Updating the UI after the background work completes in a coroutine - kotlin-coroutines

I came across the following code sample that shows how to use a coroutine to run your background code on the IO thread and then switch to the UI (Main) thread when you need to update the UI:
class YourActivity : CoroutineScope {
private lateinit var job: Job
// context for io thread
override val coroutineContext: CoroutineContext
get() = Dispatchers.IO + job
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
job = Job()
}
fun toDoSmth() {
launch {
// task, do smth in io thread
withContext(Dispatchers.Main) {
// do smth in main thread after task is finished
}
}
}
override fun onDestroy() {
job.cancel()
super.onDestroy()
}
}
Is this the correct way to update the UI after the background work has completed?

Actually, the things are much easier. You shouldn't manage your own coroutine scope, take a look at LifecycleScope, it's already bound to the activity lifecycle. But the better way is to use ViewModelScope in conjunction with ViewModel library.
Note, that both viewModelScope and lifecycleScope use Dispatchers.Main by default, so you should pass IO dispatcher to the launch method, like:
viewModelScope.launch(Dispatchers.IO) {
// task, do smth in io thread
withContext(Dispatchers.Main) {
// do smth in main thread after task is finished
}
}

Related

what reason show message that "Possibly blocking call in non-blocking context could lead to thread starvation"?

i using coroutines with spring.
message that "Possibly blocking call in non-blocking context could lead to thread starvation" is show when this code using.
really happen blocking call ?
If happen could you tell me reason ?
Thank you.
suspend fun demo() = withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
val deferred1 = async {
aRepository.findById("id") // here
}
val deferred2 = async {
bRepository.findById("id") // here
}
deferred1.await()
deferred2.await()
}
I'm assuming that this concerns JPA repositories, and they perform work synchronous, and were build for the servlet architecture, which uses blocking code.
Using them with (asynchronous) coroutines triggers this warning. However, I'm not entirely sure if this really is an issue per se.
A solution to suppress this warning is by wrapping the blocking code with withContext (also the provided fix-it in my intellij), which suspends the coroutine while the code within the block is executed;
suspend fun demo() = withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
val deferred1 = async {
withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
aRepository.findById("id") // here
}
}
val deferred2 = async {
withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
bRepository.findById("id") // here
}
}
deferred1.await()
deferred2.await()
}

Springboot coroutine bean scope or local scope

I have a requirement, where we want to asynchronously handle some upstream request/payload via coroutine. I see that there are several ways to do this, but wondering which is the right approach -
Provide explicit spring service class that implements CoroutineScope
Autowire singleton scope-context backed by certain defined thread-pool dispatcher.
Define method local CoroutineScope object
Following on this question, I'm wondering whats the trade-off if we define method local scopes like below -
fun testSuspensions(count: Int) {
val launchTime = measureTimeMillis {
val parentJob = CoroutineScope(Dispatchers.IO).launch {
repeat(count) {
this.launch {
process() //Some lone running process
}
}
}
}
}
Alternative approach to autowire explicit scope object backed by custom dispatcher -
#KafkaListener(
topics = ["test_topic"],
concurrency = "1",
containerFactory = "someListenerContainerConfig"
)
private fun testKafkaListener(consumerRecord: ConsumerRecord<String, ByteArray>, ack: Acknowledgment) {
try {
this.coroutineScope.launch {
consumeRecordAsync(consumerRecord)
}
} finally {
ack.acknowledge()
}
}
suspend fun consumeRecordAsync(record: ConsumerRecord<String, ByteArray>) {
println("[${Thread.currentThread().name}] Starting to consume record - ${record.key()}")
val statusCode = initiateIO(record) // Add error-handling depending on kafka topic commit semantics.
// Chain any-other business logic (depending on status-code) as suspending functions.
consumeStatusCode(record.key(), statusCode)
}
suspend fun initiateIO(record: ConsumerRecord<String, ByteArray>): Int {
return withContext(Dispatchers.IO) { // Switch context to IO thread for http.
println("[${Thread.currentThread().name}] Executing network call - ${record.key()}")
delay(1000 * 2) // Simulate IO call
200 // Return status-code
}
}
suspend fun consumeStatusCode(recordKey: String, statusCode: Int) {
delay(1000 * 1) // Simulate work.
println("[${Thread.currentThread().name}] consumed record - $recordKey, status-code - $statusCode")
}
Autowiring bean as follows in some upstream config class -
#Bean(name = ["testScope"])
fun defineExtensionScope(): CoroutineScope {
val threadCount: Int = 4
return CoroutineScope(Executors.newFixedThreadPool(threadCount).asCoroutineDispatcher())
}
It depends on what your goal is. If you just want to avoid the thread-per-request model, you can use Spring's support for suspend functions in controllers instead (by using webflux), and that removes the need from even using an external scope at all:
suspend fun testSuspensions(count: Int) {
val execTime = measureTimeMillis {
coroutineScope {
repeat(count) {
launch {
process() // some long running process
}
}
}
}
// all child coroutines are done at this point
}
If you really want your method to return immediately and schedule coroutines that outlive it, you indeed need that extra scope.
Regarding option 1), making custom classes implement CoroutineScope is not encouraged anymore (as far as I understood). It's usually suggested to use composition instead (declare a scope as a property instead of implementing the interface by your own classes). So I would suggest your option 2.
I would say option 3) is out of the question, because there is no point in using CoroutineScope(Dispatchers.IO).launch { ... }. It's no better than using GlobalScope.launch(Dispatchers.IO) { ... } (it has the same pitfalls) - you can read about the pitfalls of GlobalScope in its documentation.
The main problem being that you run your coroutines outside structured concurrency (your running coroutines are not children of a parent job and may accumulate and hold resources if they are not well behaved and you forget about them). In general it's better to define a scope that is cancelled when you no longer need any of the coroutines that are run by it, so you can clean rogue coroutines.
That said, in some circumstances you do need to run coroutines "forever" (for the whole life of your application). In that case it's ok to use GlobalScope, or a custom application-wide scope if you need to customize things like the thread pool or exception handler. But in any case don't create a scope on the spot just to launch a coroutine without keeping a handle to it.
In your case, it seems you have no clear moment when you wouldn't care about the long running coroutines anymore, so you may be ok with the fact that your coroutines can live forever and are never cancelled. In that case, I would suggest a custom application-wide scope that you would wire in your components.

