TechYourChance / Concurrency Frameworks in Android are overrated / Kotlin+RxJava

Kotlin_RxJava_Single.kt

// Original code: https://www.techyourchance.com/concurrency-frameworks-overrated-android/

import io.reactivex.Single
import io.reactivex.disposables.Disposable
import io.reactivex.functions.BiFunction
import io.reactivex.functions.Consumer
import io.reactivex.schedulers.Schedulers
import java.io.File
import java.io.IOException
import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch
import kotlin.random.Random

fun main() {
    val latch = CountDownLatch(1)
    UploadFilesUseCase()
        .uploadFiles(Consumer { state ->
            println("Resulting state $state received on " + Thread.currentThread().name)
            latch.countDown()
        })
    latch.await()
}

class UploadFilesUseCase {

    enum class OperationState { UPLOADED, FAILED }

    private var disposable: Disposable? = null

    fun uploadFiles(listenerOnUiThread: Consumer<OperationState>) {
        if (disposable?.isRunning == true) {
            // Log attempt
            return
        }
        disposable = Single.zip(
            ioSingleFrom(::processAndMergeFilesOfTypeA),
            ioSingleFrom(::processAndMergeFilesOfTypeB),

            BiFunction<File, File, File> { aResult: File, bResult: File ->
                compressMergedFiles(aResult, bResult)
            })
            .flatMap(::uploadResultSingle)
            .doOnEvent { _, _ -> deleteTempDir() } // Success or Error
            .retry(2)
            .map { OperationState.UPLOADED }
            .onErrorReturnItem(OperationState.FAILED)
            .observeOn(Schedulers.computation()) // Or .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread()) when on Android
            .subscribe(listenerOnUiThread)
    }
}

private val Disposable.isRunning
    get() = isDisposed.not()

// Code mapping a non Rx library to a Rx application. So not required if using Rx wrappers with your libs.
private fun <T> ioSingleFrom(method: () -> T) = Single.fromCallable(method).subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())

private fun processAndMergeFilesOfTypeA() = workAndReturnFile("A")
private fun processAndMergeFilesOfTypeB() = workAndReturnFile("B")
private fun compressMergedFiles(fileA: File, fileB: File) = workAndReturnFile("C")
private fun uploadResultSingle(compressedFile: File) = ioSingleFrom { uploadResult(compressedFile) }

// -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Dummy implementations for you to be able to understand the threading
// -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

fun workAndReturnFile(path: String): File {
    println("Thread: " + Thread.currentThread().name + " start working on $path")
    Thread.sleep(1000)
    randomizedErrors(path)
    println("Thread: " + Thread.currentThread().name + " $path DONE")
    return File(path)
}

private fun uploadResult(compressedFile: File) {
    println("Uploading on: " + Thread.currentThread().name + " ($compressedFile)")
    Thread.sleep(2000)
    randomizedErrors(compressedFile.path)
    println("Uploaded from: " + Thread.currentThread().name + " ($compressedFile)")
}

private fun randomizedErrors(path: String) {
    if (Random.nextInt(0, 3) == 0) {
        println("-------- Unlucky crash appears while processing $path")
        throw IOException("random error")
    }
}

private fun deleteTempDir() {
    println("Deleting files...")
}

/**
 * Example of output:
 *
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 start working on B
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 start working on A
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 A DONE
-------- Unlucky crash appears while processing B
Deleting files...
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 start working on A
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 start working on B
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 A DONE
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 B DONE
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 start working on C
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 C DONE
Uploading on: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 (C)
Uploaded from: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 (C)
Deleting files...
Resulting state UPLOADED received on RxComputationThreadPool-1

 *
 * And if 3 unlucky errors:
 *

Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 start working on A
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 start working on B
-------- Unlucky crash appears while processing A
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 B DONE
Deleting files...
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 start working on A
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-3 start working on B
-------- Unlucky crash appears while processing B
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 A DONE
Deleting files...
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 start working on B
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 start working on A
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-2 B DONE
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 A DONE
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 start working on C
Thread: RxCachedThreadScheduler-1 C DONE
Uploading on: RxCachedThreadScheduler-3 (C)
-------- Unlucky crash appears while processing C
Deleting files...
Resulting state FAILED received on RxComputationThreadPool-1

 */

Damn, you're right, thanks! Next time I'll write some unit tests before posting a public gist 🤣

I had some issues with setting the nullability on disposable when I provide streams that can be consumed in multiple places. Sometimes a stream is completed (end of stream, RxAndroidLifecycle = terminal event), sometimes finishes with an error (terminal event), and sometimes it's manually disposed (dispose() -> no terminal event), and if the 2 methods doOnTerminate+doOnDispose are not defined to null the disposable, then it depends of the type of cancellation.

To avoid that, I usually prefer an extension function like

private val Disposable.isRunning
    get() = isDisposed.not()

And a condition like this:

    if (disposable?.isRunning == true) {
        // Log attempt
        return
    }

I find it more explicit on the intent (if it's already running, then stop), and I don't have to care about releasing a Disposable object (low memory footprint anyway).

What do you think?

Gist is now fixed, but for future readers, this is nothing more than a support for a Twitter conversation. 😉