Good morning,
I am currently developing a java web application that exposes a web service interface. In order to keep a global object in memory, I use the following class as a Singleton:
public class SingletonMap {
private static final SingletonMap instance = new SingletonMap();
private static HashMap couponMap = null;
private static long creationTime;
private SingletonMap() {
creationTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
couponMap = new HashMap();
}
public static synchronized SingletonMap getInstance() {
return instance;
}
public static long getCreationTime() {
return creationTime;
}
}
I am using the above class in order to have the same instance of the HashMap for all the threads of the web service. The Web service class that maintains the SingletonMap object is the following:
#WebService()
public class ETL_WS {
private String TOMCAT_TEMP_DIR;
private final int BUFFER_SIZE = 10000000;
private static SingletonMap couponMap;
private static SingletonProductMap productCategoryMap;
private String dbTable = "user_preferences";
public ETL_WS() {
Context context = null;
try {
context = (Context) new InitialContext().lookup("java:comp/env");
this.TOMCAT_TEMP_DIR = (String) context.lookup("FILE_UPLOAD_TEMP_DIR");
}catch(NamingException e) {
System.err.println(e.getMessage());
}
public long getCouponMapCreationTime() {
return couponMap.getCreationTime();
}
}
The reason i have the method getCouponMapCreationTime() is to check that all the threads of the web service are accessing the same object. Is the above approach correct? How about performance overheads? Do you think I need the Singleton properties, or could I just use a static HashMap for all the threads? If I use a static HashMap, is it going to be garbage collected in case no thread is active?
Thank you for your time.
A JAX-WS web service is by itself a Singleton. This means that all the request will be handled using a single web service instance (like a Servlet).
So, any member of the class will be 'shared' between all the request. In your case, you do not need to make your members (i.e. couponMap) an static attributes.
Conclusion: Don't worry, all your threads (request) will be accessing the same 'couponMap'. Because you don't need the getCouponMapCreationTime anymore, I think that you can eliminate the SingletonMap abstraction and use directly a Map in your web service class.
But I have something very important to add. If several threads (request) will be accessing your Map you have to make it thread-safe!!! There are a lot of way to do this, but I will give an idea: Use a ConcurrentHashMap instead of a HashMap. This will make all your get(), put(), remove() operations thread-safe! If you need a larger scope you can use synchronized blocks, but please avoid synchronize methods because the scoop is too large and always synchronize over this object.
JAX-WS has its own patterns for creating singletons, you don't need to use static fields. You use the #Inject annotation into each service. See this blog post: http://weblogs.java.net/blog/jitu/archive/2010/02/19/jax-ws-cdi-java-ee-6-0 (but don't use #SessionScoped, use #Singleton)
Some other points:
HashMap isn't thread-safe, you need ConcurrentHashMap.
This catch(NamingException e) { System.err.println(e.getMessage()); is unhelpful. Rethrow it as a RuntimeException. You can't recover from it.
Don't worry about performance overhead at this stage. Measure it once you have something working.
Related
I have a java web application that needs to read information from an external file when initialized (ie: when jboss server is started).
Since reading and parsing this text file is an expensive operation, we decided to load it only one time and then set it to memory so it can be accessed anywhere (the variable doesn't need to be modified after initialitazion).
I've read everywhere that global variables should be avoided, so what is the best practice for this scenario?
Edit: I should have mentioned that the information should be stored in a simple List variable.
it strongly depends on the framework you are using. In general you are right, global variables are often treated as anti-pattern. But you have to understand the reason, which is mainly testability.
To get "global" things tested you usually use patterns like Factories, Provider often in combination with dependency injection (e.g. Spring, Guide).
In the end you are caching. For caching you can also use some framework like EHCache. But maybe that's to much overhead for you.
To keep it simple and in plain Java I would suggest something like this (just first draft, not tested):
public class FileCache {
Map<String, String> fileContents = new HashMap<String, String>();
public void loadFile(String path) {
if (fileContents.contains(path)) {
return fileContents.get(path);
}
// Loading logic
String content = loadContentOfFile(path);
fileContents.put(path, content);
return content;
}
}
With this you keep your caching a bit scalable (you can cache as many files as you want) and it will be easy to test this class. But in the end you end up with some global place where you need to access this class.
