Regulate network calls in SyncAdapter onPerformSync - android-syncadapter

I m sending several retrofit calls via SyncAdapter onPerformSync and I m trying to regulate http calls by sending out via a try/catch sleep statement. However, this is blocking the UI and will be not responsive only after all calls are done.
What is a better way to regulate network calls (with a sleep timer) in background in onPerformSync without blocking UI?
#Override
public void onPerformSync(Account account, Bundle extras, String authority, ContentProviderClient provider, SyncResult syncResult) {
String baseUrl = BuildConfig.API_BASE_URL;
Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
.baseUrl(baseUrl)
.addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
.build();
service = retrofit.create(HTTPService.class);
Call<RetroFitModel> RetroFitModelCall = service.getRetroFit(apiKey, sortOrder);
RetroFitModelCall.enqueue(new Callback<RetroFitModel>() {
#Override
public void onResponse(Response<RetroFitModel> response) {
if (!response.isSuccess()) {
} else {
List<RetroFitResult> retrofitResultList = response.body().getResults();
Utility.storeList(getContext(), retrofitResultList);
for (final RetroFitResult result : retrofitResultList) {
RetroFitReview(result.getId(), service);
try {
// Sleep for SLEEP_TIME before running RetroFitReports & RetroFitTime
Thread.sleep(SLEEP_TIME);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
RetroFitReports(result.getId(), service);
RetroFitTime(result.getId(), service);
}
}
}
#Override
public void onFailure(Throwable t) {
Log.e(LOG_TAG, "Error: " + t.getMessage());
}
});
}
}

The "onPerformSync" code is executed within the "SyncAdapterThread" thread, not within the Main UI thread. However this could change when making asynchronous calls with callbacks (which is our case here).
Here you are using an asynchronous call of the Retrofit "call.enqueue" method, and this has an impact on thread execution. The question we need to ask at this point:
Where callback methods are going to be executed?
To get the answer to this question, we have to determine which Looper is going to be used by the Handler that will post callbacks.
In case we are playing with handlers ourselves, we can define the looper, the handler and how to process messages/runnables between handlers. But this time it is different because we are using a third party framework (Retrofit). So we have to know which looper used by Retrofit?
Please note that if Retrofit didn't already define his looper, you
could have caught an exception saying that you need a looper to
process callbacks. In other words, an asynchronous call needs to be in
a looper thread in order to post callbacks back to the thread from
where it was executed.
According to the code source of Retrofit (Platform.java):
static class Android extends Platform {
#Override CallAdapter.Factory defaultCallAdapterFactory(Executor callbackExecutor) {
if (callbackExecutor == null) {
callbackExecutor = new MainThreadExecutor();
}
return new ExecutorCallAdapterFactory(callbackExecutor);
}
static class MainThreadExecutor implements Executor {
private final Handler handler = new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper());
#Override public void execute(Runnable r) {
handler.post(r);
}
}
}
You can notice "Looper.getMainLooper()", which means that Retrofit will post messages/runnables into the main thread message queue (you can do research on this for further detailed explanation). Thus the posted message/runnable will be handled by the main thread.
So that being said, the onResponse/onFailure callbacks will be executed in the main thread. And it's going to block the UI, if you are doing too much work (Thread.sleep(SLEEP_TIME);). You can check it by yourself: just make a breakpoint in "onResponse" callback and check in which thread it is running.
So how to handle this situation? (the answer to your question about Retrofit use)
Since we are already in a background thread (SyncAdapterThread), so there is no need to make asynchronous calls in your case. Just make a Retrofit synchronous call and then process the result, or log a failure. This way, you will not block the UI.