Volley doesn't respond in suspense function [duplicate]

I have a suspend function that calls POST request to the server. I want to configure some text in the activity to show the information I received from the server.
suspend fun retrieveInfo():String
I tried calling inside onCreate, onResume but crashes runtime.
runBlocking {
retrieveInfo()
}
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.google.augmentedimage/com.google.AugmentedImageActivity}: android.os.NetworkOnMainThreadException
at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3086)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3229)
at android.app.servertransaction.LaunchActivityItem.execute(LaunchActivityItem.java:78)
at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeCallbacks(TransactionExecutor.java:108)
at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute(TransactionExecutor.java:68)
Where am I suppose to put these suspend calls (in which part of lifecycle of activity)? Should I be using something other than runBlocking?
By default runBlocking runs the suspending code block in the thread runBlocking was called on.
So if you called runBlocking from the Activity callback your suspending block will be executed on the main thread, from which you cannot access network (query a server).
You need to switch a dispatcher in your coroutine block for that call. The simplest fix for your code would be to move the execution to the Dispatchers.IO.
runBlocking {
withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
retrieveInfo()
}
}
That being said, I suggest two things (not related directly to your question):
Read Coroutines on Android (this part and the following ones)
2. Don't use runBlocking for your case, but define a correct job and use job.launch{}
If you want to write in activity:
class MyActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
private val scope = CoroutineScope(newSingleThreadContext("name"))
fun doSomething() {
scope.launch { ... }
}
}

