How To Using Dataflow With Only BroadcastBlock And ActionBlock - asynchronous

This is my first question in SO, i'm new using DataFlow with BroadcastBlock and ActionBlock, i hope i can get solution in here.
Here's the structure.
Model
class SampleModel
{
public string Id { get; set; } = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
public bool Success { get; set; } = true;
public object UniqueData { get; set; }
public override string ToString()
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.AppendLine($"Id - {Id}");
sb.AppendLine($"Success - {Success}");
sb.AppendLine($"UniqueData - {UniqueData}");
string tmp = sb.ToString();
sb.Clear();
return tmp;
}
}
DataFlow Logic
class CreateDownloadTask
{
public async Task VeryLongProcess()
{
await Task.Run(async () =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Long Process Working..");
await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));
Console.WriteLine("Long Process Done..");
});
}
public async Task CreateSimpleBroadcastX<T>(T data)
{
Action<T> process = async model =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Working..");
await VeryLongProcess();
Console.WriteLine("Done");
};
var broad = new BroadcastBlock<T>(null);
var action = new ActionBlock<T>(process);
var dflo = new DataflowLinkOptions { PropagateCompletion = true };
broad.LinkTo(action, dflo);
await broad.SendAsync(data);
broad.Complete();
await action.Completion.ContinueWith(async tsk =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Continue data");
}).ConfigureAwait(false);
Console.WriteLine("All Done");
}
}
Caller
var task = cdt.CreateSimpleBroadcastX<SampleModel>(new SampleModel
{
UniqueData = cdt.GetHashCode()
});
task.GetAwaiter().GetResult();
Console.WriteLin("Completed");
I expect the result should be
Working..
Long Process Working..
Long Process Done..
Done
Continue data
All Done
Completed
But what i've got is
Working..
Long Process Working..
Continue data
All Done
Completed
Long Process Done..
Done
This is happen when ther is async-await inside of ActionBlock.
Now, the question is, is that possible to make the result as i expected without WaitHandle ?
That mean, ActionBlock.Completion will be wait until the Action or Delegate inside the ActionBlock is complete executed?
Or i'm i doing it wrong with that patter?
Thanks in Advance, and sorry for my bad english.

Your problem is here:
Action<T> process = async model => ...
That code creates an async void method, which should be avoided. One of the reasons you should avoid async void is because it is difficult to know when the method has completed. And this is exactly what is happening: the ActionBlock<T> cannot know when your delegate has completed because it is async void.
The proper delegate type for an asynchronous method without a return value that takes a single argument is Func<T, Task>:
Func<T, Task> process = async model => ...
Now that the asynchronous method returns a Task, the ActionBlock can know when it completes.

Related

How to execute a dynamic list of async functions in a sequential way?

I have refactored a Web API to rely on async/await in ASP.NET Core 3.1 and I have the following scenario: a statistics method is sequentially computing a list of indicators which are defined in a list.
readonly Dictionary<StatisticItemEnum, Func<Task<SimpleStatisticItemApiModel>>> simpleItemActionMap =
new Dictionary<StatisticItemEnum, Func<Task<SimpleStatisticItemApiModel>>>();
private void InitSimpleStatisticFunctionsMap()
{
simpleItemActionMap.Add(StatisticItemEnum.AllQuestionCount, GetAllQuestionCountApiModel);
simpleItemActionMap.Add(StatisticItemEnum.AllAnswerCount, GetAllAnswerCountApiModel);
simpleItemActionMap.Add(StatisticItemEnum.AverageAnswer, GetAverageAnswer);
// other mappings here
}
private async Task<SimpleStatisticItemApiModel> GetAllQuestionCountApiModel()
{
// await for database operation
}
private async Task<SimpleStatisticItemApiModel> GetAllAnswerCountApiModel()
{
// await for database operation
}
private async Task<SimpleStatisticItemApiModel> GetAverageAnswer()
{
// await for database operation
}
The code sequentially goes through each item and computes it and after the refactoring it is looking like this:
itemIds.ForEach(itemId =>
{
var itemEnumValue = (StatisticItemEnum) itemId;
if (simpleItemActionMap.ContainsKey(itemEnumValue))
{
var result = simpleItemActionMap[itemEnumValue]().Result;
payload.SimpleStatisticItemModels.Add(result);
}
});
I know that Task.Result might lead to deadlocks, but I could not find any other way to make this work.
Question: How to execute a dynamic list of async functions in a sequential way?
You should change the ForEach call to a regular foreach, and then you can use await:
foreach (var itemId in itemIds)
{
var itemEnumValue = (StatisticItemEnum) itemId;
if (simpleItemActionMap.ContainsKey(itemEnumValue))
{
var result = await simpleItemActionMap[itemEnumValue]();
payload.SimpleStatisticItemModels.Add(result);
}
}
Do not make the ForEach lambda async; that will result in an async void method, and you should avoid async void.
I think you can do this:
itemIds.ForEach(async itemId =>
{
var itemEnumValue = (StatisticItemEnum) itemId;
if (simpleItemActionMap.ContainsKey(itemEnumValue))
{
var result = await simpleItemActionMap[itemEnumValue]();
payload.SimpleStatisticItemModels.Add(result);
}
});