And then you either have Dependency Injection, a static variable or some Singleton.
With a singleton you should care to keep it simple, since it's again hard to test.
public class FileContentProvider {
private static FileContentProvider instance;
private final FileCache fileCache = new FileCache();
public static FileContentProvider getInstance() {
if (instance == null) {
instance = new FileContentProvider();
}
return instance;
}
public FileCache getFileCache() {
return fileCache;
}
}
A static Configuration-Object that is global accessible is pretty common. You could use a Singleton-Pattern to access the Config. That could look like this:
public class Config {
private static Config myInstance;
private Config() {
// Load the properties
}
public static getInstance() {
if (myInstance == null) {
myInstance = new Config();
}
return myInstance;
}
public String getConfigPropertyBla()
...
}
If you use Spring you could let Spring load the properties to a Bean. You can then access the Bean via autowiring everywhere in your application. I personally think, that this is a very nice solution.
DI, IoC container. Have a look at Guice, very nice thing.
I am trying to make a class as ThreadSafe Singleton but somehow I am not able to understand how to make ThreadSafe Singleton class which can accepts parameter.
Below is the class which I am using from this github link which I am using currently to make a connection to Zookeeper -
public class LeaderLatchExample {
private CuratorFramework client;
private String latchPath;
private String id;
private LeaderLatch leaderLatch;
public LeaderLatchExample(String connString, String latchPath, String id) {
client = CuratorFrameworkFactory.newClient(connString, new ExponentialBackoffRetry(1000, Integer.MAX_VALUE));
this.id = id;
this.latchPath = latchPath;
}
public void start() throws Exception {
client.start();
client.getZookeeperClient().blockUntilConnectedOrTimedOut();
leaderLatch = new LeaderLatch(client, latchPath, id);
leaderLatch.start();
}
public boolean isLeader() {
return leaderLatch.hasLeadership();
}
public Participant currentLeader() throws Exception {
return leaderLatch.getLeader();
}
public void close() throws IOException {
leaderLatch.close();
client.close();
}
public CuratorFramework getClient() {
return client;
}
public String getLatchPath() {
return latchPath;
}
public String getId() {
return id;
}
public LeaderLatch getLeaderLatch() {
return leaderLatch;
}
}
And this is the way I am calling the above class -
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
String latchPath = "/latch";
String connStr = "10.12.136.235:2181";
LeaderLatchExample node1 = new LeaderLatchExample(connStr, latchPath, "node-1"); // this I will be doing only one time at just the initialization time
node1.start();
System.out.println("now node-1 think the leader is " + node1.currentLeader());
}
Now what I need is if I am calling these two below methods from any class in my program, I should be able to get an instance of it. So I am thinking to make above class as a Thread Safe Singleton so that I can access these two methods across all my java program.
isLeader()
getClient()
How do I make above class as ThreadSafe singleton and then make use of isLeader() and getClient() across all my classes to see who is the leader and get the client instance..
I need to do this only at the initialization time and once it is done, I should be able to use isLeader() and getClient() across all my classes.. Is this possible to do?
// this line I will be doing only one time at just the initialization time
LeaderLatchExample node1 = new LeaderLatchExample(connStr, latchPath, "node-1");
node1.start();
This is more of Java question not Zookeeper stuff..
A singleton which requires a parameter is a bit of a contradiction in terms. After all, you'd need to supply the parameter value on every call, and then consider what would happen if the value was different to an earlier one.
I would encourage you to avoid using the singleton pattern at all here. Instead, make your class a perfectly normal one - but use dependency injection to provide a reference to a single configured instance to all your classes that need it.
That way:
The singleton nature isn't enforced, it's just a natural part of you only needing one reference. If later on you needed two references (e.g. for different Zookeeper instances for some reason) you can just configure the dependency injection differently
The lack of global state generally makes things much easier to test. One test might use one configuration; another test might use a different one. No singleton, no problem. Just pass the relevant reference into the constructor of the class under test.
