JDBC Source

Introduction

A JDBCSource is a database-related implementation of the ISource interface. It is the generic framework used in ActivePivot for fetching from external data sources and contributing in an ActivePivot Datastore.

The purpose of the JDBCSource is to load data from a database, through a JDBC driver.

Parameters

A JDBCSource has several parameters:

  • Connection information

    • User Name/Password/Class of the JDBC Driver

    OR

    • Implementation of the IConnectionSupplier functional interface, which wraps the connection information. The createConnection() method of the connectionSupplier provides a java.sql.Connection and loads JDBC drivers according to the implementation.

  • Source Properties: these properties are either a field of the JDBC source or a property of one of its fields.

    • poolSize: input argument given to the Source Constructor that drives the size of the ThreadPool in which the JDBCTask is executed (defaults to 2). It can be an impacting factor when trying to fetch data of the underlying topic from numerous channels at the same time.
    • appendQueueSize: size of the append queue that receives the parsed records of a given JDBCTask. This property should be set at a larger value than batchSize and JDBCTopic#fetchSize, since those properties correspond to push/pop operations on a collection.
    • batchSize: size of the collection a JDBCAppendRunnable performs on the append queue.

  • Topic Properties: these properties are not directly linked to a JDBCSource, but impact source performance when asked to fetch topic-related data.

    • JDBCTopic#fetchSize: size used to receive SQL request answer. While fetching data from a java.sql.ResultSet, we only fetch fetchSize-sized pieces of the ResultSet at once, which can be useful for controlling network usage congestion. This property can be the performance bottleneck of the source.
    • JDBCTopic#nbAppendThreads: size of the thread pool in which the JDBCAppendRunnable is executed.
    • JDBCTopic#chunkSize: size of the data chunks sent to the ChannelMessage to send on to the datastore.

While fetching data with a JDBCSource, ActivePivot monitors the size of the append queue. If the queue reaches full capacity, it becomes the limiting factor for the data fetching operation. In that case, one can increase the size of the thread-pool through JDBCTopic#nbAppendThreads, or change the JDBCSource#batchSize value.

A JDBCSource connects to a given database by using the provided connection information.

Once the connection has been tested, data can be fetched from the database by calling the fetch([...]) method: 

void fetch(Map<IMessageChannel<String, T>, List<Object>> channelsAndParams);

A JDBCSource does not need a topic to be instantiated, but topics must be added to the source before any query execution. This is done with the addTopic([...]) method.

The fetch([...]) method retrieves all available data as defined by the topics exposed by the channels given in arguments. They can either be SQL queries or a Java.sql.PreparedStatement. Then it fills the corresponding channels with the parsed results.

The provided implementations of IJDBCSource extend AJDBCSource and mostly differ in the way the ResultSet obtained by executing the Query is parsed:

  • ArrayJDBCSource parses the ResultSet as Object[]
  • MapJDBCSource parses the ResultSet as Map<String,Object>
  • NativeJDBCSource parses the ResultSet as QfsResultRow

Usage Example

Create the ArrayJDBCSource source using a IConnectionSupplier implementation, which attempts to use the H2 database driver:

final IConnectionSupplier supplier = new SimpleConnectionSupplier(
        url,
        username,
        pwd,
        driverClass);
final IJDBCSource<Object[]> source = new ArrayJDBCSource(
        supplier, sourceName, -1, -1);

By specifying the value -1 in the Source constructor, the default values for the processing properties are used. However, the source properties can be modified for a more fine-tuned configuration of the source.

Create the topic, here a preparedStatement, and add it to the source:

final JDBCTopic topic = new JDBCTopic(
        topicName,
        "SELECT DESK, BOOK, PNL FROM RECORDS WHERE DESK=?");
source.addTopic(topic);

Default Topic parameters are implied here, but can also be modified to tune the performances of the source.

An IMessageChannelFactory implementation creates the channels between the topics of the source and the stores of a datastore: 

final JDBCMessageChannelFactory channelFactory =
        new JDBCMessageChannelFactory(source, datastore);
final IMessageChannel<String, QfsResultSetRow> channel =
        channelFactory.createChannel(topicName, store.toString());

Specify the requested values in the topic, then execute the query and fill the channel: 

source.fetch(channel, Arrays.asList("Desk A"));

Fetching data

The fetch([...]) method performs most of the task of a JDBCSource: it executes queries on a database and puts the parsed data in channels that feed into a Datastore.

This is performed in parallel:

For each entry in the input map (for instance, a MessageChannel-Parameters pair), fetch([...]) creates a JDBCTask. Those are executed concurrently on a thread pool dimensioned by an input property of the source.

Here is a sequence diagram displaying the execution of the fetch([...]) method on multiple channels. JDBCTask and JDBCAppendRunnable are documented more thoroughly below.

Diagram of fetch

JDBCTask

Each JDBCTask performs the following tasks:

  • Executes the query on the database.

  • Launches and keeps track of concurrent JDBCAppendRunnables on a thread pool dimensioned by a property of the topic related to the JDBCTask.

  • Creates an append queue from which the runnables poll.

  • Fetches the corresponding java.sql.ResultSet.

    To avoid network congestion, data from the ResultSet is recovered by fetchSize-sized pieces.

  • Iterates over the fetchSize-sized piece of the ResultSet until the data is entirely recovered:

    • Parses the data as a collection of Records by using the JDBCSource#createRecord() implementation of the current source.
    • Feeds it to the append queue.

When the ResultSet has been entirely processed, the JDBCAppendRunnables are notified and we wait for the termination of all the linked threads to proceed and terminate the JDBCTask.

JDBCAppendRunnable

Each JDBCAppendRunnable performs the following tasks until the underlying JDBCTask sends notification that its append queue is empty and won't be filled anymore:

  • Attempts to drain the queue by batchSize-sized pieces into a List<Record>.
  • Pushes the records from the List into the channel's IMessage by chunkSize-sized pieces.

Monitoring JDBC Source

The JDBC Source contributes to the Health Event Monitoring, under the tags jdbc and source.

The following snippet adds the basic implementation of the listener to the handler stack.

HealthEventDispatcher.INSTANCE.addEventHandler(
        new LoggingJdbcHealthEventHandler());

This uses the default logger to report all JDBC operations. By default, there is no filtering on the received events.

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