Observable Rx Scala behavior - scala

In the following example which is from one of the books that I'm currently reading about Observables:
object ObservablesCreate extends App {
val vms = Observable.create[String] { obs =>
 obs.onNext("JVM")
obs.onNext("DartVM")
obs.onNext("V8")
obs.onCompleted()
Subscription()
}
vms.subscribe(log _, e => log(s"oops - $e"), () => log("Done!"))
}
The text that follows hints that the above code snippet has a synchronous subscribe method which is very much understandable. My question is that isn't the whole purpose of using Observables to do asynchronous event emitting? I mean here is does not differ to an Iterable. Is this explained for the sake of some explanation?

Yes, it is only for the sake of explaining the create factory method. In the snippet you are generating the elements synchronously when a subscriber subscribe.
But in the same way you can call onNext asynchronously, for example when a Future resolves:
object ObservablesCreate extends App {
def future: Future[String] = ???
val vms = Observable.create[String] { obs =>
val f = future
f onComplete {
case Success(s) => {
obs.onNext(s)
obs.onCompleted()
}
case Failure(exception) => obs.onError(exception)
}
Subscription()
}
vms.subscribe(log _, e => log(s"oops - $e"), () => log("Done!"))
}
(For this specific case however is much better to use the Observable.from method to convert a Future to an Observable)

Related

Avoid syncronous calls in Akka Actors due of Await result

Because I do some "complex" operations, I think my Actor became asyncronous. The main problem I think is that I use Await.result inside the method which return responses.
actor:
def process(subscribers: Set[ActorRef]): Receive = {
case Join(ref) => context become process(subscribers + ref)
case Leave(ref) => context become process(subscribers - ref)
case Push(request) =>
val filteredSubscribers = (subscribers - sender())
.filter(s => exists(s, request)) // just some actor filters
filteredSubscribers.foreach { subscriber =>
// here I have a Map with each actor requests
val actorOptions = getActorOptions(subscriber)
subscriber ? getResponse(actorOptions, request)
}
}
The problem is inside getResponse (I think).
getResponse(actorOptions: JsValue, request: SocketRequest): JsValue = {
(actorOptions \ "dashboardId").asOpt[Int] match {
case Some(id) => {
val response = widgetsService.getByDashboadId(id) map { widgets =>
val widgetsResponse: List[Future[String]] = widgets.map(w => {
widgetsService.getDataById(w.id) map {
data => s"""{ "widgetId": ${w.id}, "data": $data }"""
}
})
var responses: List[String] = List.empty
widgetsResponse.foreach(f => {
f.onComplete {
case Success(value) => responses = value :: responses
case Failure(e) => println(s"Something happened: ${e.getMessage}")
}
})
// first time when I use Await.result
// used to populate the responses list with data from all futures
Await.result(Future.sequence(widgetsResponse), Duration.Inf)
Json.parse(s"""{
"dashboardId": $id,
"widgets": [${response.mkString(", ")}]
}""".stripMargin)
}
// second time when I use Await.result
// used to return a JsValue instead of a Future[JsValue]
Await.result(response, Duration.Inf)
}
case None => buildDefaultJson // return default json value, unimportant for this example
}
}
Due of that, In frontend, if I have 2 sockets clients, the response for the second will be send only after first.
I found that I can obtain a "fake" increase of performance if I embrance the getResponse in a future inside of my Actor.
filteredSubscribers.foreach { subscriber =>
val actorOptions = getActorOptions(subscriber)
Future(subscriber ? getResponse(actorOptions, request))
}
So, for both subscribers the action will be started in same time, but when the first will reach the Await.result, the second will be locked until first is done.
I need to avoid using Await.result there, but I don't know how to get the results of a list of futures, without using for-comprehension (because is a dynamically list) for first time where I use it.
Because Akka ask operator (?) return a Future[Any], I tried that my getResponse method to return directly a JsValue to be mapped then in Future[JsValue]. If I remove the second Await.result and my method will return Future[JsValue], then the actor will return a Future[Future[JsValue]] which I don't think is too right.
After some more researches and solutions found on so, my code become:
Future.sequence(widgetsResponse) map { responses =>
Json.parse(
s"""
|{
|"dashboardId": $id,
|"tableSourceId": $tableSourceId,
|"widgets": [ ${responses.mkString(", ")}]
|}""".stripMargin
)
}
getResponse returns a Future[JsValue] now, removing both Await.result cases, and actor case become:
filteredSubscribers.foreach { subscriber =>
val actorOptions = getActorOptions(subscriber)
getResponse(actorOptions, request) map { data =>
subscriber ? data
}
}
I don't know why, still have a synchronous behavior. Damn, this can be due of my subscribers type: Set[ActorRef]? I tried to use parallel foreach and this looks like solving my problem:
filteredSubscribers.par.foreach { subscriber =>
val actorOptions = getActorOptions(subscriber)
getResponse(actorOptions, request) map { data =>
subscriber ? data
}
}

What's the Akka-typed equivalent to pipeTo?