Every time I load certain values from database, a HashMap is loaded with certain keys and values from the database, how do I make this HashMap available to all the other classes without having to load the values repeatedly into the HashMap each time it is called:
This is the class which contains method where HashMap is loaded:
public class Codes {
List<CODES> List = null;
private CodesDAO codesDAO = new CodesDAO(); //DAO Class
public HashMap <MultiKey,String> fetchCodes(){
MultiKey multiKey;
HashMap <MultiKey,String> map = new HashMap<MultiKey,String>();
List = codesDAO.fetchGuiCodes();//fetches codes from DB
for(CODES gui:List){
multiKey = new MultiKey(gui.getCode(), gui.getKEY());
map.put(multiKey,gui.getDESC());
}
return map;
}
}
You can save your map in a static field, and initialize it in a static block. This way it is done only once:
public class Codes {
private static Map<MultiKey, String> codes;
static {
CodesDAO codesDAO = new CodesDAO(); // DAO Class
HashMap<MultiKey, String> map = new HashMap<MultiKey, String>();
List<CODES> list = codesDAO.fetchGuiCodes();// fetches codes from DB
for (CODES gui : list) {
MultiKey multiKey = new MultiKey(gui.getCode(), gui.getKEY());
map.put(multiKey, gui.getDESC());
}
codes = Collections.unmodifiableMap(map);
}
public static Map<MultiKey, String> fetchCodes() {
return codes;
}
}
Then you can retrieve the codes with:
Codes.fetchCodes();
If static fields are not an option, you could lazily initialise as follows:
private HashMap<MultiKey, String> map = null;
public HashMap<MultiKey, String> fetchCodes() {
if (map == null) {
map = new HashMap<MultiKey, String>();
list = codesDAO.fetchGuiCodes();// fetches codes from DB
for (CODES gui : list) {
MultiKey multiKey = new MultiKey(gui.getCode(), gui.getKEY());
map.put(multiKey, gui.getDESC());
}
}
return map;
}
Note: this is not thread-safe, but could be with some additional synchronization.
May be load the data only once? Use memoization(I would) from guava:
Suppliers.memoize(//Implementation of Supplier<T>)
If you use Spring, you could simply declare a bean (singleton) and implement the InitializingBean interface.
You would be forced to implement a method called afterPropertiesSet() and load your Map there.
If you don't use Spring, you could initialize your map at the start like you did and put it in
the servletConext. this scope is availbale from all session.
This is all good for read-only data. if you need to update it, be carefull because this will not be thread-safe. you will have to make it thread-safe.
hope it help
regards
I'm not sure how the OP designed his Java EE application and if any 3rd party frameworks are been used, but in a properly designed standard Java EE application using EJB, CDI, JPA, transactions and all on em, the DB is normally not available in static context. The answers which suggest to initialize it statically are in such case severely misleading and broken.
The canonical approach is to just create one instance holding the preinitialized data and reuse it throughout application's lifetime. With the current Java EE standards, this can be achieved by creating and initializing the bean once during application's startup and storing it in the application scope. For example, an application scoped CDI bean:
#Named
#ApplicationScoped
public class Data {
private List<Code> codes;
#EJB
private DataService service;
#PostConstruct
public void init() {
codes = Collections.unmodifiableList(service.getAllCodes());
}
public List<Code> getCodes() {
return codes;
}
}
This is then available by #{data.codes} anywhere else in the application.
On my Client/Server Desktop application. I have this problem of how I should properly code my JDBC class with my Models to ensure all persistence request can support concurrency. i.e., multiple models want to request update to its persistence counterpart simultaneously [without atmost delay].
The scenario goes like this. Following the classes located in the server application.
Persitence Package:
abstract class AbstractService {
// other fields
private final String tName, tId;
private final String sqlStatement;
public AbstractService(final String tName, final String tId) {
this.tName = tName;
this.tId = tId;
this.sqlStatement = ""; // SELECT statement
}
// java.sql.Connection() createConnection()
// methods
}
public class T1Service extends AbstractService {
private final String sqlDMLStatements;
public T1Service() {
super("t1", "t1Id");
this.sqlDMLStatements = ""; // other DML statements
}
// methods having return types of List<E>, Object, Boolean, etc.