Problem with getting the random photo from Firebase by usage of async Tasks and async UnityWebRequest

I've created a call to Firebase to get the random photo (since we have categories of photos, first I'm trying to get random category, then random photo from it). After that I want to make async UnityWebRequest to get the photo and add it as a texture. The code gets to the inside of the Task but the call to database is never executed. I tried the code to get the image separately and it worked just fine. I also tried using delegate and action, but didn't help much. I'm still pretty newbie to C# and Unity, so my code isn't that good. Will appreciate all the feedback.
I tried the code to get the image separately and it worked just fine. I also tried using delegate and action, but didn't help much. I'm still pretty newbie to C# and Unity, so my code isn't that good. Will appreciate all the feedback.
//Getting the random photo
async Task GetRandomPhoto(){
await photosDbReference.GetValueAsync().ContinueWith(task =>{
List<string> snapshotList = new List<string>();
List<string> snapsnotList2 = new List<string>();
if(task.IsCompleted){
int catNumber = Convert.ToInt32(task.Result.ChildrenCount);
System.Random rnd = new System.Random();
int randCat = rnd.Next(0, catNumber);
foreach (DataSnapshot snapshot in task.Result.Children)
{
snapshotList.Add(snapshot.Key.ToString());
}
photosDbReference.Child(snapshotList[randCat]).GetValueAsync().ContinueWith(task2 =>{
if(task2.IsCompleted){
int photosNumber = Convert.ToInt32(task2.Result.ChildrenCount);
System.Random rnd2 = new System.Random();
int randPhoto = rnd.Next(0, photosNumber);
foreach(DataSnapshot snap2 in task2.Result.Children){
snapsnotList2.Add(snap2.Child("Dblink").Value.ToString());
}
string photoLink = snapsnotList2[randPhoto];
}
});
}
});
}
//Trying to set the photo as a texture
public async void PutTheTexture(string url){
Texture2D texture = await GetTexture(url);
myImage.texture = texture;
}
public async Task<Texture2D> GetTexture(string url){
Debug.Log("Started");
UnityWebRequest www = UnityWebRequestTexture.GetTexture(url);
Debug.Log("Sending request: " + url);
var asyncOp = www.SendWebRequest();
Debug.Log("Request sent");
while( asyncOp.isDone==false )
{
await Task.Delay( 1000/30 );
}
if( www.isNetworkError || www.isHttpError )
{
#if DEBUG
Debug.Log( $"{ www.error }, URL:{ www.url }" );
#endif
return null;
}
else
{
return DownloadHandlerTexture.GetContent( www );
}
}
The code gets to the Debug.Log("Started"); inside the Task but apparently the request is never send.
I can't quite tell how your two blocks of code go together, but what I will point out is that .ContinueWith will not continue in Unity's main thread. My suspicion is that the continuation is kicking off the GetTexture via a mechanism I'm not seeing.
As far as I can tell, async/await should always stay in your current execution context but perhaps the Continuations are causing your logic to execute outside of the Unity main thread.
Since you're using Firebase, this would be super easy to test by replacing ContinueWith with the extension method ContinueWithOnMainThread. If this doesn't help, you can generally swap out async/await logic with continuations on tasks or fairly easily convert the above example to use purely coroutines:
//Getting the random photo
void GetRandomPhoto(){
photosDbReference.GetValueAsync().ContinueWithOnMainThread(task =>
{
List<string> snapshotList = new List<string>();
List<string> snapsnotList2 = new List<string>();
if(task.IsCompleted){
int catNumber = Convert.ToInt32(task.Result.ChildrenCount);
System.Random rnd = new System.Random();
int randCat = rnd.Next(0, catNumber);
foreach (DataSnapshot snapshot in task.Result.Children)
{
snapshotList.Add(snapshot.Key.ToString());
}
photosDbReference.Child(snapshotList[randCat]).GetValueAsync().ContinueWithOnMainThread(task2 =>{
if(task2.IsCompleted){
int photosNumber = Convert.ToInt32(task2.Result.ChildrenCount);
System.Random rnd2 = new System.Random();
int randPhoto = rnd.Next(0, photosNumber);
foreach(DataSnapshot snap2 in task2.Result.Children){
snapsnotList2.Add(snap2.Child("Dblink").Value.ToString());
}
string photoLink = snapsnotList2[randPhoto];
}
});
}
});
}
public delegate void GetTextureComplete(Texture2D texture);
private void Completion(Texture2D texture) {
myImage.texture = texture;
}
//Trying to set the photo as a texture
public void PutTheTexture(string url){
GetTexture(url, Completion);
}
public IEnumerator GetTexture(string url, GetTextureComplete completion){
Debug.Log("Started");
UnityWebRequest www = UnityWebRequestTexture.GetTexture(url);
Debug.Log("Sending request: " + url);
var asyncOp = www.SendWebRequest();
Debug.Log("Request sent");
yield return asyncOp;
if( www.isNetworkError || www.isHttpError )
{
#if DEBUG
Debug.Log( $"{ www.error }, URL:{ www.url }" );
#endif
completion(null);
}
else
{
completion(DownloadHandlerTexture.GetContent(www));
}
}
(you can do better than my example, and I haven't verified that it runs. Just a quick pass)
Big Thank You to everybody who tried to help! I finally found the way to solve the issue. I changed my async Task to async Task < "Dictionary" > and made it return the dict wilth all the data of the random photo (label, link, user). Then I created async void in which I wrote:
Dictionary photoData = await GetRandomPhoto();
From there it was very easy.

