Long running method causing race condition - java

I'm relatively new with hibernate so please be gentle. I'm having an issue with a long running method (~2 min long) and changing the value of a status field on an object stored in the DB. The pseudo-code below should help explain my issue.
public foo(thing) {
if (thing.getStatus() == "ready") {
thing.setStatus("finished");
doSomethingAndTakeALongTime();
} else {
// Thing already has a status of finished. Send the user back a message.
}
}
The pseudo-code shouldn't take much explanation. I want doSomethingAndTakeALongTime() to run, but only if it has a status of "ready". My issue arises whenever it takes 2 minutes for doSomethingAndTakeALongTime() to finish and the change to thing's status field doesn't get persisted to the database until it leaves foo(). So another user can put in a request during those 2 minutes and the if statement will evaluate to true.
I've already tried updating the field and flushing the session manually, but it didn't seem to work. I'm not sure what to do from here and would appreciate any help.
PS: My hibernate session is managed by spring.

Basically you need to let it run in a separate Thread to make the method to return immediately. Else it will indeed block until the long running task is finished. You can pass the entity itself to the thread, so that it can update the status itself. Here's a basic kickoff example using a simple Thread.
public class Task extends Thread {
private Entity entity;
public Task(Entity entity) {
this.entity = entity;
}
public void run() {
entity.setStatus(Status.RUNNING);
// ...
// Long running task here.
// ...
entity.setStatus(Status.FINISHED);
}
}
and
public synchronized void foo(Entity entity) {
if (entity.getStatus() == Status.READY) {
new Task(entity).start();
} else {
// ...
}
}
With the Status in an enum you can even use a switch statement instead of an if/else.
switch (entity.getStatus()) {
case READY:
new Task(entity).start();
break;
case RUNNING:
// It is still running .. Have patience!
break;
case FINISHED:
// It is finished!
break;
}
For a more robust control of running threads, you may want to consider ExecutorService instead. Therewith you can control the maximum number of threads and specify a timeout.

What the method doSomethingAndTakeALongTime() is doing? is it for DB operation or just executing some business logic?
If its not doing any DB operation, and you got your status fine then you can persist the object before calling that method.
And if its doing some DB operation, then you need to wait for it. So, even if you put in thread you need to wait for that thread to complete (using thread.join() we can do that)
the thing is, before you persist you must have completed all operation based on you ORM object right? so try to optimized the logic for the method to get it executed before you persist.
thanks.

Related

Mockito: Verify if a method specified in any thread got executed?

I have a method like the following one :
void enact(#NonNull final Request request) {
XInput input = this.xBuilder.buildInputPayload(request);
final Thread componentThread = new Thread(()->this.component.runJob(input));
componentThread.start();
return;
}
void testVTService_Success() {
when(xBuilder.buildInputPayload(any(Request.class))).thenReturn(inputPayloadWithAllArguments);
activity.enact(TestConstants.request);
verify(component, times(1)). runJob(any(XInput.class)); //Verification
}
Upon verification that the component.runJob() method is being executed it is throwing an error stating that Wanted but not invoked: component.runJob() Actually, there were zero interactions with this mock.
How do I fix this? And verify if the thread is starting & executing the runJob method?
Your test is running on one thread, and your code under test runs a new thread.
This means that your test verification runs before the runJob method because of multithreading.
At that point the test saying "Wanted but not invoked" is correct (the test code ran, checked if the production method had ran, it had not ... aand then in the background the production code ran (too late)).
Ideally you should separate the control of threading from the logic in your app. Wrap the Thread in a ThreadFactory, for real code you can pass an actual Thread, for test code you can pass an object that runs the code instantly (on the same thread).
Or (not recommended) you hack your test (this will help you understand):
void testVTService_Success() {
when(xBuilder.buildInputPayload(any(Request.class)))
.thenReturn(inputPayloadWithAllArguments);
activity.enact(TestConstants.request);
try { Thread.sleep(TimeUnit.SECONDS.toMillis(10)); } catch (Exception e) { assertTrue(false); }
verify(component, times(1)). runJob(any(XInput.class));
}
Now your test will always take 10 seconds, but hopefully the production code doesn't take 10 seconds to complete execution?
This is not ideal, like I said originally you would want to pull the Thread out of that Method, pass in some type of Factory to the class and pass a Fake object in the test. (Thus avoiding trying to test multithreaded code.)