// i.e., public List<E> listAll()
}
Communication class [Client class]
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
public class Client extends Observable{
private Socket socket;
private ObjectInputStream input;
private ObjectOutputStream output;
private Object message;
// Constructor
// Getters/Setters
// Other methods like open or close input/output
private class ReceiverRunnable implements Runnable
#Override
public void run() {
while(running) { // if socket is still open and I/O stream are open/initialized
try { message = input.readObject(); }
catch(Exception e) {}
finally { setChanged(); notifyObservers(); }
}
}
}
}
The Main Class [Server class]
import java.net.*;
public class Server {
private List<Client> clientList; // holds all active connections with the server
private T1Service t1Service
private class ConnectionRunnable implements Runnable {
#Override public void run() {
while(running) { // serverSocket is open
Client client = new Client(ServerSocket.accept(), /* other parameters */);
client.addObserver(new ClientObserver(client));
clientList.add(client);
}
}
}
private class ClientObserver implements Observer {
private Client client;
// Constructor
public void update(Observable o, Object arg) {
// Check the contents of 'message' to determine what to reply
// i.e., message.equals("Broadcast") {
// synchronized(clientList) {
// for(Client element : clientList) {
// element.getOutput().writeObject(replyObject);
// element.getOutput()..flush();
// }
// }
// i.e., message.equals("T1") {
// synchronized(t1Service) {
// client.getOutput().writeObject(t1.findAll());
// client.getOutput().flush();
// }
}
}
}
Since this is a Client/Server applcation, multiple request from the client are simultaneously feed to the server. The server process the request sending the appropriate reply to the approriate client. Note: All of the objects sent between Client & Server an instance of java.io.Serializable.
Having this kind of scenario and looking into the block of Server.ClientServer.update() we may have a performance issue or I should say a delay in processing the N client(s) request due to Intrinsic Locks. But since I have to the rules concurrency and synchronization to ensure that Server.T1Service won't get confused to the queue of N clients request to it. Here's are the questions:
According to the Item 1 of Effective Java - Second Edition regarding Static Factory, would this let me create a new class reference to the methods inside the classes of Persistence package?
Would each Client element inside List<Client> would form a concurrency issue having N client update their message field simultaneously triggering the ClientObsver.update() wherein the reference object(s) of this Observer is only a single instance in the parent class. I was avoiding creating multiple instance of T1Service due to memory concerns.
If we are going to go by the contents of Effective Java - Second Edition, how can I convert my persitence class in a way they can be read easily, easily instantiated, and support concurreny?
you may also want to review Actors, for example ones in Akka
basic idea of actors is avoiding of synchronization at all, using sending events. Akka will guarantee that one actor will never be invoked by two threads in parallel. So you may define actor, which does something with the global variables, and then simply send a message to it.
works like a charm usually :)
Is my theory of [Item 1] Static Factory correct?
Yes, you can use a static factory instead of constructors. Typically this is when you the construction logic is complex and shared between various subtypes to warrant a factory pattern. Additionally the factory may provide means for dependency injection outside of a DI framework.
Would it then solve the concurrency issue of the converted static factory global objects?
If you need to synchronize construction, then a static factory works well, just add synchronized to the method declaration on your factory methods. If you need to synchronize methods on the objects themselves then this will not help.
Is it advisable for me to convert to static factory if where dealing with concurrent access to a global object and where wanted real-time access to the methods of each global object?
As I answered above, it depends on what you are trying to achieve. For constructor synchronization use a factory.
What is a use case for using a dynamic proxy?
How do they relate to bytecode generation and reflection?
Any recommended reading?
I highly recommend this resource.
First of all, you must understand what the proxy pattern use case. Remember that the main intent of a proxy is to control access to
the target object, rather than to enhance the functionality of the
target object. The access control includes synchronization, authentication, remote access (RPC), lazy instantiation (Hibernate, Mybatis), AOP (transaction).
In contrast with static proxy, the dynamic proxy generates bytecode which requires Java reflection at runtime. With the dynamic approach you don't need to create the proxy class, which can lead to more convenience.
