Remote Seam Persistence - seam

I have a button in a .xhtml file which calls a javascript function which calls a java function remotely (in jboss seam environment). That java function has an entityManager.persist(object). Do you know why this line of code doesn't commit to the DB?
It says something that a transaction hasn't started. I supose in a remote context i don't have a transaction began because if i put an action on that button which calls the same java function instead of using javascript is above, it works fine; entityManager persists the object and i can see it in the DB.
Does anyone has any ideas how could i make to actually persist the object using javascript to call the java function? (i have to use javascript because i need the callback function )

To ensure a transaction You could extend org.jboss.seam.util.Work:
new Work()
{
#Override
protected Object work() throws Exception {
// do your stuff
return null;
}
}.workInTransaction()

Related

What is the use of #Transactional annotation

I am new to the EJB Projects. And am trying to understand the usage of #Transactional annotation at top of my EJB methods. I have searched for the content and there is no clear explanation on this. Can anyone explain clearly about this.
#Transactional comes from the Spring world, but Oracle finally included it in Java EE 7 specification (docs). Previously, you could only annotate EJBs with #TransactionAttribute annotation, and similar is now possible for CDIs as well, with #Transactional. What's the purpose of these annotations? It is a signal to the application server that certain class or method is transactional, indicating also how it is gonna behave in certain conditions, e.g. what if it's called inside a transaction etc.
An example:
#Transactional(Transactional.TxType.MANDATORY)
public void methodThatRequiresTransaction()
{
..
}
The method above will throw an exception if it is not called within a transaction.
#Transactional(Transactional.TxType.REQUIRES_NEW)
public void methodThatWillStartNewTransaction()
{
..
}
Interceptor will begin a new JTA transaction for the execution of this method, regardless whether it is called inside a running transaction or not. However, if it is called inside a transaction, that transaction will be suspended during the execution of this method.
See also:
TransactionalTxType