async method cannot return void - How can I handle this?

I have a phone application. When a screen displays I start a timer like this:
base.OnAppearing();
{
timerRunning = true;
Device.BeginInvokeOnMainThread(() => showGridTime(5));
}
async void showGridTime(int time)
{
while (timerRunning)
{
var tokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
await Task.Delay(time, tokenSource.Token);
detailGrid.IsVisible = true;
}
}
The code seems to work but there is a warning message in the IDE saying that an async method cannot return null.
Given this code can someone help and give me advice on what I should return and if I am going about this in the correct way?
Just return a task:
async Task ShowGridTimeAsync(int time)
{
while (timerRunning)
{
var tokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
await Task.Delay(time, tokenSource.Token);
detailGrid.IsVisible = true;
}
}
This is necessary to have the caller of this method know when it is completed and act accordingly.
It is not recommended to create async void methods unless you're creating an event or forced to do that in order to meet an interface signature.

Read File and Return Synchronously (Metro App)

I am writing a Metro App.
I am trying to read a file and return a float[] from the data. But no matter what I do, the function seems to return null. I have tried the solutions to similar questions to no luck.
For example if I use:
float[] floatArray = new ModelReader("filename.txt").ReadModel()
The result will be a null array.
However if I use:
new ModelReader("filename.txt")
The correct array will be printed to the console because "Test" also prints the array before returning it. This seems very weird to me.
Please give me some guidance, I have no idea what is wrong.
public class ModelReader
{
float[] array;
public ModelReader(String name)
{
ReadModelAsync(name);
}
public float[] ReadModel()
{
return array;
}
private async Task ReadModelAsync(String name)
{
await readFile(name);
}
async Task readFile(String name)
{
// settings
var path = #"Assets\models\" + name;
var folder = Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation;
// acquire file
var file = await folder.GetFileAsync(path);
// read content
var read = await Windows.Storage.FileIO.ReadTextAsync(file);
using (StringReader sr = new StringReader(read))
{
Test test = new Test(getFloatArray(sr));
this.array = test.printArray();
}
}
private float[] getFloatArray(StringReader sr) { ... }
public class Test
{
public float[] floatArray;
public Test(float[] floatArray)
{
this.floatArray = floatArray;
}
public float[] printArray()
{
for (int i = 0; i < floatArray.Length; i++)
{
Debug.WriteLine(floatArray[i]);
}
return floatArray;
}
}
You're trying to get the result of an asynchronous operation before it has completed. I recommend you read my intro to async / await and follow-up with the async / await FAQ.
In particular, your constructor:
public ModelReader(String name)
{
ReadModelAsync(name);
}
is returning before ReadModelAsync is complete. Since constructors cannot be asynchronous, I recommend you use an asynchronous factory or asynchronous lazy initialization as described on my blog (also available in my AsyncEx library).
Here's a simple example using an asynchronous factory approach:
public class ModelReader
{
float[] array;
private ModelReader()
{
}
public static async Task<ModelReader> Create(string name)
{
var ret = new ModelReader();
await ret.ReadModelAsync(name);
return ret;
}
...
}

