Chapter 10. Clustered Counters

In order to start using the counters, you needs to add the dependency in your Maven pom.xml file:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.infinispan</groupId>
  <artifactId>infinispan-clustered-counter</artifactId>
</dependency>

The counters can be configured Data Grid configuration file or on-demand via the CounterManager interface detailed later in this document. A counters configured in Data Grid configuration file is created at boot time when the EmbeddedCacheManager is starting. Theses counters are started eagerly and they are available in all the cluster’s nodes.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<infinispan>
    <cache-container ...>
        <!-- if needed to persist counter, global state needs to be configured -->
        <global-state>
            ...
        </global-state>
        <!-- your caches configuration goes here -->
         <counters xmlns="urn:infinispan:config:counters:10.1" num-owners="3" reliability="CONSISTENT">
             <strong-counter name="c1" initial-value="1" storage="PERSISTENT"/>
             <strong-counter name="c2" initial-value="2" storage="VOLATILE">
                 <lower-bound value="0"/>
             </strong-counter>
             <strong-counter name="c3" initial-value="3" storage="PERSISTENT">
                 <upper-bound value="5"/>
             </strong-counter>
             <strong-counter name="c4" initial-value="4" storage="VOLATILE">
                 <lower-bound value="0"/>
                 <upper-bound value="10"/>
             </strong-counter>
             <weak-counter name="c5" initial-value="5" storage="PERSISTENT" concurrency-level="1"/>
         </counters>
    </cache-container>
</infinispan>

or programmatically, in the GlobalConfigurationBuilder:

GlobalConfigurationBuilder globalConfigurationBuilder = ...;
CounterManagerConfigurationBuilder builder = globalConfigurationBuilder.addModule(CounterManagerConfigurationBuilder.class);
builder.numOwner(3).reliability(Reliability.CONSISTENT);
builder.addStrongCounter().name("c1").initialValue(1).storage(Storage.PERSISTENT);
builder.addStrongCounter().name("c2").initialValue(2).lowerBound(0).storage(Storage.VOLATILE);
builder.addStrongCounter().name("c3").initialValue(3).upperBound(5).storage(Storage.PERSISTENT);
builder.addStrongCounter().name("c4").initialValue(4).lowerBound(0).upperBound(10).storage(Storage.VOLATILE);
builder.addWeakCounter().name("c5").initialValue(5).concurrencyLevel(1).storage(Storage.PERSISTENT);

On other hand, the counters can be configured on-demand, at any time after the EmbeddedCacheManager is initialized.

CounterManager manager = ...;
manager.defineCounter("c1", CounterConfiguration.builder(CounterType.UNBOUNDED_STRONG).initialValue(1).storage(Storage.PERSISTENT).build());
manager.defineCounter("c2", CounterConfiguration.builder(CounterType.BOUNDED_STRONG).initialValue(2).lowerBound(0).storage(Storage.VOLATILE).build());
manager.defineCounter("c3", CounterConfiguration.builder(CounterType.BOUNDED_STRONG).initialValue(3).upperBound(5).storage(Storage.PERSISTENT).build());
manager.defineCounter("c4", CounterConfiguration.builder(CounterType.BOUNDED_STRONG).initialValue(4).lowerBound(0).upperBound(10).storage(Storage.VOLATILE).build());
manager.defineCounter("c2", CounterConfiguration.builder(CounterType.WEAK).initialValue(5).concurrencyLevel(1).storage(Storage.PERSISTENT).build());

The method defineCounter() will return true if the counter is successful configured or false otherwise. However, if the configuration is invalid, the method will throw a CounterConfigurationException. To find out if a counter is already defined, use the method isDefined().

CounterManager manager = ...
if (!manager.isDefined("someCounter")) {
    manager.define("someCounter", ...);
}

Per cluster attributes:

Per counter attributes:

The CounterManager interface is the entry point to define, retrieve and remove a counter. It automatically listen to the creation of EmbeddedCacheManager and proceeds with the registration of an instance of it per EmbeddedCacheManager. It starts the caches needed to store the counter state and configures the default counters.

Retrieving the CounterManager is as simple as invoke the EmbeddedCounterManagerFactory.asCounterManager(EmbeddedCacheManager) as shown in the example below:

// create or obtain your EmbeddedCacheManager
EmbeddedCacheManager manager = ...;

// retrieve the CounterManager
CounterManager counterManager = EmbeddedCounterManagerFactory.asCounterManager(manager);

For Hot Rod client, the CounterManager is registered in the RemoteCacheManager and it can be retrieved like:

// create or obtain your RemoteCacheManager
RemoteCacheManager manager = ...;

// retrieve the CounterManager
CounterManager counterManager = RemoteCounterManagerFactory.asCounterManager(manager);

A counter can be strong (StrongCounter) or weakly consistent (WeakCounter) and both is identified by a name. They have a specific interface but they share some logic, namely, both of them are asynchronous ( a CompletableFuture is returned by each operation), provide an update event and can be reset to its initial value.

If you don’t want to use the async API, it is possible to return a synchronous counter via sync() method. The API is the same but without the CompletableFuture return value.