Difference between Spring MVC's #Async, DeferredResult and Callable

I've a long-running task defined in a Spring service. It is started by a Spring MVC controller. I want to start the service and return back an HttpResponse to the caller before the service ends. The service saves a file on file system at end.
In javascript I've created a polling job to check service status.
In Spring 3.2 I've found the #Async annotation, but I don't understand how it is different from DeferredResult and Callable. When do I have to use #Async and when should I use DeferredResult?
Your controller is eventually a function executed by the servlet container (I will assume it is Tomcat) worker thread. Your service flow start with Tomcat and ends with Tomcat. Tomcat gets the request from the client, holds the connection, and eventually returns a response to the client. Your code (controller or servlet) is somewhere in the middle.
Consider this flow:
Tomcat get client request.
Tomcat executes your controller.
Release Tomcat thread but keep the client connection (don't return response) and run heavy processing on different thread.
When your heavy processing complete, update Tomcat with its response and return it to the client (by Tomcat).
Because the servlet (your code) and the servlet container (Tomcat) are different entities, then to allow this flow (releasing tomcat thread but keep the client connection) we need to have this support in their contract, the package javax.servlet, which introduced in Servlet 3.0 . Now, getting back to your question, Spring MVC use the new Servlet 3.0 capability when the return value of the controller is DeferredResult or Callable, although they are two different things. Callable is an interface that is part of java.util, and it is an improvement for the Runnable interface (should be implemented by any class whose instances are intended to be executed by a thread). Callable allows to return a value, while Runnable does not. DeferredResult is a class designed by Spring to allow more options (that I will describe) for asynchronous request processing in Spring MVC, and this class just holds the result (as implied by its name) while your Callable implementation holds the async code. So it means you can use both in your controller, run your async code with Callable and set the result in DeferredResult, which will be the controller return value. So what do you get by using DeferredResult as the return value instead of Callable? DeferredResult has built-in callbacks like onError, onTimeout, and onCompletion. It makes error handling very easy.In addition, as it is just the result container, you can choose any thread (or thread pool) to run on your async code. With Callable, you don't have this choice.
Regarding #Async, it is much more simple – annotating a method of a bean with #Async will make it execute in a separate thread. By default (can be overridden), Spring uses a SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor to actually run these methods asynchronously.
In conclusion, if you want to release Tomcat thread and keep the connection with the client while you do heavy processing, then your controller should return Callable or DeferredResult. Otherwise, you can run the code on method annotated with #Async.
Async annotates a method so it is going to be called asynchronously.
#org.springframework.stereotype.Service
public class MyService {
#org.springframework.scheduling.annotation.Async
void DoSomeWork(String url) {
[...]
}
}
So Spring could do so you need to define how is going to be executed. For example:
<task:annotation-driven />
<task:executor id="executor" pool-size="5-10" queue-capacity="100"/>
This way when you call service.DoSomeWork("parameter") the call is put into the queue of the executor to be called asynchronously. This is useful for tasks that could be executed concurrently.
You could use Async to execute any kind of asynchronous task. If what you want is calling a task periodically you could use #Scheduled (and use task:scheduler instead of task:executor). They are simplified ways of calling java Runnables.
DeferredResult<> is used to answer to a petition without blocking the Tomcat HTTP thread used to answer. Usually is going to be the return value for a ResponseBody annotated method.
#org.springframework.stereotype.Controller
{
private final java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue<DeferredResult<String>> suspendedRequests = new java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue<>();
#RequestMapping(value = "/getValue")
#ResponseBody
DeferredResult<String> getValue() {
final DeferredResult<String> result = new DeferredResult<>(null, null);
this.suspendedRequests.add(result);
result.onCompletion(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
suspendedRequests.remove(result);
}
});
service.setValue(result); // Sets the value!
return result;
}
}
The previous example lacks one important thing and it's that doesn't show how the deferred result is going to be set. In some other method (probably the setValue method) there is going to be a result.setResult(value). After the call to setResult Spring is going to call the onCompletion procedure and return the answer to the HTTP request (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_technology#Long_polling).
But if you just are executing the setValue synchronously there is no advantage in using a deferred result.Here is where Async comes in hand. You could use an async method to set the return value in some point in the future using another thread.
#org.springframework.scheduling.annotation.Async
void SetValue(DeferredResult<String> result) {
String value;
// Do some time consuming actions
[...]
result.setResult(value);
}
Async is not needed to use a deferred result, its just one way of doing it.
In the example there is a queue of deferred results that, for example, a scheduled task could be monitoring to process it's pending requests. Also you could use some non blocking mechanism (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_I/O) to set the returning value.
To complete the picture you could search information about java standard futures (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/concurrent/Future.html) and callables (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/concurrent/Callable.html) that are somewhat equivalent to Spring DeferredResult and Async.
DeferredResult takes advantage of the Servlet 3.0 AsyncContext. It will not block the thread like the others will when you need a result returned.
Another big benefit is that DeferredResult supports callbacks.

Application_Start timeout?

I have one piece of code that gets run on Application_Start for seeding demo data into my database, but I'm getting an exception saying:
The ObjectContext instance has been disposed and can no longer be used for operations that require a connection
While trying to enumerate one of my entities DB.ENTITY.SELECT(x => x.Id == value);
I've checked my code and I'm not disposing my context before my operation, Below is an outline of my current implementation:
protected void Application_Start()
{
SeedDemoData();
}
public static void SeedDemoData()
{
using(var context = new DBContext())
{
// my code is run here.
}
}
So I was wondering if Application_Start is timing out and forcing my db context to close its connection before it completes.
Note: I know the code because I'm using it on a different place and it is unit tested and over there it works without any issues.
Any ideas of what could be the issue here? or what I'm missing?
After a few hours investigating the issue I found that it is being caused by the data context having pending changes on a different thread. Our current implementation for database upgrades/migrations runs on a parallel thread to our App_Start method so I noticed that the entity I'm trying enumerate is being altered at the same time, even that they are being run on different data contexts EF is noticing that something is wrong while accessing the entity and returning an incorrect error message saying that the datacontext is disposed while the actual exception is that the entity state is modified but not saved.
The actual solution for my issue was to move all the seed data functions to the database upgrades/migrations scripts so that the entities are only modified on one place at the time.

