I am trying to create a way to handle blocking operations in a specific way in Play. First I have described what my aim is followed by what I have managed so far. Can you please tell me if I am on the right track - if so, could you help me understand how to complete the code? If it is not the right way to do it could you suggest a better alternative?
Thanks a lot for all your help
Aim:
Would like to have all blocking operations sent to one thread to a separate thread to be handled asynchronously. New requests that come in are not to take up more threads but instead place them in a queue (or anything similar) to be handled by the single thread. For each item that is processed asynchronously by the extra thread, some text must be gathered and returned to the browser.
So after reading docs and SO questions it appears that actors must be used. I like the concept of actors but have never used them before so am still learning. This is what I have:
package models;
import java.io.*;
import play.mvc.*;
import play.libs.*;
import play.libs.F.*;
import akka.actor.*;
public class ActorTest extends UntypedActor {
static BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
System.in));
#Override
public void onReceive(Object message) throws Exception {
if (message instanceof String) {
getSender().tell(
"You sent me " + ((String) message)
+ " and the consol replied with "
+ reader.readLine(), getSelf());
} else
unhandled(message);
}
}
As you can see the blocking operation is readLine() - just an way of testing.
Is this how it should be done? If so, I had assumed that from the controller, I some how create an async result or something using promises. [ Handling asynchronous results ].
Couple issues, how do I send a message to the Actor and get the reply? I mean can I get the result from a tel() call?
How do I make sure that more threads don't get taken up and that all operations go into a queue - or is this already handled by the actor?
Could you please provide an example controller action that could do this?
Your help is greatly appreciated.
PS FYI I am really new to all this so just to get to this stage I have found these docs useful to read - the Akka actor pages, play of course and some wiki pages on actors.
[edit]
sorry I said single thread but it could be a thread pool - just as long as only the assigned thread / thread pool is used to handle the blocking io not any others.
You can send a message to the Akka actor using ask (instead of tell). It will return to you a Future, which then you can map to a Promise<Result>.
However, you don't really need to use Akka if you don't have to. You can simply use Futures/Promises to run your blocking operation in the background.
In either approach, you end up with a Future from which you can complete the request when the future finishes.
Example of Using Promise in Play 2.2.x
...
import play.libs.F.*;
public static Promise<Result> index() {
Promise<Integer> promiseOfInt = Promise.promise(
new Function0<Integer>() {
public Integer apply() {
// long-running operation (will run in separate thread)
return 42;
}
});
return promiseOfInt.map(
new Function<Integer, Result>() {
public Result apply(Integer i) {
// 'i' is the result after Promise is complete
return ok("Got result: " + i);
}
});
}
If you're using Akka, you need to convert the Future returned from ask to Play's Promise as follows:
public static Promise<Result> index() {
ActorRef myActor = Akka.system().actorFor("user/my-actor");
return Promise.wrap(ask(myActor, "hello", 1000)).map(
new Function<Object, Result>() {
public Result apply(Object response) {
return ok(response.toString());
}
});
}
Example of Using Promise in Play 2.1.x
...
import play.libs.F.*;
public static Result index() {
Promise<Integer> promiseOfInt = play.libs.Akka.future(
new Callable<Integer>() {
public Integer call() {
// long-running operation (will run in separate thread)
return 42;
}
});
return async(
promiseOfInt.map(
new Function<Integer,Result>() {
public Result apply(Integer i) {
// 'i' is the result after Promise is complete
return ok("Got result: " + i);
}
}));
}
If you're using Akka, you need to convert the Future returned from ask to Play's Promise as follows:
public static Result index() {
ActorRef myActor = Akka.system().actorFor("user/my-actor");
return async(
Akka.asPromise(ask(myActor,"hello", 1000)).map(
new Function<Object,Result>() {
public Result apply(Object response) {
return ok(response.toString());
}
}
)
);
}
Related
I'm playing around with implementing my own observables or porting them from other languages for fun and profit.
The problem I've run into is that there's very little info on how to properly test observables or async code in general.
Consider the following test code:
// Create a stream of values emitted every 100 milliseconds
// `interval` uses Timer internally
final Stream<Number> stream =
Streams.interval(100).map(number -> number.intValue() * 10);
ArrayList<Number> expected = new ArrayList<>();
expected.add(0);
expected.add(10);
expected.add(20);
IObserver<Number> observer = new IObserver<Number>() {
public void next(Number x) {
assertEquals(x, expected.get(0));
expected.remove(0);
if(expected.size() == 0) {
stream.unsubscribe(this);
}
}
public void error(Exception e) {}
public void complete() {}
};
stream.subscribe(observer);
As soon as the stream is subscribed to, it emits the first value. onNext is called... And then the test exits successfully.