Related

gRPC client failing with "CANCELLED: io.grpc.Context was cancelled without error"

I have a gRPC server written in C++ and a client written in Java.
Everything was working fine using a blocking stub. Then I decided that I want to change one of the calls to be asynchronous, so I created an additional stub in my client, this one is created with newStub(channel) as opposed to newBlockingStub(channel). I didn't make any changes on the server side. This is a simple unary RPC call.
So I changed
Empty response = blockingStub.callMethod(request);
to
asyncStub.callMethod(request, new StreamObserver<Empty>() {
#Override
public void onNext(Empty response) {
logInfo("asyncStub.callMethod.onNext");
}
#Override
public void onError(Throwable throwable) {
logError("asyncStub.callMethod.onError " + throwable.getMessage());
}
#Override
public void onCompleted() {
logInfo("asyncStub.callMethod.onCompleted");
}
});
Ever since then, onError is called when I use this RPC (Most of the time) and the error it gives is "CANCELLED: io.grpc.Context was cancelled without error". I read about forking Context objects when making an RPC call from within an RPC call, but that's not the case here. Also, the Context seems to be a server side object, I don't see how it relates to the client. Is this a server side error propagating back to the client? On the server side everything seems to complete successfully, so I'm at a loss as to why this is happening. Inserting a 1ms sleep after calling asyncStub.callMethod seems to make this issue go away, but defeats the purpose. Any and all help in understanding this would be greatly appreciated.
Some notes:
The processing time on the server side is around 1 microsecond
Until now, the round trip time for the blocking call was several hundred microseconds (This is the time I'm trying to cut down, as this is essentially a void function, so I don't need to wait for a response)
This method is called multiple times in a row, so before it used to wait until the previous one finished, now they just fire off one after the other.
Some snippets from the proto file:
service EventHandler {
rpc callMethod(Msg) returns (Empty) {}
}
message Msg {
uint64 fieldA = 1;
int32 fieldB = 2;
string fieldC = 3;
string fieldD = 4;
}
message Empty {
}
So it turns out that I was wrong. The context object is used by the client too.
The solution was to do the following:
Context newContext = Context.current().fork();
Context origContext = newContext.attach();
try {
// Call async RPC here
} finally {
newContext.detach(origContext);
}
Hopefully this can help someone else in the future.

Flutter and external JAR Library: android.os.NetworkOnMainThreadException

Im trying to use olingo with Flutter on Android. I set up my channel and I can call the library but I keep getting this message:
E/AndroidRuntime(28391): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
E/AndroidRuntime(28391): Process: com.example.odata, PID: 28391
E/AndroidRuntime(28391): org.apache.olingo.client.api.http.HttpClientException: android.os.NetworkOnMainThreadException
E/AndroidRuntime(28391): at org.apache.olingo.client.core.communication.request.AbstractODataRequest.doExecute(AbstractODataRequest.java:312)
So it looks like it is running on the main thread - which is a no go as this would block. I tried the looper to ask Java to run on the UI Thread:
public void onMethodCall(MethodCall call, Result result) {
// Note: this method is invoked on the main thread.
Log.i("test", "using " + call.method);
String serviceUrl = "http://services.odata.org/OData/OData.svc/";
new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper()).post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
if (call.method.equals("getMetaData")) {
String metadata;
final Edm edm = ODataClientFactory.getClient().getRetrieveRequestFactory().getMetadataRequest(serviceUrl).execute().getBody();
metadata = edm.toString();
if (metadata != "") {
result.success(metadata);
} else {
result.error("UNAVAILABLE", "Metadata cannot read.", null);
}
} else {
result.notImplemented();
}
}
});
But Im still getting the same error.
So how exactly can I deal with external JAR Library which are doing blocking operations ? To my understanding an external call is a Future anyway so it will not block my Flutter thread anyway - but Android Java does not think so ...
This is my method call in flutter
Future<void> _getMetaData() async {
String metadata;
try {
final String result = await platform.invokeMethod('getMetaData');
metadata = result;
} on PlatformException catch (e) {
metadata = e.message;
}
setState(() {
_metadata = metadata;
});
}
Thanks for the answer, this is the solution for anyone that may be interested:
public void onMethodCall(MethodCall call, Result result) {
if (call.method.equals("getMetaData")) {
class MetadataLoader extends AsyncTask<String , Integer, String> {
#Override
protected String doInBackground(String... urls) {
// call your Java library method here, including blocking methods
return your_return_value;
}
protected void onPostExecute(String _result) {
// your_return_value is now passed in _result
result.success(_result);
}
}
new MetadataLoader().execute(); // Start the Async
}
On the flutter side,
Future<void> _getMetaData() async {
String metadata;
try {
final String result = await platform.invokeMethod('getMetaData');
// do something with the result
// the Flutter thread will stop at the await and resume when the Java
// will call result.success
}
}
You will need to create a new Java thread or Worker. (Note that the "main" thread and the "UI" thread are the same thing - so by posting to the main looper you've ended up in the same place - trying to do network i/o on the main thread.)
Yes, the Flutter engine is running in different threads, but you still need to leave the main native thread unblocked as it is responsible for detecting user input, etc.
Also note that when your blocking activity completes - on its non-main thread - it will likely want to deliver the response to Dart. To do this it will need to use part of your code above - to post the results back to the main thread, which can then invoke method channel operations.
You'll probably want to use your method channel bi-directionally. From flutter to native to request an operation (returning, say, a sequence number), and from native to flutter to deliver the results (quoting the sequence number so that the result can be tied back to the request).