A dynamic proxy class is a class that implements a list of
interfaces specified at runtime such that a method invocation through
one of the interfaces on an instance of the class will be encoded and
dispatched to another object through a uniform interface. It can be
used to create a type-safe proxy object for a list of interfaces
without requiring pre-generation of the proxy class. Dynamic proxy
classes are useful to an application or library that needs to provide
type-safe reflective dispatch of invocations on objects that present
interface APIs.
Dynamic Proxy Classes
I just came up with an interesting use for a dynamic proxy.
We were having some trouble a non-critical service that is coupled with another dependant service and wanted to explore ways of being fault-tolerant when that dependant service becomes unavailable.
So I wrote a LoadSheddingProxy that takes two delegates - one is the remote impl for the 'normal' service (after the JNDI lookup). The other object is a 'dummy' load-shedding impl. There is simple logic surrounding each method invoke that catches timeouts and diverts to the dummy for a certain length of time before retrying. Here's how I use it:
// This is part of your ServiceLocator class
public static MyServiceInterface getMyService() throws Exception
{
MyServiceInterface loadShedder = new MyServiceInterface() {
public Thingy[] getThingys(Stuff[] whatever) throws Exception {
return new Thingy[0];
}
//... etc - basically a dummy version of your service goes here
}
Context ctx = JndiUtil.getJNDIContext(MY_CLUSTER);
try {
MyServiceInterface impl = ((MyServiceHome) PortableRemoteObject.narrow(
ctx.lookup(MyServiceHome.JNDI_NAME),
MyServiceHome.class)).create();
// Here's where the proxy comes in
return (MyService) Proxy.newProxyInstance(
MyServiceHome.class.getClassLoader(),
new Class[] { MyServiceInterface.class },
new LoadSheddingProxy(MyServiceHome.JNDI_NAME, impl, loadShedder, 60000)); // 10 minute retry
} catch (RemoteException e) { // If we can't even look up the service we can fail by shedding load too
logger.warn("Shedding load");
return loadShedder;
} finally {
if (ctx != null) {
ctx.close();
}
}
}
And here's the proxy:
public class LoadSheddingProxy implements InvocationHandler {
static final Logger logger = ApplicationLogger.getLogger(LoadSheddingProxy.class);
Object primaryImpl, loadDumpingImpl;
long retry;
String serviceName;
// map is static because we may have many instances of a proxy around repeatedly looked-up remote objects
static final Map<String, Long> servicesLastTimedOut = new HashMap<String, Long>();
public LoadSheddingProxy(String serviceName, Object primaryImpl, Object loadDumpingImpl, long retry)
{
this.serviceName = serviceName;
this.primaryImpl = primaryImpl;
this.loadDumpingImpl = loadDumpingImpl;
this.retry = retry;
}
public Object invoke(Object obj, Method m, Object[] args) throws Throwable
{
try
{
if (!servicesLastTimedOut.containsKey(serviceName) || timeToRetry()) {
Object ret = m.invoke(primaryImpl, args);
servicesLastTimedOut.remove(serviceName);
return ret;
}
return m.invoke(loadDumpingImpl, args);
}
catch (InvocationTargetException e)
{
Throwable targetException = e.getTargetException();
// DETECT TIMEOUT HERE SOMEHOW - not sure this is the way to do it???
if (targetException instanceof RemoteException) {
servicesLastTimedOut.put(serviceName, Long.valueOf(System.currentTimeMillis()));
}
throw targetException;
}
}
private boolean timeToRetry() {
long lastFailedAt = servicesLastTimedOut.get(serviceName).longValue();
return (System.currentTimeMillis() - lastFailedAt) > retry;
}
}
The class java.lang.reflect.Proxy allows you to implement interfaces dynamically by handling method calls in an InvocationHandler. It is considered part of Java's reflection facility, but has nothing to do with bytecode generation.
Sun has a tutorial about the use of the Proxy class. Google helps, too.
One use case is hibernate - it gives you objects implementing your model classes interface but under getters and setters there resides db related code. I.e. you use them as if they are just simple POJO, but actually there is much going on under cover.
For example - you just call a getter of lazily loaded property, but really the property (probably whole big object structure) gets fetched from the database.
You should check cglib library for more info.