJob = null;
logger.info("Releasing lock");
lock.unlock();
logger.info("Lock released");
}
}

You can use Semaphore instead of ReentrantLock, its permits are not bound to thread.
Something like this (not sure what you want to do with the result of job.call() in the asynchronous case):
final static Semaphore lock = new Semaphore(1);
public void runJob(String desc, Callable job, boolean wait) {
logger.info("Acquiring lock");
if (!lock.tryAcquire()) {
throw new MyConcurrentJobException();
}
startThread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
job.call();
} finally {
lock.release();
}
}
});
}

I think I am misunderstanding completely because to block and wait while doing something asynchronously doesn't make too much sense to me unless some progress can be made on the invoking thread.
Could you do something like this:
final static Lock lock = new ReentrantLock();
final static ExecutorService service = Executors.newThreadPoolExecutor();
public Object runJob(String desc, Callable job, boolean wait) {
logger.info("Acquiring lock");
if (!lock.tryLock()) {
throw new MyConcurrentJobException();
}
activeJob = new JobStatus(desc);
logger.info("Lock acquired");
try {
Future<?> future = service.submit(job);
// This next line will block until the job is finished
// and also will hold onto the lock.
boolean finished = false;
Object o = null;
while(!finished) {
try {
o = future.get(300, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
finished = true;
catch(TimeOutException e) {
// Do some periodic task while waiting
// foot.tapLots();
}
}
if (o instanceof MarginServiceAssertionException) {
throw ((MargineServiceAssertionException)o);
} else if (o instanceof MargineServiceSystemException) {
throw ((MarginServiceSystemException)o);
} else if (o instanceof Exception) {
throw new MarginServiceSystemException(e);
}
} catch (... InterruptedException e) { /// catch whatever exceptions throws as part of this
/// Whatever needs to be done.
} finally {
activeJob = null;
logger.info("Releasing lock");
lock.unlock();
logger.info("Lock released");
}
}