Observers and Subscribers

Page updated at: 10 Oct 2016

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Observer #

The Observer from the Rx pattern is the trio of callbacks that get subscribed to an Observable for receiving events.

In essence the Observer is this type:

trait Observer[-T] {
  def onNext(elem: T): Future[Ack]

  def onError(ex: Throwable): Unit

  def onComplete(): Unit
}

Contract #

Obviously the Observer interface doesn’t do much other than establishing a communication protocol between producers and consumers. Therefore when pushing items into an Observer, we need a contract:

Grammar: onNext CAN be called zero, one or multiple times, followed by an optional onComplete or onError if the stream is finite, so in other words onNext* (onComplete | onError)?. And once a final event happens, either onComplete or onError, then no further calls are allowed.
Back-pressure: each onNext call MUST wait on a Continue result returned by the Future[Ack] of the previous onNext call.
Back-pressure for onComplete and onError is optional: when calling onComplete or onError you are not required to wait on the Future[Ack] of the previous onNext.
Stream cancellation: onNext calls can return Stop or Future[Stop] and after receiving it the data-source MUST no longer send any events. Tied with the back-pressure requirement, it means that cancellation by means of Stop is always deterministic and immediate.
Ordering/non-concurrent guarantee: calls to onNext, onComplete and onError MUST BE ordered and thus non-concurrent. As a consequence Observer implementations don’t normally need to synchronize their onNext, onComplete or onError methods.
Exactly once delivery for final events: you are allowed to call either onComplete or onError at most one time. And you cannot call both onComplete and onError.
The implementation of onNext, onError or onComplete MUST NOT throw exceptions. Never throw exceptions in their implementation and protect against code that might do that.

Corollaries:

An observer can subscribe to at most one observable and cannot subscribe to multiple observables.
When returning Stop from onNext, no further onNext events can be received, but this requirement is optional for onComplete and onError because back-pressure is also optional for these final events - in other words, after returning Stop, the observer can receive a final onComplete if that onNext happened to be the last one, or an onError if an error just happened.
Once a final event happened, like onComplete, we have nowhere to send eventual errors through onError and we cannot send onError twice, so such errors will at best get logged and at worst get lost. Behavior is undefined for errors that break the contract.
The data-source can get canceled without the observer receiving any notification about it.

Building an Observer #

Let’s build an observer that just logs events:

// Back-pressure related acknowledgement
import monix.execution.Ack
import monix.execution.Ack.{Continue, Stop}
import monix.reactive.Observer
import scala.concurrent.Future

val observer = new Observer[Any] {
  def onNext(elem: Any): Future[Ack] = {
    println(s"O-->$elem")
    // Continue already inherits from Future[Ack],
    // so we can return it directly ;-)
    Continue
  }

  def onError(ex: Throwable): Unit =
    ex.printStackTrace()
  def onComplete(): Unit =
    println("O completed")
}

And in case you just want an empty Observer that does nothing but logs onError in case it happens:

// Needed for logging errors
import monix.execution.Scheduler.Implicits.global

val observer = Observer.empty[Int]

Or you can quickly build an Observer that only logs the events that it receives. We’ll use this in other samples:

import monix.reactive.Observer

val out = Observer.dump("O")
// out: Observer.Sync[Any]

out.onNext(1)
//=> 0: O-->1
// res0: Ack = Continue

out.onNext(2)
//=> 1: O-->2
// res0: Ack = Continue

out.onComplete()
//=> 2: O completed

Feeding an Observer #

Feeding one element, then stopping. This is legal:

observer.onNext(1)
observer.onComplete()

Back-pressuring onComplete is optional, so you can also do this:

import monix.execution.Scheduler.Implicits.global

observer.onNext(1).map {
  case Continue =>
    observer.onComplete()
    Stop
  case Stop =>
    // At this point we know the observer wants
    // to stop, so no onComplete!
    Stop
}

Feeding two elements, then stopping. This is NOT legal:

// BAD SAMPLE
observer.onNext(1)
observer.onNext(2)
observer.onComplete()

The correct way of doing this:

import monix.execution.Scheduler.Implicits.global

observer.onNext(1).map {
  case Continue =>
    // We have permission to continue
    observer.onNext(2)
    // No back-pressure required here
    observer.onComplete()
    Stop
  case Stop =>
    // Nothing else to do
    Stop
}

Notice that the contract says that these calls must never be concurrent, we need imposed ordering. But here we have clear happens-before relationships between calls, so this code is correct.