Multithreading using Callable while having a responsive graphical interface

I'm trying to get a responsive JavaFX graphical interface while executing a cmd command.
The command I'm executing is the following.
youtube-dl.exe --audio-format mp3 --extract-audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2vy6pJSo9c
As you see this is a youtube-downloader that converts a youtube link to an mp3-file.
I want this to be executed in a second thread and not in the main FX thread.
I've solved this by implementing interface Callable in the class StartDownloadingThread.
#Override
public Process call() throws Exception {
Process p = null;
p = ExecuteCommand(localCPara1, localCPara2, localDirectory).start();
try {
Thread.sleep(30);
}catch (InterruptedException e){}
return p;
}
The method ExecuteCommand just returns a ProcessBuilder object.
I try to use Thread.sleep to make the program return to the main thread and thus making the application responsive. Unfortunately the program still freezes.
This is how the method call is called.
ExecutorService pool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(2);
StartDownloadingThread callable = new StartDownloadingThread(parameter1, parameter2, directory);
Future future = pool.submit(callable);
Process p = (Process) future.get();
p.waitFor();
How do I make my GUI responsive using the interface Callable?
Using a executor to run a task just for you to use the get method of the Future that is returned when submitting the task does not actually free the original thread to continue with other tasks. Later you even use the waitFor method on the original thread, which is likely to take even more time than anything you do in your Callable.
For this purpose the Task class may be better suited, since it allows you to handle success/failure on the application thread using event handlers.
Also please make sure an ExecutorService is shut down after you're done submitting tasks.
Task<Void> task = new Task<Void>() {
#Override
protected Void call() throws Exception {
Process p = null;
p = ExecuteCommand(localCPara1, localCPara2, localDirectory).start();
// why are you even doing this?
try {
Thread.sleep(30);
}catch (InterruptedException e){}
// do the rest of the long running things
p.waitFor();
return null;
}
};
task.setOnSucceeded(event -> {
// modify ui to show success
});
task.setOnFailed(event -> {
// modify ui to show failure
});
ExecutorService pool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(2);
pool.submit(task);
// add more tasks...
// shutdown the pool not keep the jvm alive because of the pool
pool.shutdown();

Is it possible to run a Retrofit observable synchronously?

