at:tutorial:distribution
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Building on the actor-based concurrency model explained in the [[actors|previous chapter]], this chapter discusses the distribution provisions of AmbientTalk. For actors to communicate across the boundaries of a single device, actors need to be capable of discovering one another' | Building on the actor-based concurrency model explained in the [[actors|previous chapter]], this chapter discusses the distribution provisions of AmbientTalk. For actors to communicate across the boundaries of a single device, actors need to be capable of discovering one another' | ||
- | These requirements correspond to the cornerstones of the Ambient-Oriented Programming paradigm. The seamless integration of language support for dealing with partial failures and performing service discovery, hinge on AmbientTalk' | + | These requirements correspond to the cornerstones of the Ambient-Oriented Programming paradigm. The seamless integration of language support for dealing with partial failures and performing service discovery, hinge on AmbientTalk' |
Before delving in these topics, we illustrate how to activate the network facilities of AmbientTalk in the next section. | Before delving in these topics, we illustrate how to activate the network facilities of AmbientTalk in the next section. | ||
- | ===== Starting the Network.. | + | ===== Going Online |
AmbientTalk provides an unique native object, named '' | AmbientTalk provides an unique native object, named '' | ||
Line 19: | Line 19: | ||
</ | </ | ||
- | ===== Exporting and discovering objects | + | ===== Exporting and Discovering Objects |
AmbientTalk provides language support to make some objects available to other objects residing in remote actors by means of the '' | AmbientTalk provides language support to make some objects available to other objects residing in remote actors by means of the '' | ||
Line 63: | Line 63: | ||
As '' | As '' | ||
- | ===== Partial Failure Handling | + | ===== Dealing with Transient Failures |
- | Let us consider again the example instant messenger application described in previous section to further explain the semantics of AmbientTalk' | + | Let us consider again the example instant messenger application described in previous section to further explain the semantics of AmbientTalk' |
- | When an object discovers a service type, the '' | + | When an object discovers a service type, the '' |
- Objects are always passed //by far reference//, | - Objects are always passed //by far reference//, | ||
- Native data types are always passed by copy. | - Native data types are always passed by copy. | ||
- | When a remote far reference receives a messages, it flushes the message to the remote object providing that it is connected. If the remote far reference is disconnected, | + | When a remote far reference receives a message, it flushes the message to the remote object providing that it is connected. If the remote far reference is disconnected, |
- | Therefore, a remote far reference | + | Therefore, a remote far reference |
< | < | ||
Line 88: | Line 88: | ||
</ | </ | ||
- | This code illustrate | + | This code illustrates |
- | In order to cope with partial failures, AmbientTalk also allows developers to retract all currently unsent messages from the far reference outbox by means of the '' | + | In order to cope with partial failures, AmbientTalk also allows developers to retract all currently unsent messages from the remote |
- | The '' | + | The '' |
< | < | ||
Line 102: | Line 102: | ||
</ | </ | ||
- | The construct | + | The '' |
The function '' | The function '' | ||
- | ===== Garbage collecting remote references | + | ===== Dealing with Permanent Failures |
- | As explained in the previous section, | + | As explained in the previous section, remote |
+ | |||
+ | To deal with permanent failures, AmbientTalk uses the concept of leasing. A lease denotes the right to access a resource for a specific duration | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Leased Object References==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | A leased object reference is a remote far reference that grants access | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{ : | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Working with leased object references==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The code snippet below illustrates a leased far reference | ||
< | < | ||
- | takeOffline: object | + | def openSession() { |
+ | def shoppingCart | ||
+ | def session := object: { | ||
+ | def addItemToCart(anItem) { ... } | ||
+ | def checkOutCart() { ... } | ||
+ | }; | ||
+ | def leasedSession := lease: minutes(5) for: session; | ||
+ | leasedSession; | ||
+ | }; | ||
</ | </ | ||
- | The construct | + | The '' |
< | < | ||
- | As you may have noticed, | + | We assume the use of futures to get the return value of the '' |
</ | </ | ||
- | On the client side, taking offline an object results in a permanent disconnection of the remote references pointing to it. In other words, despite having network connection, unexporting an object renders remote far references permanently disconnected. This implies that client have to deal explicitly with unexported objects. | + | At client side, a customer can ask a server to open a shopping session as follows: |
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | def mySession := server< | ||
+ | ... | ||
+ | mySession< | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | The future attached to the '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | renew: mySession for: minutes(5); | ||
+ | revoke: mySession; | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | The '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When no renewal is performed due to a network partition outlasting the lease time period or in absence of utilization, | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | when: mySession expired: { | ||
+ | ... // free up resources used by this session e.g. the cart | ||
+ | } | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | The construct takes as parameters a leased reference and a block of code that is asynchronously triggered upon the lease expiration. This allows client and service objects to treat a failure as permanent (i.e. to detect when the reference is permanently broken) and to perform application-level failure handling. At server side, this has important benefits for memory management. Once all leased references to a service object have expired, the object becomes subject to garbage collection once it is no longer locally referenced. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Leasing patterns==== | ||
+ | As is the case in other leasing mechanisms, determining the proper lease renewal period is not straightforward and may even depend on system parameters such as the number of clients. In AmbientTalk, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The first variant is a // | ||
+ | by the remote object. In other words, as long as the client uses the remote object, the leased reference is transparently renewed by the interpreter. | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | def openSession() { | ||
+ | def shoppingCart := Cart.new(); // to store purchased items | ||
+ | def session := object: { | ||
+ | def addItemToCart(anItem) { ... } | ||
+ | def checkOutCart() { ... } | ||
+ | }; | ||
+ | def leasedSession := renewOnCallLease: | ||
+ | leasedSession; | ||
+ | }; | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Similar to '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The second variant is a // | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | def myObject: = object:{ | ||
+ | ... | ||
+ | }; | ||
+ | def leasedObject := singleCallLease: | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Similar to the other two constructs, '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Integrating leasing with future-type message passing==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Single-call leases are useful for objects adhering to a single call pattern, such as callback objects. Callback objects are often used in asynchronous message passing schemes in order for remote object to be able to return values. These callback objects are typically remotely accessed only once by remote objects with the computed return value. In AmbientTalk, | ||
+ | |||
+ | We have integrated leasing into futures by parameter-passing a future attached to an asynchronous message via a singe-call lease which either expires due to a timeout or upon the reception of the computed return value. The timeout for the implicit single-call lease on a future can be set by annotating the asynchronous message with a '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | def sessionFuture := server< | ||
+ | when: sessionFuture becomes: { |session| | ||
+ | // open session with server | ||
+ | }catch: TimeoutException using: { |e| | ||
+ | // unable to open a session, do some clean-up if necessary | ||
+ | } | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | If the future is resolved, the session variable stores a leased object reference to the remote session object. | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | Note that specifying a '' | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Importing leased object references==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Similar to futures, leased object references have been built reflectively on top of AmbientTalk. | ||
+ | |||
+ | To use the language constructs for leased references, you should import the leasedref module as follows: | ||
+ | < | ||
+ | import / | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | <note warning> | ||
+ | leasedrefs module exports support primitives to manipulate time intervals (i.e. '' | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | More information pertaining to the API of the leased references language module can be found in the [[appendix|appendix]]. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Taking Offline Remote Objects ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | AmbientTalk distributed memory management scheme has been based on [[http:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | As previously explained, in order to deal with volatile connections, | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | takeOffline: | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | The primitive takes as parameter an object which is removed from the export table of the actor where the code is executed. When the object is removed from the export table, all remote far reference to the object become invalidated and the object no longer belongs to the set of root objects and as such, it can be eventually reclaimed by Java's local garbage collector once it is no longer locally referenced. Although the actual reclamation of an unexported object may be triggered at a later point in time, any attempt to access via a remote far reference results in an ObjectOffline exception notifying the client object that the object was taken offline and thus, its remote far references is invalid. | ||
+ | |||
+ | <note tip> | ||
+ | [[distribution# | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Working with objects taken offline==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the client side, taking offline an object results in a permanent disconnection of the remote | ||
+ | |||
+ | Clients can get notified when an object is taken offline by means of '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Additionally, | ||
< | < | ||
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</ | </ | ||
- | Be aware that unexporting a object will not only trigger | + | The construct takes as parameter a far reference and a block of code that is executed when the taken offline event is notified |
- | + | ||
- | Note that disconnection, | + | |
< | < | ||
- | The complete implementation of the instant messenger application explained along this chapter | + | Disconnection, |
</ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Distributed unit testing and takeOffline==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | As previously mentioned, the '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | These semantics is useful for unit test purposes. The [[appendix# | ||
+ | |||
+ | By means of the '' |
at/tutorial/distribution.1214407906.txt.gz · Last modified: 2008/09/16 17:26 (external edit)