I'm currently trying to rewrite an existing untyped actor into a typed one. Since the actor is talking to a MySQL database using ScalikeJDBC, and since I'd like to have that done asynchronously, I'm dealing with Futures coming out of a separate (non-actor) repository class.
With untyped Akka, in an actor's receive method, I could do this:
import akka.pattern.pipe
val horseList : Future[Seq[Horse]] = horseRepository.listHorses(...)
horseList pipeTo sender()
And the sender actor would eventually receive a list of horses. I can't figure out how to do this inside a Behaviour, like:
val behaviour : Behavior[ListHorses] = Behaviors.receive {
(ctx,msg) => msg match {
case ListHorses(replyTo) =>
val horseListF : Future[Seq[Horse]] = horseRepository.listHorses(...)
// -> how do I make horseListF's content end up at replyTo? <-
Behaviors.same
}
}
The pipe pattern doesn't work (as it expects an untyped ActorRef), and so far I haven't found anything else in the akka-actor-typed (2.5.12) dependency I'm using to make this work.
How do I do this?
In Akka 2.5.22 (maybe earlier) there is context.pipeToSelf:
def pipeToSelf[Value](future: Future[Value])(mapResult: Try[Value] => T): Unit
You still have to provide a pattern match for Success and Failure, which in my code I've reduced with this sugar:
def mapPipe[A, T](success: A => T, failure: Throwable => T): Try[A] => T = {
case Success(value) => success(value)
case Failure(e) => failure(e)
}
Resulting in a call like this:
case class Horses(horses: Seq[Horse]) extends Command
case class HorseFailure(e: Throwable) extends Command
...
context.pipeToSelf(horseList) {
mapPipe(Horses,HorseFailure)
}
You can simply send a message to replyTo when the future completes successfully:
case ListHorses(replyTo) =>
horseRepository.listHorses(...) foreach { horses => replyTo ! horses }
Behaviors.same
Or if you want to handle errors as well:
case ListHorses(replyTo) =>
horseRepository.listHorses(...) onComplete {
case Success(horses) => replyTo ! horses
case Failure(e) => // error handling
}
Behaviors.same
In order for this to work, you need an ExecutionContext. It usually makes sense to use the same one as the actor, so you will have to make it available to onComplete or foreach first:
implicit val ec = ctx.executionContext

Use Future in Spray Routing

I'm new to asynchronous programming. I read this tutorial http://danielwestheide.com/blog/2013/01/09/the-neophytes-guide-to-scala-part-8-welcome-to-the-future.html and was surprised by how effortless I can incorporate Future into the program. However, when I was using Future with Routing, the return type is kind of wrong.
get {
optionalCookie("commToken") {
case Some(commCookie) =>
val response = (MTurkerProgressActor ? Register).mapTo[..].map({...})
val result = Await.result(response, 5 seconds)
setCookie(HttpCookie("commToken", content = result._2.mturker.get.commToken)) {
complete(result._1, result._2.mturker.get)
}
case None => // ...
}
}
I really don't want to use Await (what's the point of asynchronous if I just block the thread and wait for 5 seconds?). I tried to use for-comprehension or flatMap and place the setCookie and complete actions inside, but the return type is unacceptable to Spray. For-comprehension returns "Unit", and flatMap returns a Future.
Since I need to set up this cookie, I need the data inside. Is Await the solution? Or is there a smatter way?
You can use the onSuccess directive:
get {
optionalCookie("commToken") { cookie =>
//....
val response = (MTurkerProgressActor ? Register).mapTo[..].map({...})
onSuccess(response) {
case (result, mTurkerResponse) =>
setCookie(HttpCookie("commToken", content = mTurkerResponse.mturker.get.commToken)) {
complete(result, mturkerResponse.mturker.get)
}
}
}
There's also onFailure and onComplete (for which you have to match on Success and Failure) See http://spray.io/documentation/1.2.1/spray-routing/future-directives/onComplete/
Also, instead of using get directly it's much more idiomatic to use map (I assume the mturker is an Option or something similar):
case (result, mTurkerResponse) =>
mTurkerResponse.mturker.map { mt =>
setCookie(HttpCookie("commToken", content = mt.commToken)) {
complete(result, mt)
}
}
You can also make a custom directive using this code -
case class ExceptionRejection(ex: Throwable) extends Rejection
protected def futureDirective[T](x: Future[T],
exceptionHandler: (Throwable) => Rejection = ExceptionRejection(_)) =
new Directive1[T] {
override def happly(f: (::[T, HNil]) => Route): Route = { ctx =>
x
.map(t => f(t :: HNil)(ctx))
.onFailure { case ex: Exception =>
ctx.reject(exceptionHandler(ex))
}
}
}
Example usage -
protected def getLogin(account: Account) = futureDirective(
logins.findById(account.id)
)
getAccount(access_token) { account =>
getLogin(account) { login =>
// ...
}
}