I'm trying to migrate my app to work with RxJava.
I already use Retrofit and therefore I'm trying to use a Retrofit interface which methods return Observables.
However I'm now having issues with coding tests against it, as I can't get the Observable to run on the main thread; I'm trying to use Scheduler.immediate() for it.
It seems that Retrofit doesn't allow to override it's behaviour, which makes totally sense for the real execution flow, but it makes testing very difficult.
As I've just started with RxJava + Retrofit I just hope I'm doing something wrong instead.
Below is what the code looks like:
#Test
public void shouldCompleteRequest() {
SomeRestRequest request = new SomeRestRequest(arg1, arg2);
TestSubscriber<SomeRestResponse> testSubscriber = new TestSubscriber<>();
new SomeRestCommand(mRestApi,
arg1, arg2
Schedulers.immediate(),
Schedulers.immediate(),
mMockEventBus).execute(request, testSubscriber);
testSubscriber.assertCompleted();
}
where
public void execute(T request, Observer<S> observer) {
getCommand(request)
.observeOn(mObserveOnScheduler) //The test injects Schedulers.immediate()
.subscribeOn(mSubscribeOnScheduler) //The test injects Schedulers.immediate()
.subscribe(observer);
}
,
#Override
protected Observable<SomeRestResponse> getCommand(SomeRestRequest request) {
return mRestApi.restCommand(arg1, arg2);
}
and
public interface RestApi {
#GET("/someEndPoint")
Observable<SomeRestResponse> restCommand(#Query("arg1") String arg1, #Query("arg2") String arg2);
}
If you modify your test to add testSubscriber.awaitTerminalEvent();, then your test will wait for the call to complete and hence the test will pass. You will still have to do an assertCompleted() as the terminal event can be either of successful completion or error.
#Test
public void shouldCompleteRequest() {
SomeRestRequest request = new SomeRestRequest(arg1, arg2);
TestSubscriber<SomeRestResponse> testSubscriber = new TestSubscriber<>();
new SomeRestCommand(mRestApi,
arg1, arg2
Schedulers.immediate(),
Schedulers.immediate(),
mMockEventBus).execute(request, testSubscriber);
testSubscriber.awaitTerminalEvent(); // add this line here
testSubscriber.assertCompleted();
}
I looked up the source code of Retrofit 1.9.0 and as per RxSupport class, the call is always executed in a separate thread provided by the httpExecutor. Hence using Schedulers.immediate() did not cause the call to happen in the main thread.

JavaFX show loading dialog for longer operations

I got some operations in my Controller class which could take some time. So I want to show a loading dialog while this operation is running.
I tried this:
Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
loadingDialog.show();
}
});
Boolean opSuccess = myService.operate();
Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
loadingDialog.hide();
}
});
if (opSuccess) {
// continue
}
Now, the Problem is, the loadingDialog is never show. The UI only blocks for some time and than continues on "//continue".
So it seems, the runLater call is blocked by the blocking operation (operate)?
I also tried CoundDownLatch, to wait for loadingDialog.show() to complete, before running myService.operate(). But the latch.await() method never completes.
So my question is, how my I show the loadingDialog until myService.operate() finished and returned true or false? Do I have to put the operate() call into another thread and run it async or is there an easier way?
Thanks for help.
Are you sure your entire code does not run in the JavaFX Thread?
Methods of your controller class usually do and I assume it due to your description.
However, better use the Task class. Here you'll find a tutorial and a short snippet for your application:
// here runs the JavaFX thread
// Boolean as generic parameter since you want to return it
Task<Boolean> task = new Task<Boolean>() {
#Override public Boolean call() {
// do your operation in here
return myService.operate();
}
};
task.setOnRunning((e) -> loadingDialog.show());
task.setOnSucceeded((e) -> {
loadingDialog.hide();
Boolean returnValue = task.get();
// process return value again in JavaFX thread
});
task.setOnFailed((e) -> {
// eventual error handling by catching exceptions from task.get()
});
new Thread(task).start();
I assumed Java 8 and the possibility to use Lambda expressions. Of course it is possible without them.
You are better off making use of concurrency mechanisms/Worker interfaces in JavaFx - Tasks and services instead of using Platform.runLater(). The tasks and services allow you to manage the long running tasks in a separate thread. They also provide callbacks to indicate the progress of the tasks.
You could explore further at http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/threads/jfxpub-threads.htm
Also have a look at the Ensemble JavaFX samples for Tasks and Services - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/overview/javafx-samples-2158687.html

Resources