How to implement Java single Database thread

I have made a Java program that connects to a SQLite database using SQLite4Java.
I read from the serial port and write values to the database. This worked fine in the beginning, but now my program has grown and I have several threads. I have tried to handle that with a SQLiteQueue-variable that execute database operations with something like this:
public void insertTempValue(final SQLiteStatement stmt, final long logTime, final double tempValue)
{
if(checkQueue("insertTempValue(SQLiteStatement, long, double)", "Queue is not running!", false))
{
queue.execute(new SQLiteJob<Object>()
{
protected Object job(SQLiteConnection connection) throws SQLiteException
{
stmt.bind(1, logTime);
stmt.bind(2, tempValue);
stmt.step();
stmt.reset(true);
return null;
}
});
}
} // end insertTempValue(SQLiteStatement, long, double)
But now my SQLite-class can't execute the statements reporting :
DB[1][U]: disposing [INSERT INTO Temperatures VALUES (?,?)]DB[1][U] from alien thread
SQLiteDB$6#8afbefd: job exception com.almworks.sqlite4java.SQLiteException: [-92] statement is disposed
So the execution does not happen.
I have tried to figure out what's wrong and I think I need a Java wrapper that makes all the database operations calls from a single thread that the other threads go through.
Here is my problem I don't know how to implement this in a good way.
How can I make a method-call and ensure that it always runs from the same thread?
Put all your database access code into a package and make all the classes package private. Write one Runnable or Thread subclass with a run() method that runs a loop. The loop checks for queued information requests, and runs the appropriate database access code to find the information, putting the information into the request and marking the request complete before going back to the queue.
Client code queues data requests and waits for answers, perhaps by blocking until the request is marked complete.
Data requests would look something like this:
public class InsertTempValueRequest {
// This method is called from client threads before queueing
// Client thread queues this object after construction
public InsertTempValueRequest(
final long logTime,
final double tempValue
) {
this.logTime = logTime
this.tempValue = tempValue
}
// This method is called from client threads after queueing to check for completion
public isComplete() {
return isComplete;
}
// This method is called from the database thread after dequeuing this object
execute(
SQLiteConnection connection,
SQLiteStatement statement
) {
// execute the statement using logTime and tempValue member data, and commit
isComplete = true;
}
private volatile long logTime;
private volatile double tempValue;
private volatile boolean isComplete = false;
}
This will work, but I suspect there will be a lot of hassle in the implementation. I think you could also get by by using a lock that only permits one thread at a time to access the database, and also - this is the difference from your existing situation - beginning the access by creating the database resources - including statements - from scratch, and disposing of those resources before releasing the lock.
I found a solution to my problem. I have now implemented a wrapper-class that makes all operations with my older SQLite-class using an ExecutorService, inspired from Thread Executor Example and got the correct usage from Java Doc ExecutorService.

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.