All together now. Lets feed an entire Iterator:

import monix.execution.Ack.{Continue, Stop}
import monix.execution.{Ack, Scheduler}
import scala.concurrent.Future
import scala.util.control.NonFatal

def feed[A](in: Iterator[A], out: Observer[A])
  (implicit s: Scheduler): Future[Ack] = {

  // Indicates whether errors that happen inside the
  // logic below should be streamed downstream with
  // onError, or whether we aren't allowed because of
  // the grammar. Basically we need to differentiate
  // between errors triggered by our data source, the
  // Iterator, and errors triggered by our Observer,
  // which isn't allowed to triggered exceptions.
  var streamErrors = true
  try {
    // Iterator protocol, we need to ask if it hasNext
    if (!in.hasNext) {
      // From this point on, we aren't allowed to call onError
      // because it can break the contract
      streamErrors = false
      // Signaling the end of the stream, then we are done
      out.onComplete()
      Stop
    } else {
      // Iterator protocol, we get a next element
      val next = in.next()
      // From this point on, we aren't allowed to call onError
      // because it can break the contract
      streamErrors = false
      // Signaling onNext, then back-pressuring
      out.onNext(next).flatMap {
        case Continue =>
          // We got permission, go next
          feed(in, out)(s)
        case Stop =>
          // Nothing else to do, stop the loop
          Stop
      }
    }
  } catch {
    case NonFatal(ex) =>
      // The Iterator triggered the error, so stream it
      if (streamErrors)
        out.onError(ex)
      else // The Observer triggered the error, so log it
        s.reportFailure(ex)
      // Nothing else to do
      Stop
  }
}

You’ll notice that the implementation tries really hard to not break the contract. The streamErrors pattern is peculiar. We are making a difference between errors thrown by the Iterator, which we should stream with onError and errors thrown by the Observer implementation. By contract the Observer is not allowed to throw errors, ever, therefore if it happens, the behavior is undefined - though we prefer to log it when we catch such instances.

Subscriber #

API Documentation • Source

Given that, in order to do anything with an Observer we always need a Scheduler, the Subscriber is a data type that’s an Observer with a Scheduler attached:

trait Subscriber[-T] extends Observer[T] {
  implicit def scheduler: Scheduler
}

When subscribing to an Observable, the base subscribe method wants a Subscriber, because observables need a Scheduler when consumed. So on subscribe you either have to specify it directly, or you specify a plain Observer with a Scheduler taken implicitly and then under the covers a Subscriber instance is being built for you.

To convert a plain Observer into a Subscriber:

import monix.execution.Scheduler.{global => scheduler}
import monix.reactive.observers._
import monix.reactive._

val observer = Observer.dump("O")
val subscriber = Subscriber(observer, scheduler)

To build a Subscriber instance that does nothing but logs onError in case it happens:

import monix.execution.Scheduler.Implicits.global

val subscriber = Subscriber.empty[Int]

Or to build a Subscriber that logs events to standard output for debugging purposes:

val subscriber = Subscriber.dump("O")

Convert to a Reactive Streams Subscriber #

Given the integration with Reactive Streams, we can convert Monix Subscribers to Reactive Subscribers.

These subscribers have a similar interface and contract, but with a slightly different API, being in fact equivalent.

import monix.execution.Ack
import monix.execution.Ack.{Continue, Stop}
import monix.execution.Scheduler.Implicits.global
import monix.reactive.observers.Subscriber
import scala.concurrent.Future

// Building a Monix Subscriber instance
val monixSubscriber = Subscriber.dump("O")

val reactiveSubscriber: org.reactivestreams.Subscriber[Any] =
  monixSubscriber.toReactive

And usage of the org.reactivestreams.Subscriber interface:

reactiveSubscriber.onSubscribe(
  new org.reactivestreams.Subscription {
    private var isCanceled = false

    def request(n: Long): Unit = {
      if (n > 0 && !isCanceled) {
        isCanceled = true
        reactiveSubscriber.onNext(1)
        reactiveSubscriber.onComplete()
      }
    }

    def cancel(): Unit =
      isCanceled = true
  })

//=> 0: O-->1
//=> 1: O completed

Convert from a Reactive Streams Subscriber #

Given the integration with Reactive Streams, we can convert Reactive Subscribers to Monix Subscribers.

Let’s implement an org.reactivestreams.Subscriber:

import org.reactivestreams.{Subscription => RSubscription}

val reactiveSubscriber =
  new org.reactivestreams.Subscriber[Int] {
    private var s: RSubscription = null

    def onSubscribe(s: RSubscription): Unit = {
      this.s = s
      s.request(1)
    }

    def onNext(elem: Int): Unit = {
      println(s"O-->$elem")
      s.request(1)
    }

    def onComplete(): Unit =
      println("O completed")
    def onError(ex: Throwable): Unit =
      ex.printStackTrace()
  }

And now we can covert it into a Subscriber that Monix can use:

import monix.execution.Scheduler.Implicits.global
import monix.reactive.observers.Subscriber
import monix.execution.Cancelable

val monixSubscriber =
  Subscriber.fromReactiveSubscriber(
    reactiveSubscriber,
    Cancelable(() => println("Was canceled!"))
  )

monixSubscriber.onNext(1)
//=> O-->1
monixSubscriber.onNext(2)
//=> O-->2
monixSubscriber.onComplete()
//=> O completed

Safe Subscriber #

API Documentation • Source

The SafeSubscriber wraps a Subscriber implementation into one that is safer for usage and protecting some parts of the contract:

Exceptions thrown in the underlying subscriber implementation are being caught and treated, since exceptions break the contract.
If the downstream subscriber returns Stop from onNext, then this will enforce the grammar by stopping further onNext and even onComplete and onError events.
Once final events, onComplete or onError are noticed, no further events are accepted.
The onComplete and onError are back-pressured. Even though this is optional, for users of the API it’s safer if they are.

import monix.execution.Ack
import monix.execution.Scheduler.Implicits.global
import monix.reactive.observers._

def create[A]: SafeSubscriber[A] =
  SafeSubscriber(new Subscriber[A] {
    val scheduler = global

    def onNext(elem: A): Ack =
      throw new IllegalStateException("onNext")
    def onComplete(): Unit =
      println("Completed!")
    def onError(ex: Throwable): Unit =
      System.err.println(s"Error: $ex")
  })

val out = create[Int]
// Error in onNext gets caught and handled
out.onNext(1)
//=> Error: java.lang.IllegalStateException: onNext
// res: Future[Ack] = Stop

// Repeating it will have no further effect
out.onNext(10)
// res: Future[Ack] = Stop

val out2 = create[Int]
out2.onComplete()
//=> Completed!

// No further events are accepted
out2.onNext(1)
// res: Future[Ack] = Stop

Note that when subscribing to observables, if you use the regular subscribe methods (and not unsafeSubscribeFn) the callbacks you give are automatically wrapped in a SafeSubscriber, so you don’t have to do it by yourself.

Connectable Subscriber #

API Documentation • Source

Wraps a Subscriber implementation into one that back-pressures the upstream until the call to connect() happens. Before connect() it also allows for scheduling the delivery of additional items before any other onNext.

import monix.execution.Scheduler.Implicits.global
import monix.reactive.observers._

val underlying = Subscriber.dump("O")
val connectable = ConnectableSubscriber(underlying)

// Queue for delivery after connect happens and after
// enqueued items by means of pushNext. At this point
// the subscriber back-pressures the source with a
// Future[Ack] that will complete only after connect()
val ack = connectable.onNext("b1")

// Acknowledgement not given because we are back-pressuring
ack.isCompleted
// res: Boolean = false

// Queueing items to be delivered first on connect()
connectable.pushFirst("a1")
connectable.pushFirst("a2")

// Nothing gets streamed until now:
connectable.connect()
//=> 0: O-->a1
//=> 1: O-->a2
//=> 2: O-->b1

// The data-source is now no longer paused
ack.isCompleted
// res: Boolean = true

Cache Until Connect Subscriber #

API Documentation • Source

Wraps an underlying Subscriber into an implementation that caches all events until the call to connect() happens. After being connected, the buffer is drained into the underlying subscriber, after which all subsequent events are pushed directly.

import monix.execution.Scheduler.Implicits.global
import monix.execution._
import monix.reactive.observers._

val underlying = Subscriber.dump("O")
val subscriber = CacheUntilConnectSubscriber(underlying)

// Gets cached in an underlying buffer
// to be streamed after connect
subscriber.onNext(10)
// res0: Future[Ack] = Continue
subscriber.onNext(20)
// res1: Future[Ack] = Continue
subscriber.onNext(30)
// res2: Future[Ack] = Continue

// Nothing happens until connect
val result: CancelableFuture[Ack] =
  subscriber.connect()
//=> 0: O-->10
//=> 1: O-->20
//=> 2: O-->30

Buffered Subscriber #

API Documentation • Source

Observers have a strong contract and consequently:

are not thread-safe
have a back-pressure requirement

There are instances in which these requirements are limiting. A BufferedSubscriber describes (and Monix can wrap any implementation into) a Subscriber that:

has onNext, onComplete and onError methods that can be called concurrently
has implementations that always have synchronous behavior, returning an immediate Continue
has an onNext that returns an immediate Continue for as long as the buffer isn’t full
buffers the connection between the upstream and the underlying subscriber such that the underlying subscriber can consume events at its own pace

Given that the underlying consumer can be slower than the source and given that we have a buffer between the data source and the consumer, we can talk about overflows and overflow strategies.

The OverflowStrategy parameter dictates the strategy of the used buffer. We’ve got these strategies available:

Unbounded indicates that the buffer should be unlimited. In this case the buffer can expand to fill the whole available heap memory. And so in case of slow consumers, the process can naturally run out of memory.
Fail indicates a limited size for the buffer and on overflow the connection will be closed, the underlying subscriber receiving an onError notification and the data source receiving a Stop on onNext.
BackPressure indicates a limited size for the buffer and on overflow it should try to back-pressure the source until the buffer is empty again. This isn’t a Synchronous strategy obviously and so it cannot be used in cases where one really needs Synchronous behavior.
DropNew indicates a limited size for the buffer and on overflow it should drop incoming events.
DropOld indicates a limited size for the buffer and on overflow it should drop older enqueued events.
ClearBuffer indicates a limited size for the buffer and on overflow it should drop the entire buffer and start fresh.

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