In JavaScript most test frameworks nowadays provide an optional Promise to the test case that you can call asynchronously on success/failure. Is anything similar available for Java?
Since the execution is asyncronious, you have to wait until is finish. You can just wait for some time in an old fashion way
your_code
wait(1000)
check results.
Or if you use Observables you can use TestSubscriber
In this example you can see how having an async operation we wait until the observer consume all items.
#Test
public void testObservableAsync() throws InterruptedException {
Subscription subscription = Observable.from(numbers)
.doOnNext(increaseTotalItemsEmitted())
.subscribeOn(Schedulers.newThread())
.subscribe(number -> System.out.println("Items emitted:" + total));
System.out.println("I finish before the observable finish. Items emitted:" + total);
new TestSubscriber((Observer) subscription)
.awaitTerminalEvent(100, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
}
You can see more Asynchronous examples here https://github.com/politrons/reactive/blob/master/src/test/java/rx/observables/scheduler/ObservableAsynchronous.java
I want to read a message at a specific position in an class other than InboundHandler. I can't find a way to read it expect in the channelRead0 method, which is called from the netty framework.
For example:
context.writeMessage("message");
String msg = context.readMessage;
If this is not possible, how can I map a result, which I get in the channelRead0 method to a specific call I made in another class?
The Netty framework is designed to be asynchronously driven. Using this analogy, it can handle large amount of connections with minimal threading usage. I you are creating an api that uses the netty framework to dispatch calls to a remote location, you should use the same analogy for your calls.
Instead of making your api return the value direct, make it return a Future<?> or a Promise<?>. There are different ways of implementing this system in your application, the simplest way is creating a custom handler that maps the incoming requests to the Promises in a FIFO queue.
An example of this could be the following:
This is heavily based on this answer that I submitted in the past.
We start with out handler that maps the requests to requests in our pipeline:
public class MyLastHandler extends SimpleInboundHandler<String> {
private final SynchronousQueue<Promise<String>> queue;
public MyLastHandler (SynchronousQueue<Promise<String>> queue) {
super();
this.queue = queue;
}
// The following is called messageReceived(ChannelHandlerContext, String) in 5.0.
#Override
public void channelRead0(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, String msg) {
this.queue.remove().setSuccss(msg);
// Or setFailure(Throwable)
}
}
We then need to have a method of sending the commands to a remote server:
Channel channel = ....;
SynchronousQueue<Promise<String>> queue = ....;
public Future<String> sendCommandAsync(String command) {
return sendCommandAsync(command, new DefaultPromise<>());
}
public Future<String> sendCommandAsync(String command, Promise<String> promise) {
synchronized(channel) {
queue.offer(promise);
channel.write(command);
}
channel.flush();
}
After we have done our methods, we need a way to call it:
sendCommandAsync("USER anonymous",
new DefaultPromise<>().addListener(
(Future<String> f) -> {
String response = f.get();
if (response.startWidth("331")) {
// do something
}
// etc
}
)
);
If the called would like to use our a api as a blocking call, he can also do that:
String response = sendCommandAsync("USER anonymous").get();
if (response.startWidth("331")) {
// do something
}
// etc
Notice that Future.get() can throw an InterruptedException if the Thread state is interrupted, unlike a socket read operation, who can only be cancelled by some interaction on the socket. This exception should not be a problem in the FutureListener.
Hi there question on futures and execution contexts in Play framework (Java).
Right now here is how I currently run non blocking operations:
public static Promise<Result> doOperation() {
Promise<Result> r = Promise.wrap(
Patterns.ask(actorTest, "bla", 1000)).map(
new Function<Object, Result>() {
public Result apply(Object response) {
return ok(response.toString() + "\nOh look it returned");
}
});
return r;
}
But this seems to have too much extra code for simple operations such as just running a longer query. Is there a way to do this without creating actors? I read from here that you can but am not sure how to integrate what is written with a play action.
Can someone give an example action say doOperation like above that can simply create a callable within the action that is run concurrently (not part of the play default context as this should never be blocked).
From the documentation.