Getting data out of a Future in Scala

I've a Future[List[Person]][1] and I want to get the List[Person] from it. How can I do it ?
import scala.concurrent.Future
val futPersons : Future[List[Person]] = ....
There are multiple ways:
futPersons.map { personList =>
....
}
This map returns another Future composed with whatever you return from the map. The map will execute only if the future completes successfully. If you need to handle failure you can use onComplete
futPersons.onComplete {
case Success(personList) => ...
case Failure(exception) => ...
}
Or you can wait for the future to complete (this is blocking):
val personList: List[Person] = Await.result(futPersons, 1 minutes)
Blocking way (pauses your thread until you get the value back) using Await.result:
scala.concurrent.Await.result(futPersons, timeout)
Or, using a callback with onSuccess:
futPersons onSuccess {
case persons => // do something with persons
}

waiting for "recursive" futures in scala

a simple code sample that describes my problem:
import scala.util._
import scala.concurrent._
import scala.concurrent.duration._
import ExecutionContext.Implicits.global
class LoserException(msg: String, dice: Int) extends Exception(msg) { def diceRoll: Int = dice }
def aPlayThatMayFail: Future[Int] = {
Thread.sleep(1000) //throwing a dice takes some time...
//throw a dice:
(1 + Random.nextInt(6)) match {
case 6 => Future.successful(6) //I win!
case i: Int => Future.failed(new LoserException("I did not get 6...", i))
}
}
def win(prefix: String): String = {
val futureGameLog = aPlayThatMayFail
futureGameLog.onComplete(t => t match {
case Success(diceRoll) => "%s, and finally, I won! I rolled %d !!!".format(prefix, diceRoll)
case Failure(e) => e match {
case ex: LoserException => win("%s, and then i got %d".format(prefix, ex.diceRoll))
case _: Throwable => "%s, and then somebody cheated!!!".format(prefix)
}
})
"I want to do something like futureGameLog.waitForRecursiveResult, using Await.result or something like that..."
}
win("I started playing the dice")
this simple example illustrates what i want to do. basically, if to put it in words, i want to wait for a result for some computation, when i compose different actions on previous success or failed attampts.
so how would you implement the win method?
my "real world" problem, if it makes any difference, is using dispatch for asynchronous http calls, where i want to keep making http calls whenever the previous one ends, but actions differ on wether the previous http call succeeded or not.
You can recover your failed future with a recursive call:
def foo(x: Int) = x match {
case 10 => Future.successful(x)
case _ => Future.failed[Int](new Exception)
}
def bar(x: Int): Future[Int] = {
foo(x) recoverWith { case _ => bar(x+1) }
}
scala> bar(0)
res0: scala.concurrent.Future[Int] = scala.concurrent.impl.Promise$DefaultPromise#64d6601
scala> res0.value
res1: Option[scala.util.Try[Int]] = Some(Success(10))
recoverWith takes a PartialFunction[Throwable,scala.concurrent.Future[A]] and returns a Future[A]. You should be careful though, because it will use quite some memory when it does lots of recursive calls here.
As drexin answered the part about exception handling and recovering, let me try and answer the part about a recursive function involving futures. I believe using a Promise will help you achieve your goal. The restructured code would look like this:
def win(prefix: String): String = {
val prom = Promise[String]()
def doWin(p:String) {
val futureGameLog = aPlayThatMayFail
futureGameLog.onComplete(t => t match {
case Success(diceRoll) => prom.success("%s, and finally, I won! I rolled %d !!!".format(prefix, diceRoll))
case Failure(e) => e match {
case ex: LoserException => doWin("%s, and then i got %d".format(prefix, ex.diceRoll))
case other => prom.failure(new Exception("%s, and then somebody cheated!!!".format(prefix)))
}
})
}
doWin(prefix)
Await.result(prom.future, someTimeout)
}
Now this won't be true recursion in the sense that it will be building up one long stack due to the fact that the futures are async, but it is similar to recursion in spirit. Using the promise here gives you something to block against while the recursion does it's thing, blocking the caller from what's happening behind the scene.
Now, if I was doing this, I would probable redefine things like so:
def win(prefix: String): Future[String] = {
val prom = Promise[String]()
def doWin(p:String) {
val futureGameLog = aPlayThatMayFail
futureGameLog.onComplete(t => t match {
case Success(diceRoll) => prom.success("%s, and finally, I won! I rolled %d !!!".format(prefix, diceRoll))
case Failure(e) => e match {
case ex: LoserException => doWin("%s, and then i got %d".format(prefix, ex.diceRoll))
case other => prom.failure(new Exception("%s, and then somebody cheated!!!".format(prefix)))
}
})
}
doWin(prefix)
prom.future
}
This way you can defer the decision on whether to block or use async callbacks to the caller of this function. This is more flexible, but it also exposes the caller to the fact that you are doing async computations and I'm not sure that is going to be acceptable for your scenario. I'll leave that decision up to you.
This works for me:
def retryWithFuture[T](f: => Future[T],retries:Int, delay:FiniteDuration) (implicit ec: ExecutionContext, s: Scheduler): Future[T] ={
f.recoverWith { case _ if retries > 0 => after[T](delay,s)(retryWithFuture[T]( f , retries - 1 , delay)) }
}