How this piece of code can be improved and rewritten to kotlin coroutines

I'm trying to achieve functionality: I have a rest endpoint that calls code that execution can take a lot of time. My idea to improve experience for now is to wrap that piece of code as a new thread, wait for completion or for some max time to elapse and return an appropriate message. Wrapped code should be completed even through endpoint already send message back. Current implementation looks like this:
private const val N = 1000
private const val MAX_WAIT_TIME = 5000
#RestController
#RequestMapping("/long")
class SomeController(
val service: SomeService,
) {
private val executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(N)
#PostMapping
fun longEndpoint(#RequestParam("someParam") someParam: Long): ResponseEntity<String> {
val submit = executor.submit {
service.longExecution(someParam)
}
val start = System.currentTimeMillis()
while (System.currentTimeMillis() - start < MAX_WAIT_TIME) {
if (submit.isDone)
return ResponseEntity.ok("Done")
}
return ResponseEntity.ok("Check later")
}
}
First question is - waiting on while for time seems wrong, we don't release thread, can it be improved?
More important question - how to rewrite it to Kotlin coroutines?
My attempt, simple without returning as soon as task is done, looked like this:
#PostMapping
fun longEndpoint(#RequestParam("someParam") someParam: Long): ResponseEntity<String> = runBlocking {
val result = async {
withContext(Dispatchers.Default) {
service.longExecution(someParam)
}
}
delay(MAX_WAIT_TIME)
return#runBlocking ResponseEntity.ok(if(result.isCompleted) "Done" else "Check later")
}
But even through correct string is returned, answer is not send until longExecution is done. How to fix that, what am I missing? Maybe coroutines are bad application here?
There are several problems with your current coroutines attempt:
you are launching your async computation within runBlocking's scope, so the overall endpoint method will wait for child coroutines to finish, despite your attempt at return-ing before that.
delay() will always wait for MAX_WAIT_TIME even if the task is done quicker than that
(optional) you don't have to use runBlocking at all if your framework supports async controller methods (Spring WebFlux does support suspend functions in controllers)
For the first problem, remember that every time you launch a coroutine that should outlive your function, you have to use an external scope. coroutineScope or runBlocking are not appropriate in these cases because they will wait for your child coroutines to finish.
You can use the CoroutineScope() factory function to create a scope, but you need to think about the lifetime of your coroutine and when you want it cancelled. If the longExecution function has a bug and hangs forever, you don't want to leak the coroutines that call it and blow up your memory, so you should cancel those coroutines somehow. That's why you should store the scope as a variable in your class and cancel it when appropriate (when you want to give up on those operations).
For the second problem, using withTimeout is very common, but it doesn't fit your use case because you want the task to keep going even after you timeout waiting for it. One possible solution would be using select clauses to either wait until the job is done, or wait for some specified maximum time:
// TODO call scope.cancel() somewhere appropriate (when this component is not needed anymore)
val scope = CoroutineScope(Job())
#PostMapping
fun longEndpoint(#RequestParam("someParam") someParam: Long): ResponseEntity<String> {
val job = scope.launch {
longExecution()
}
val resultText = runBlocking {
select {
job.onJoin() { "Done" }
onTimeout(MAX_WAIT_TIME) { "Check later" }
}
}
return ResponseEntity.ok(resultText)
}
Note: I'm using launch instead of async because you don't seem to need the return value of longExecution here.
If you want to solve the problem #3 too, you can simply declare your handler suspend and remove runBlocking around the select:
// TODO call scope.cancel() somewhere appropriate (when this component is not needed anymore)
val scope = CoroutineScope(Job())
#PostMapping
suspend fun longEndpoint(#RequestParam("someParam") someParam: Long): ResponseEntity<String> {
val job = scope.launch {
longExecution()
}
val resultText = select {
job.onJoin() { "Done" }
onTimeout(MAX_WAIT_TIME) { "Check later" }
}
return ResponseEntity.ok(resultText)
}
Note that this requires spring-boot-starter-webflux instead of spring-boot-starter-web.
Your implementation always waits for MAX_WAIT_TIME. This might work:
#PostMapping
fun longEndpoint(#RequestParam("someParam") someParam: Long): ResponseEntity<String> = runBlocking {
try {
withTimeout(MAX_WAIT_TIME) {
async {
withContext(Dispatchers.Default) {
service.longExecution(someParam)
}
}
}
} catch (ex: CancellationException) {
return#runBlocking ResponseEntity.ok("Check later")
}
return#runBlocking ResponseEntity.ok("Done")
}
Although I'm not sure if there will be any unwanted side effects because it seems that this will cancel the coroutine when it reaches MAX_WAIT_TIME. Read more about it here:
Cancellation and timeouts

Is it safe to launch a coroutine in SmartLifecycle?

Is it safe to launch a coroutine in a SmartLifecycle?
I need to use CoroutineCrudRepository within an initializer on the very first startup like the following, but I am unsure about the implications as using GlobalScope is marked as a delicate API:
#Component
class Initializer(val configRepo: ConfigRepository) : SmartLifecycle {
private var running = false
override fun start() {
running = true
GlobalScope.launch {
val initialized = configRepo.findByKey(ConfigKey.INITIALIZED)
if (initialized == null) {
// very first run
// ... do some stuff ...
val c = Config(key = ConfigKey.INITIALIZED, value = "1")
configRepo.save(c)
}
running = false
}
}
override fun stop() {
}
override fun isRunning(): Boolean = running
}
From what I understood there is no possibility to stop the coroutine and I cannot implement stop(). But my guess was that this is ok-ish during startup, because startup either fails and the complete application is shutdown (hence the coroutine would stop consuming resources) or the application starts up fine and I at least can indicate the isRunning from within the coroutine.
I would assume the configRepo to work fine, but I do not fully understand what would happen if the coroutine would get stuck.

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