request timeout from flatMapping over cats.effect.IO - scala

Question

I am attempting to transform some data that is encapsulated in cats.effect.IO with a Map that also is in an IO monad. I'm using http4s with blaze server and when I use the following code the request times out:
def getScoresByUserId(userId: Int): IO[Response[IO]] = {
implicit val formats = DefaultFormats + ShiftJsonSerializer() + RawShiftSerializer()
implicit val shiftJsonReader = new Reader[ShiftJson] {
def read(value: JValue): ShiftJson = value.extract[ShiftJson]
}
implicit val shiftJsonDec = jsonOf[IO, ShiftJson]
// get the shifts
var getDbShifts: IO[List[Shift]] = shiftModel.findByUserId(userId)
// use the userRoleId to get the RoleId then get the tasks for this role
val taskMap : IO[Map[String, Double]] = taskModel.findByUserId(userId).flatMap {
case tskLst: List[Task] => IO(tskLst.map((task: Task) => (task.name -> task.standard)).toMap)
}
val traversed: IO[List[Shift]] = for {
shifts <- getDbShifts
traversed <- shifts.traverse((shift: Shift) => {
val lstShiftJson: IO[List[ShiftJson]] = read[List[ShiftJson]](shift.roleTasks)
.map((sj: ShiftJson) =>
taskMap.flatMap((tm: Map[String, Double]) =>
IO(ShiftJson(sj.name, sj.taskType, sj.label, sj.value.toString.toDouble / tm.get(sj.name).get)))
).sequence
//TODO: this flatMap is bricking my request
lstShiftJson.flatMap((sjLst: List[ShiftJson]) => {
IO(Shift(shift.id, shift.shiftDate, shift.shiftStart, shift.shiftEnd,
shift.lunchDuration, shift.shiftDuration, shift.breakOffProd, shift.systemDownOffProd,
shift.meetingOffProd, shift.trainingOffProd, shift.projectOffProd, shift.miscOffProd,
write[List[ShiftJson]](sjLst), shift.userRoleId, shift.isApproved, shift.score, shift.comments
))
})
})
} yield traversed
traversed.flatMap((sLst: List[Shift]) => Ok(write[List[Shift]](sLst)))
}
as you can see the TODO comment. I've narrowed down this method to the flatmap below the TODO comment. If I remove that flatMap and merely return "IO(shift)" to the traversed variable the request does not timeout; However, that doesn't help me much because I need to make use of the lstShiftJson variable which has my transformed json.
My intuition tells me I'm abusing the IO monad somehow, but I'm not quite sure how.
Thank you for your time in reading this!

Answer 1

So with the guidance of Luis's comment I refactored my code to the following. I don't think it is optimal (i.e. the flatMap at the end seems unecessary, but I couldnt' figure out how to remove it. BUT it's the best I've got.
def getScoresByUserId(userId: Int): IO[Response[IO]] = {
implicit val formats = DefaultFormats + ShiftJsonSerializer() + RawShiftSerializer()
implicit val shiftJsonReader = new Reader[ShiftJson] {
def read(value: JValue): ShiftJson = value.extract[ShiftJson]
}
implicit val shiftJsonDec = jsonOf[IO, ShiftJson]
// FOR EACH SHIFT
// - read the shift.roleTasks into a ShiftJson object
// - divide each task value by the task.standard where task.name = shiftJson.name
// - write the list of shiftJson back to a string
val traversed = for {
taskMap <- taskModel.findByUserId(userId).map((tList: List[Task]) => tList.map((task: Task) => (task.name -> task.standard)).toMap)
shifts <- shiftModel.findByUserId(userId)
traversed <- shifts.traverse((shift: Shift) => {
val lstShiftJson: List[ShiftJson] = read[List[ShiftJson]](shift.roleTasks)
.map((sj: ShiftJson) => ShiftJson(sj.name, sj.taskType, sj.label, sj.value.toString.toDouble / taskMap.get(sj.name).get ))
shift.roleTasks = write[List[ShiftJson]](lstShiftJson)
IO(shift)
})
} yield traversed
traversed.flatMap((t: List[Shift]) => Ok(write[List[Shift]](t)))
}
Luis mentioned that mapping my List[Shift] to a Map[String, Double] is a pure operation so we want to use a map instead of flatMap.
He mentioned that I'm wrapping every operation that comes from the database in IO which is causing a great deal of recomputation. (including DB transactions)
To solve this issue I moved all of the database operations inside of my for loop, using the "<-" operator to flatMap each of the return values allows the variables being used to preside within the IO monads, hence preventing the recomputation experienced before.
I do think there must be a better way of returning my return value. flatMapping the "traversed" variable to get back inside of the IO monad seems to be unnecessary recomputation, so please anyone correct me.