The following methods are common to both interfaces:

String getName();
CompletableFuture<Long> getValue();
CompletableFuture<Void> reset();
<T extends CounterListener> Handle<T> addListener(T listener);
CounterConfiguration getConfiguration();
CompletableFuture<Void> remove();
SyncStrongCounter sync(); //SyncWeakCounter for WeakCounter

CounterManager counterManager = ...
StrongCounter aCounter = counterManager.getStrongCounter("my-counter");

default CompletableFuture<Long> incrementAndGet() {
   return addAndGet(1L);
}

default CompletableFuture<Long> decrementAndGet() {
   return addAndGet(-1L);
}

CompletableFuture<Long> addAndGet(long delta);

CompletableFuture<Boolean> compareAndSet(long expect, long update);

CompletableFuture<Long> compareAndSwap(long expect, long update);

public boolean isUpperBoundReached();
public boolean isLowerBoundReached();

StrongCounter counter = counterManager.getStrongCounter("unbounded_counter");

// incrementing the counter
System.out.println("new value is " + counter.incrementAndGet().get());

// decrement the counter's value by 100 using the functional API
counter.addAndGet(-100).thenApply(v -> {
   System.out.println("new value is " + v);
   return null;
}).get();

// alternative, you can do some work while the counter is updated
CompletableFuture<Long> f = counter.addAndGet(10);
// ... do some work ...
System.out.println("new value is " + f.get());

// and then, check the current value
System.out.println("current value is " + counter.getValue().get());

// finally, reset to initial value
counter.reset().get();
System.out.println("current value is " + counter.getValue().get());

// or set to a new value if zero
System.out.println("compare and set succeeded? " + counter.compareAndSet(0, 1));

StrongCounter counter = counterManager.getStrongCounter("bounded_counter");

// incrementing the counter
try {
    System.out.println("new value is " + counter.addAndGet(100).get());
} catch (ExecutionException e) {
    Throwable cause = e.getCause();
    if (cause instanceof CounterOutOfBoundsException) {
       if (((CounterOutOfBoundsException) cause).isUpperBoundReached()) {
          System.out.println("ops, upper bound reached.");
       } else if (((CounterOutOfBoundsException) cause).isLowerBoundReached()) {
          System.out.println("ops, lower bound reached.");
       }
    }
}

// now using the functional API
counter.addAndGet(-100).handle((v, throwable) -> {
   if (throwable != null) {
      Throwable cause = throwable.getCause();
      if (cause instanceof CounterOutOfBoundsException) {
         if (((CounterOutOfBoundsException) cause).isUpperBoundReached()) {
            System.out.println("ops, upper bound reached.");
         } else if (((CounterOutOfBoundsException) cause).isLowerBoundReached()) {
            System.out.println("ops, lower bound reached.");
         }
      }
      return null;
   }
   System.out.println("new value is " + v);
   return null;
}).get();

StrongCounter counter = counterManager.getStrongCounter("my-counter");
long oldValue, newValue;
do {
   oldValue = counter.getValue().get();
   newValue = someLogic(oldValue);
} while (!counter.compareAndSet(oldValue, newValue).get());

StrongCounter counter = counterManager.getStrongCounter("my-counter");
long oldValue = counter.getValue().get();
long currentValue, newValue;
do {
   currentValue = oldValue;
   newValue = someLogic(oldValue);
} while ((oldValue = counter.compareAndSwap(oldValue, newValue).get()) != currentValue);

CounterManager counterManager = ...
StrongCounter aCounter = counterManager.getWeakCounter("my-counter);

default CompletableFuture<Void> increment() {
   return add(1L);
}

default CompletableFuture<Void> decrement() {
   return add(-1L);
}

CompletableFuture<Void> add(long delta);

WeakCounter counter = counterManager.getWeakCounter("my_counter");

// increment the counter and check its result
counter.increment().get();
System.out.println("current value is " + counter.getValue());

CompletableFuture<Void> f = counter.add(-100);
//do some work
f.get(); //wait until finished
System.out.println("current value is " + counter.getValue().get());

//using the functional API
counter.reset().whenComplete((aVoid, throwable) -> System.out.println("Reset done " + (throwable == null ? "successfully" : "unsuccessfully"))).get();
System.out.println("current value is " + counter.getValue().get());

Both strong and weak counter supports a listener to receive its updates events. The listener must implement CounterListener and it can be registered by the following method:

<T extends CounterListener> Handle<T> addListener(T listener);

The CounterListener has the following interface:

public interface CounterListener {
   void onUpdate(CounterEvent entry);
}

The Handle object returned has the main goal to remove the CounterListener when it is not longer needed. Also, it allows to have access to the CounterListener instance that is it handling. It has the following interface:

public interface Handle<T extends CounterListener> {
   T getCounterListener();
   void remove();
}

Finally, the CounterEvent has the previous and current value and state. It has the following interface:

public interface CounterEvent {
   long getOldValue();
   State getOldState();
   long getNewValue();
   State getNewState();
}