An example:
public Promise<Result> doSomethingAsync(){
return Promise.wrap(future(
new Callable<Result>() {
#Override
public Result call() throws JAXBException {
doWhateverIntensive();
return ok();
} }, Akka.system().dispatcher()));
}
//Here is where the intensive task goes
public static doWhateverIntensive(){
Thread.sleep(10*6000);
}
My current code uses series of asynchronous processes that culminate in results. I need to wrap each of these in such a way that each is accessed by a synchronous method with the result as a return value. I want to use executor services to do this, so as to allow many of these to happen at the same time. I have the feeling that Future might be pertinent to my implementation, but I can't figure out a good way to make this happen.
What I have now:
public class DoAJob {
ResultObject result;
public void stepOne() {
// Passes self in for a callback
otherComponent.doStepOne(this);
}
// Called back by otherComponent once it has completed doStepOne
public void stepTwo(IntermediateData d) {
otherComponent.doStepTwo(this, d);
}
// Called back by otherComponent once it has completed doStepTwo
public void stepThree(ResultObject resultFromOtherComponent) {
result = resultFromOtherComponent;
//Done with process
}
}
This has worked pretty well internally, but now I need to map my process into a synchronous method with a return value like:
public ResultObject getResult(){
// ??? What goes here ???
}
Does anyone have a good idea about how to implement this elegantly?
If you want to turn an asynchronous operation (which executes a callback when finished), into a synchronous/blocking one, you can use a blocking queue. You can wrap this up in a Future object if you wish.
Define a blocking queue which can hold just one element:
BlockingQueue<Result> blockingQueue = new ArrayBlockingQueue<Result>(1);
Start your asynchronous process (will run in the background), and write the callback such that when it's done, it adds its result to the blocking queue.
In your foreground/application thread, have it take() from the queue, which blocks until an element becomes available:
Result result = blockingQueue.take();
I wrote something similar before (foreground thread needs to block for an asynchronous response from a remote machine) using something like a Future, you can find example code here.
I've done something similar with the Guava library; these links might point you in the right direction:
Is it possible to chain async calls using Guava?
https://code.google.com/p/guava-libraries/wiki/ListenableFutureExplained
If you like to get your hands dirty, you can do this
ResultObject result;
public void stepOne()
otherComponent.doStepOne(this);
synchronized(this)
while(result==null) this.wait();
return result;
public void stepThree(ResultObject resultFromOtherComponent)
result = resultFromOtherComponent;
synchronized(this)
this.notify();
Or you can use higher level concurrency tools, like BlockingQueue, Semaphore, CountdownLatch, Phaser, etc etc.
Note that DoAJob is not thread safe - trouble ensured if two threads call stepOne at the same time.
I recommend using invokeAll(..). It will submit a set of tasks to the executor, and block until the last one completes (successfully/with exception). It then returns a list of completed Future objects, so you can loop on them and merge the results into a single ResultObject.
In you wish to run only a single task in a synchronous manner, you can use the following:
executor.invokeAll(Collections.singleton(task));
--edit--
Now I think I understand better your needs. I assume that you need a way to submit independent sequences of tasks. Please take a look at the code I posted in this answer.
Bumerang is my async only http request library which is constructed for Android http requests using Java -> https://github.com/hanilozmen/Bumerang . I needed to make synchronous calls without touching my library. Here is my complete code. npgall's answer inspired me, thanks! Similar approach would be applied to all kinds of async libraries.
public class TestActivity extends Activity {
MyAPI api = (MyAPI) Bumerang.get().initAPI(MyAPI.class);
BlockingQueue<Object> blockingQueue = new ArrayBlockingQueue<Object>(1);
static int indexForTesting;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_test);
Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
getItems();
try {
Object response = blockingQueue.take(); // waits for the response
Log.i("TAG", "index " + indexForTesting + " finished. Response " + response.toString());
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
});
t.start();
}
void getItems() {
Log.i("TAG", "index " + ++indexForTesting + " started");
api.getItems(new ResponseListener<Response<List<ResponseModel>>>() {
#Override
public void onSuccess(Response<List<ResponseModel>> response) {
List<ResponseModel> respModel = response.getResponse();
try {
blockingQueue.put(response);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
#Override
public void onError(Response<List<ResponseModel>> response) {
Log.i("onError", response.toString());
try {
blockingQueue.put(response);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
}
}
I read answers from similar Q&A
How do you create an asynchronous HTTP request in JAVA? |
Asynchronous programming design pattern |
AsyncTask Android - Design Pattern and Return Values
I see a lot of solutions , but none really satifies me.
Listener way
Once the results are caught, the processing is implemented in onResult method.
public interface GeolocationListener {
public void onResult(Address[] addresses);
public void onError(Exception e);
}
This solution doesn't quite satify me , because I want to handle the results in the main method. I hate this interface because when the response is returned, it is processed in onResult resulting in chains of processing and no way to go back to the "main" method.
