Question
How do you create a proper background loader in Java 8? The conditions:
- data should be loaded in background
- after the loading the data should be displayed
- while data are loaded no further requests should be accepted
- if there were requests while the data were loaded another loading should be scheduled after a certain timeout (e. g. 5 seconds)
The purpose is to e. g. have reload requests accepted, but not the database flooded with the requests.
MCVE
Here's a MCVE. It consists of a background task which simulates the loading by simply invoking Thread.sleep for 2 seconds. The task is scheduled every second which naturally leads to an overlap of the background loading tasks, which should be avoided.
public class LoadInBackgroundExample {
/**
* A simple background task which should perform the data loading operation. In this minimal example it simply invokes Thread.sleep
*/
public static class BackgroundTask implements Runnable {
private int id;
public BackgroundTask(int id) {
this.id = id;
}
/**
* Sleep for a given amount of time to simulate loading.
*/
@Override
public void run() {
try {
System.out.println("Start #" + id + ": " + Thread.currentThread());
long sleepTime = 2000;
Thread.sleep( sleepTime);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
System.out.println("Finish #" + id + ": " + Thread.currentThread());
}
}
}
/**
* CompletableFuture which simulates loading and showing data.
* @param taskId Identifier of the current task
*/
public static void loadInBackground( int taskId) {
// create the loading task
BackgroundTask backgroundTask = new BackgroundTask( taskId);
// "load" the data asynchronously
CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture = CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(new Supplier<String>() {
@Override
public String get() {
CompletableFuture<Void> future = CompletableFuture.runAsync(backgroundTask);
try {
future.get();
} catch (InterruptedException | ExecutionException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return "task " + backgroundTask.id;
}
});
// display the data after they are loaded
CompletableFuture<Void> future = completableFuture.thenAccept(x -> {
System.out.println( "Background task finished:" + x);
});
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// runnable which invokes the background loader every second
Runnable trigger = new Runnable() {
int taskId = 0;
public void run() {
loadInBackground( taskId++);
}
};
// create scheduler
ScheduledExecutorService scheduler = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(1);
ScheduledFuture<?> beeperHandle = scheduler.scheduleAtFixedRate(trigger, 0, 1, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
// cancel the scheudler and the application after 10 seconds
scheduler.schedule(() -> beeperHandle.cancel(true), 10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
try {
beeperHandle.get();
} catch (Throwable th) {
}
System.out.println( "Cancelled");
System.exit(0);
}
}
The output is this:
Start #0: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-2,5,main]
Start #1: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-4,5,main]
Start #2: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-6,5,main]
Finish #0: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-2,5,main]
Background task finished:task 0
Finish #1: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-4,5,main]
Background task finished:task 1
Start #3: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-4,5,main]
Finish #2: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-6,5,main]
Background task finished:task 2
Start #4: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-6,5,main]
Start #5: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-2,5,main]
Finish #3: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-4,5,main]
Background task finished:task 3
Start #6: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-4,5,main]
Finish #4: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-6,5,main]
Background task finished:task 4
Finish #5: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-2,5,main]
Background task finished:task 5
Start #7: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-2,5,main]
Finish #6: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-4,5,main]
Start #8: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-6,5,main]
Background task finished:task 6
Start #9: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-4,5,main]
Finish #7: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-2,5,main]
Background task finished:task 7
Start #10: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-2,5,main]
Finish #8: Thread[ForkJoinPool.commonPool-worker-6,5,main]
Background task finished:task 8
Cancelled
The goal is to have e. g. #1 and #2 skipped because #0 is still running.
Problem
Where do you properly set the blocking mechanism? Should synchronization be used? Or some AtomicBoolean? And if so, should it be inside the get() method or elsewhere?
ExecutorServicewith a thread pool size of 1?BlockingQueue?