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Thread: Handling IO Synchronization

  1. #1
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    Default Handling IO Synchronization

    I have a class (WriteExcel) which writes to an excel file. For those who don't know, Excel doesn't handle multiple access well (or at all).
    I then have another class (WriteManager) which creates a new thread for each write command, and then calls a method from the WriteExcel class.
    Other classes in my project calls methods from WriteManager to send their requests.
    My situation looks like this:
    1) Thread 1: Someclass -> WriteManager.write1stPage(write) -> Creates Thread 2 -> WriteExcel.write1stPage(write) -> Start Excel Write
    2) Thread 1: Someclass -> WriteManager.write2ndPage(write) -> Creates Thread 3 -> WriteExcel.write2ndPage(write) -> Start Excel Write
    3) Thread 1: Someclass -> WriteManager.write3rdPage(write) -> Creates Thread 4 -> WriteExcel.write3rdPage(write) -> Start Excel Write
    4) Thread 2: Finished writing and ready to save -> Throws exception due to multiple Excel access
    5) Thread 3: Finished writing and ready to save -> Throws exception due to multiple Excel access
    6) Thread 4: Finished writing and ready to save -> Throws exception due to multiple Excel access

    I need to figure out a way to restrict access to WriteExcel until the writing is finished. So I need something like this:
    1) Thread 1: Someclass -> WriteManager.write1stPage(write) -> Creates Thread 2 -> WriteExcel.write1stPage(write) -> Start Excel Write
    2) Thread 1: Someclass -> WriteManager.write2ndPage(write) -> Creates Thread 3 -> Waits Until WriteExcel is free
    3) Thread 1: Someclass -> WriteManager.write3rdPage(write) -> Creates Thread 4 -> Waits Until WriteExcel is free
    4) Thread 2: Finished writing and ready to save -> Saves and frees WriteExcel
    5) Thread 3: WriteExcel is free -> WriteExcel.write2ndPage(write) -> Start Excel Write
    6) Thread 3: Finished writing and ready to save -> Saves and frees WriteExcel
    7) Thread 4: WriteExcel is free -> WriteExcel.write3rdPage(write) -> Start Excel Write
    8) Thread 4: Finished writing and ready to save -> Saves and frees WriteExcel

    What is currently the best approach in java for handling this sort of situation?
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  2. #2
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    Default Re: Handling IO Synchronization

    I'm unclear of the need for Thread's 2-4. But be that as it may, if you need to write to the file asynchronous relative to Thread 1, you might consider using a queue - for instance create a thread pool of size 1 using Executors...in this manner only one write will occur at any given time and they will occur sequentially

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Handling IO Synchronization

    The other threads were being created because I had no way of really monitoring when certain write requests were sent, and each write request needed to run on a thread other than the one which called it.

    I actually managed to come up with a somewhat elegant approach. Instead of multiple threads, I created a single writing thread. The writing thread contains a queue of requests, which it cycles through. When the queue runs out, the thread tells itself to wait. When a new request is added to the queue, the thread is told to continue on. This way I don't have the thread looping continuously in the background for no reason.

    Tell me what you think about this. I've ran it a few times with perfect success, but that doesn't mean there isn't something serious I've overlooked. This does require a class: WriteRequest, which just contains a type and a payload to pass onto the excel writer.
    public class ServiceManager {
        private WriteDatabaseThread writeDatabaseThread;
     
        public void addRequest(WriteRequest request) {
            this.writeDatabaseThread.requests.add(request);
            synchronized (this.writeDatabaseThread) {
                this.writeDatabaseThread.notifyAll();
            }
        }
     
        public void setWriteDatabaseInterface(WriteDatabaseInterface databaseInterface) {
            this.writeDatabaseThread = new WriteDatabaseThread(databaseInterface);
            this.writeDatabaseThread.start();
        }
     
        public void write1stPage(...) {
            if (this.writeDatabaseThread == null) {
                return;
            }
            this.addRequest(new WriteRequest(TYPE_ONE,...));
        }
     
    	public void write2ndPage(...) {
    		if (this.writeDatabaseThread == null) {
                return;
            }
            this.addRequest(new WriteRequest(TYPE_TWO,...));
    	}
    	...
    }
    public class WriteDatabaseThread extends Thread {
        public volatile Queue<WriteRequest> requests = new LinkedList<>();
        private WriteDatabaseInterface writeDatabaseInterface;
     
        public WriteDatabaseThread(WriteDatabaseInterface writeDatabaseInterface) {
            this.writeDatabaseInterface = writeDatabaseInterface;
        }
     
        @Override
        public void run() {
            while (true) {
                try {
                    if (this.requests.size() == 0) {
                        synchronized (this) {
                            this.wait();
                        }
                    }
                    WriteRequest request = this.requests.poll();
                    if (request != null) {
                        ... payload = request.getPayload();
                        switch (request.getType()) {
                            case TYPE_ONE: {
                                this.writeDatabaseInterface.write1st(...);
                                break;
                            }
                            case TYPE_TWO: {
                                this.writeDatabaseInterface.write2nd(...);
                                break;
                            }
                            ...
                        }
                    }
                } catch (Exception ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
    }
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    Default Re: Handling IO Synchronization

    I would advice you to use a collection that does not throw concurrent modification exceptions when working with multithreading. For example the CopyOnWriteArrayList for the queue of write requests.
    You could have the thread do all requests and clear the list periodically.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Handling IO Synchronization

    Would the ConcurrentLinkedQueue collection resolve that issue? ConcurrentLinkedQueue (Java Platform SE 7 )
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  6. #6
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    Default Re: Handling IO Synchronization

    If the API says that its safe against concurrent modification exceptions / save for multithreading then yes. But linked lists are usually slower then array lists in most circumstances.

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