Display output from command line program realtime in asp.net

I am writing a web app where the application runs a command on the system using System.Diagnostics class.
I wanted to display realtime output from a command which takes a lot of time to complete. After searching a bit, I found that BeginOutputReadLine can stream output to an event handler.
I am also using jquery ajax to call this method and have the process run asynchronously.
So far, I am trying to do it this way:
Process p2= new Process();
p2.OutputDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(opHandler);
p2= Process.Start (psi2);
p2.BeginOutputReadLine();
I have declared a class with a static variable to store the output of the command as a Label on the page wont be accessible from a static method.
public class ProcessOutput
{
public static string strOutput;
[WebMethod]
public static string getOutput()
{
return strOutput;
}
}
In the event handler for BeginOutputReadLine, set the variable with the line from output.
private static void opHandler(object sendingProcess,DataReceivedEventArgs outLine)
{
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(outLine.Data))
{
ProcessOutput.strOutput= outLine.Data;
}
}
and from the aspx page, I am calling the method to get the value of strOutput
$(document).ready(function() {
setInterval(function() {
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: "newscan.aspx/getOutput",
data: "",
success: function(msg){
$('#txtAsyncOp').append(msg.d);
}
});
}, 1000);
});
I dont know why, but the lable is not getting updated. If I put alert, I get 'undefined' in the alert box every 10 seconds.
Can anybody suggest me how to do it correctly?
Each request begins a new thread as a part of the Request pipeline. This is by design. Each thread has its own stack and can't access each others stacks. When a thread starts running a new method it stores the arguments and local variables in that method on its own stack. Long story short you won't be able to assign that variable and expect to retrieve its value from another Request.
There are a couple approaches you can take, you can scope it to the session variable (most common) with:
System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Session["variable"] = value ;
Or you set it to application scope using:
if (System.Web.Caching.Cache["Key1"] == null)
System.Web.Caching.Cache.Add("Key1", "Value 1", null, DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(60), Cache.NoSlidingExpiration, CacheItemPriority.High, onRemove);
Alternatively, you can log the output to a database or file and echo out the results via the WebMethod. If your long running process is running asynchronously, you won't have access to the HttpContext -- so the Session state bag will not be available; the application Cache could be used, however it is generally not used for this type of mechanism (cache is available for performance reasons, not a persistence mechanism -- its important to remember that you cannot control when your web application recycles).
I'd highly suggest writing to a database or log file. Asynchronous processes commonly require logged output or trace to diagnose potential problems and to validate results.
Furthermore, because you cannot control when the web app recycles, you can easily lose control of that child process you're launching. A better design would start an asynchronous method in-process, or an out-of-process application or service that polls a database to pick up jobs (possibly use the task scheduler or cron depending on your platform).

Stoping web service in flex?

is it possible to stop a web service from executing?
I have a flex web application that searches clients with both full name and client id, when searching by name sometimes the usuer just types the last name and it takes a long time.
Since the app is used when clients are waiting in line, I would like to be able to stop the search and use their full name or id instead, and avoid waiting for the results and then having to search the user manually within the results.
thanks
edit: Sorry, I didn't explain myself correctly, when I meant "web service" I actually meant mx.rpc.soap.mxml.WebService, I want to stop it from waiting for the result event and the fault event. thanks.
There is actually a cancel(..) method explicitly for this purpose, though it is a little burried. Using the cancel method will cause the result and fault handlers not to be called and will also remove the busy cursor etc.
Depending on how you run your searches (ie. separate worker process etc), it is also possible to extend this by added in a cancelSearch() web service method to kill these worker processes and free up server resources etc.
private var _searchToken:AsyncToken;
public function doSearch(query:String):void
{
_searchToken = this.searchService.doSearch(query);
}
protected function doSearch_resultHandler(event:ResultEvent):void
{
trace("doSearch result");
trace("TODO: Do stuff with results");
_searchToken = null;
}
protected function doSearch_faultHandler(event:FaultEvent):void
{
trace("doSearch fault: " + event.fault);
_searchToken = null;
}
public function cancelSearch():void
{
var searchMessageId:String = _searchToken.message.messageId;
// Cancels the last service invocation or an invokation with the
// specified ID. Even though the network operation may still
// continue, no result or fault event is dispatched.
searchService.getOperation("doSearch").cancel(searchMessageId);
_searchToken = null;
trace("The search was cancelled, result/fault handlers not called");
// TODO: If your web service search method is using worker processes
// to do a search and is likely to continue processing for some time,
// you may want to implement a 'cancel()' method on the web service
// to stop any search threads that may be running.
}
Update
You could use disconnect() to remove any pending request responders, but it also disconnects the service's connection. Then call initialize().
/Update
You cannot stop the web service from executing, because that's beyond the Flex app's control, but you can limit the processing of the web service's response. For instance on the app, have a button like Cancel Search which sets a boolean bSearchCanceled to true.
The result handler for the web service call checks bSearchCanceled; if true just return.

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