How to override the behavior of a failed JUnit test case

I need to write a JUnit test case for a never ending main() method. This main() method after processing some files sleeps for a minute and then resumes its execution. This process goes on and on and on.
I used the below code to write JUnit for it:
#Test (timeout = 10000)
public void testMainMethod()
{
ClassName.main(null);
assertEquals(true, true);
}
And with no surprise, my test case failed with java.lang.Exception: test timed out after 10000 milliseconds message. Even when the main() method works as expected, this test case is going to be failed with the timeout exception. How could i override the behavior of this failing test case so that in case of timeout exception it should show the result as "Succeeded" for this test case.
Edit
The actual requirement is:
I need to search the files from a particular location and, if found any, then move them to different folder. This search should be done every 30 minutes. For this i have used below code:
public class FaxProcessor {
public static void main(String[] args) {
LOGGER.info("*** Starting Fax Server Processor ***");
int poll_time = 1800000;
LOGGER.info("Poll Time set to " + poll_time + " millisec");
FaxProcessor faxProcessor = new FaxProcessor();
while (true) {
try {
if(LOGGER.debugEnabled()){
LOGGER.debug("Starting new pass of fax processor");
}
faxProcessor.startProcessing();
} catch (Exception e) {
LOGGER.error("Processing Error", e);
} finally {
try {
// Wait for next loop
Thread.sleep(poll_time);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
LOGGER.error("Thread Exception", e);
}
}
}
}
// startProcessing and other private methods here
}
The biggest problem is, I have only one public method {main() method} and all others are private, so i cant write JUnit test case for them. Also, main() method is not returning anything, it only moves files from one folder to another, and in case it fails in moving files in one pass, it tries to do the same in next pass. So using JUnit test case, i only want to check whether an unexpected exception is coming during whole process or not.
If i will not specify timeout in JUnit, the test case is never gonna complete then. As soon as the timeout occurs, i want to check, whether the test case is completed due to Timeout exception or some other exception has come from inside main() method that haulted JUnit test case.
In case it's Timeout exception, this implies, everything inside my program, went in the right direction till the timeout occured, so the test case should SUCCEED. In all other case it should show FAILED as JUnit status.
You have artificially constrained your testing environment, with this statement: "I have only one public method {main() method} and all others are private" -- who says? If this is a requirement imposed by your teacher, then you should seriously consider getting out of the class.
1) Proper testing means testing a) that candidate files are recognized, b) that candidate files are moved, and c) the operation occurs periodically.
2) Factor your main routine into the infinite-loop control part and the worker part. Even better, make the wait interval be a computed value.
3) Use protected methods instead of private methods. Since they are protected, you can now use a sub-class to get access to methods as you need, without violating necessary encapsulation.
You should think of separating long running unit tests. How to achieve that is for example shown here or here.
I don't understand what you want to do.
If you got Timeout Exception, that means the test case ran too long.
If you want to test the main method, and it contains an infinite loop, how can you determine that the method works as expected?
For your problem, use
#Test (timeout = 10000, expected=Exception.class)

Multi-threaded code and condition variable usage

A multi-threaded piece of code accesses a resource (eg: a filesystem) asynchronously.
To achieve this, I'll use condition variables. Suppose the FileSystem is an interface like:
class FileSystem {
// sends a read request to the fileSystem
read(String fileName) {
// ...
// upon completion, execute a callback
callback(returnCode, buffer);
}
}
I have now an application accessing the FileSystem. Suppose I can issue multiple reads through a readFile() method.
The operation should write data to the byte buffer passed to it.
// constructor
public Test() {
FileSystem disk = ...
boolean readReady = ...
Lock lock = ...
Condition responseReady = lock.newCondition();
}
// the read file method in quesiton
public void readFile(String file) {
try {
lock.lock(); // lets imagine this operation needs a lock
// this operation may take a while to complete;
// but the method should return immediately
disk.read(file);
while (!readReady) { // <<< THIS
responseReady.awaitUninterruptibly();
}
}
finally {
lock.unlock();
}
}
public void callback(int returnCode, byte[] buffer) {
// other code snipped...
readReady = true; // <<< AND THIS
responseReady.signal();
}
Is this the correct way to use condition variables? Will readFile() return immediately?
(I know there is some sillyness in using locks for reads, but writing to a file is also an option.)
There's a lot missing from your question (i.e. no specific mention of Threads) but I will try to answer anyway.
Neither the lock nor the conditional variables give you background capabilities -- they just are used for a thread to wait for signals from other threads. Although you don't mention it, the disk.read(file) method could spawn a thread to do the IO and then return immediately but the caller is going to sit in the readReady loop anyway which seems pointless. If the caller has to wait then it could perform the IO itself.
A better pattern could be to use something like the Java 5 Executors service:
ExecutorService pool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(int numThreads);
You can then call pool.submit(Callable) which will submit the job to be performed in the background in another thread (when the pool next has one available). Submit returns a Future which the caller can use to investigate if the background task has finished. It can return a result object as well. The concurrent classes take care of the locking and conditional signal/wait logic for you.
Hope this helps.
p.s. Also, you should make readReady be volatile since it is not synchronized.

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