The servlet way
public class SignGuestbookServlet extends HttpServlet {
public void doPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp)
throws IOException {
// ...
resp.sendRedirect("/guestbook.jsp");
}
}
There is no exposed Java code calling the servlet. All the configuration is done in the web.xml
The way I want
Wait for the response like this
Response a = getResponse();
// wait until the response is received, do not go further
// process
Response b = getResponse();
// wait until the response is received, do not go further
process(a,b);
Is there a design pattern to handle the async request and wait for the response like above ? Other way than the listener.
Please no library or framework.
EDIT
Thanks so far the responses. I didn't give you the full picture so I exposed the Geolocation class
I started the implementation . I don't know how to implement the method . Can someone shows "how to" ? He (or she) must also implement the listener to retrieve the results
private Address getFullAddress (String text, AddressListener listener, ... ){
// new Geolocation(text, listener, options).start()
// implements Geolocation.GeolocationListener
// how to return the Address from the onResult ?
}
First, you should not reject the first two methods you discuss. There are very good reasons people are using those techniques and you should try to learn them instead of creating new ones.
Otherwise, you should look at java.util.concurrent:
ExecutorService es = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(2);
...
Future<Response> responseA = es.submit(responseGetter);
Future<Response> responseB = es.submit(responseGetter);
process(responseA.get(), responseB.get());
where responseGetter is of type Callable<Response> (you must implement the method public Response call()).
Asynchronous code can always be made synchronous. The simplest/crudest way is to make the async call, then enter a while loop that just sleeps the current thread until the value comes back.
Edit: Code that turns an asynchronous callback into synchronous code--again, a crude implementation:
import java.util.concurrent.*;
public class MakeAsynchronousCodeSynchronous {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
final Listener listener = new Listener();
Runnable delayedTask = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
Thread.sleep(2000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
throw new IllegalStateException("Shouldn't be interrupted", e);
}
listener.onResult(123);
}
};
System.out.println(System.currentTimeMillis() + ": Starting task");
Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor().submit(delayedTask);
System.out.println(System.currentTimeMillis() + ": Waiting for task to finish");
while (!listener.isDone()) {
Thread.sleep(100);
}
System.out.println(System.currentTimeMillis() + ": Task finished; result=" + listener.getResult());
}
private static class Listener {
private Integer result;
private boolean done;
public void onResult(Integer result) {
this.result = result;
this.done = true;
}
public boolean isDone() {
return done;
}
public Integer getResult() {
return result;
}
}
}
You could also use a CountDownLatch as recommended by hakon's answer. It will do basically the same thing. I would also suggest you get familiar with the java.util.concurrent package for a better way to manage threads. Finally, just because you can do this doesn't make it a good idea. If you're working with a framework that's based on asynchronous callbacks, you're probably much better off learning how to use the framework effectively than trying to subvert it.
Could CountDownLatch help you? In the main method, you call getResponse and then countDownLatch.await(). Pass a count down latch to the getResponse method and then count down once getResponse the result from getResponse is finished:
CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(1);
Response a = getResponse(latch);
latch.await();
latch = new CountDownLatch(1);
Response b = getResponse(latch);
latch.await();
process(a, b);
Your getResponse needs to call latch.countDown() once it's asynch parts return a result.
e.g.:
public Response getResponse(CountDownLatch latch) {
someAsychBloc(final CountDownLatch latch) {
do work
latch.countDown();
}
}
Essentially you need a "listener" of sorts no matter what. This is because you do not know WHEN your return message will come back, if at all (that is one of the downsides of asynchronous processing...what to do if you do not get a return message).
So you either need to implement a listener that waits for events (ie, it is nudged by the returning message to be processed).
Or you could do a hybrid on that by having a separate thread that "polls" (or pulls) a response area on your service to see if the return message exists.
So it really comes down to whether you want more of a "pull" or "push" method of retrieving messages.
The SCA (Service Component Architecture) framework might be something to consider, but depending on what you are doing, it could be overkill too. But something to consider.
EDIT:
I just found this in the Java SE 6 Javadocs that may be helpful. The
interface CompletionService which abstracts the very thing you care
about --> asynchronous work. I suggest you take a look.
If you want a page flow in a web application, you have to handle in the web way : storing some data either in the session, or cookies or hidden fields, etc.
The problem you're trying to tackle, as far as I understand it, doesn't come from asynchronousness but from the stateless http protocole.
Regards,
Stéphane