Can I get a series of good results and a thrown exception from Moq

I am mocking a wrapper to an MSMQ. The wrapper simply allows an object instance to be created that directly calls static methods of the MessageQueue class.
I want to test reading the queue to exhaustion. To do this I would like the mocked wrapper to return some good results and throw an exception on the fourth call to the same method. The method accepts no parameters and returns a standard message object.
Can I set up this series of expectations on the method in Moq?
Yup, this is possible if you don't mind jumping through a few minor hoops. I've done this for one of my projects before. Alright here is the basic technique. I just tested it out in Visual Studio 2008, and this works:
var mockMessage1 = new Mock<IMessage>();
var mockMessage2 = new Mock<IMessage>();
var mockMessage3 = new Mock<IMessage>();
var messageQueue = new Queue<IMessage>(new [] { mockMessage1.Object, mockMessage2.Object, mockMessage3.Object });
var mockMsmqWrapper = new Mock<IMsmqWrapper>();
mockMsmqWrapper.Setup(x => x.GetMessage()).Returns(() => messageQueue.Dequeue()).Callback(() =>
{
if (messageQueue.Count == 0)
mockMsmqWrapper.Setup(x => x.GetMessage()).Throws<MyCustomException>();
});
A few notes:
You don't have to return mocked messages, but it's useful if you want to verify expectations on each message as well to see if certain methods were called or properties were set.
The queue idea is not my own, just a tip I got from a blog post.
The reason why I am throwing an exception of MyCustomException is because the Queue class automatically throws a InvalidOperationException. I wanted to make sure that the mocked MsmqWrapper object throws an exception because of Moq and not because of the queue running out of items.
Here's the complete code that works. Keep in mind that this code is ugly in some places, but I just wanted to show you how this could be tested:
public interface IMsmqWrapper
{
IMessage GetMessage();
}
public class MsmqWrapper : IMsmqWrapper
{
public IMessage GetMessage()
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
public class Processor
{
private IMsmqWrapper _wrapper;
public int MessagesProcessed { get; set; }
public bool ExceptionThrown { get; set; }
public Processor(IMsmqWrapper msmqWrapper)
{
_wrapper = msmqWrapper;
}
public virtual void ProcessMessages()
{
_wrapper.GetMessage();
MessagesProcessed++;
_wrapper.GetMessage();
MessagesProcessed++;
_wrapper.GetMessage();
MessagesProcessed++;
try
{
_wrapper.GetMessage();
}
catch (MyCustomException)
{
ExceptionThrown = true;
}
}
}
[Test]
public void TestMessageQueueGetsExhausted()
{
var mockMessage1 = new Mock<IMessage>();
var mockMessage2 = new Mock<IMessage>();
var mockMessage3 = new Mock<IMessage>();
var messageQueue = new Queue<IMessage>(new [] { mockMessage1.Object, mockMessage2.Object, mockMessage3.Object });
var mockMsmqWrapper = new Mock<IMsmqWrapper>();
mockMsmqWrapper.Setup(x => x.GetMessage()).Returns(() => messageQueue.Dequeue()).Callback(() =>
{
if (messageQueue.Count == 0)
mockMsmqWrapper.Setup(x => x.GetMessage()).Throws<InvalidProgramException>();
});
var processor = new Processor(mockMsmqWrapper.Object);
processor.ProcessMessages();
Assert.That(processor.MessagesProcessed, Is.EqualTo(3));
Assert.That(processor.ExceptionThrown, Is.EqualTo(true));
}

Resources