Stream Java DSL

Instead of using the shell to create and deploy streams, you can use the Java-based DSL provided by the spring-cloud-dataflow-rest-client module. The Java DSL is a convenient wrapper around the DataFlowTemplate class that enables creating and deploying streams programmatically.

To get started, you need to add the following dependency to your project:

<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-cloud-dataflow-rest-client</artifactId>
	<version>2.8.4</version>
</dependency>

You can find a complete sample in the Spring Cloud Data Flow Samples Repository.

Usage

The classes at the heart of the Java DSL are StreamBuilder, StreamDefinition, Stream, StreamApplication, and DataFlowTemplate. The entry point is a builder method on Stream that takes an instance of a DataFlowTemplate. To create an instance of a DataFlowTemplate, you need to provide a URI location of the Data Flow Server.

Spring Boot auto-configuration for StreamBuilder and DataFlowTemplate is also available. You can use the properties in DataFlowClientProperties to configure the connection to the Data Flow server. Generally, you should start with the spring.cloud.dataflow.client.uri property.

Consider the following example, which uses the definition style:

URI dataFlowUri = URI.create("http://localhost:9393");
DataFlowOperations dataFlowOperations = new DataFlowTemplate(dataFlowUri);
dataFlowOperations.appRegistryOperations().importFromResource(
                     "https://dataflow.spring.io/rabbitmq-maven-latest", true);
StreamDefinition streamDefinition = Stream.builder(dataFlowOperations)
                                      .name("ticktock")
                                      .definition("time | log")
                                      .create();

The create method returns an instance of a StreamDefinition that represents a Stream that has been created but not deployed. This is called the "definition" style, since it takes a single string for the stream definition (same as in the shell). If applications have not yet been registered in the Data Flow server, you can use the DataFlowOperations class to register them. With the StreamDefinition instance, you have methods available to deploy or destroy the stream. The following example deploys the stream:

Stream stream = streamDefinition.deploy();

The Stream instance provides getStatus, destroy, and undeploy methods to control and query the stream. If you want to immediately deploy the stream, you need not create a separate local variable of the type StreamDefinition. Rather, you can chain the calls together, as follows:

Stream stream = Stream.builder(dataFlowOperations)
                  .name("ticktock")
                  .definition("time | log")
                  .create()
                  .deploy();

The deploy method is overloaded to take a java.util.Map of deployment properties.

The StreamApplication class is used in the "fluent" Java DSL style and is discussed in the next section. The StreamBuilder class is returned from the Stream.builder(dataFlowOperations) method. In larger applications, it is common to create a single instance of the StreamBuilder as a Spring @Bean and share it across the application.

Java DSL styles

The Java DSL offers two styles to create Streams:

  • The definition style keeps the feel of using the pipes and filters of the textual DSL in the shell. This style is selected by using the definition method after setting the stream name — for example, Stream.builder(dataFlowOperations).name("ticktock").definition(<definition goes here>).
  • The fluent style lets you chain together sources, processors, and sinks by passing in an instance of a StreamApplication. This style is selected by using the source method after setting the stream name — for example, Stream.builder(dataFlowOperations).name("ticktock").source(<stream application instance goes here>). You then chain together processor() and sink() methods to create a stream definition.

To demonstrate both styles, we include a simple stream that uses both approaches. You can find a complete sample that you can use to get started in the Spring Cloud Data Flow Samples Repository.

The following example demonstrates the definition approach:

public void definitionStyle() throws Exception{

  Map<String, String> deploymentProperties = createDeploymentProperties();

  Stream woodchuck = Stream.builder(dataFlowOperations)
          .name("woodchuck")
          .definition("http --server.port=9900 | splitter --expression=payload.split(' ') | log")
          .create()
          .deploy(deploymentProperties);

  waitAndDestroy(woodchuck)
}

The following example demonstrates the fluent approach:

private void fluentStyle(DataFlowOperations dataFlowOperations) throws InterruptedException {

  logger.info("Deploying stream.");

  Stream woodchuck = builder
    .name("woodchuck")
    .source(source)
    .processor(processor)
    .sink(sink)
    .create()
    .deploy();

  waitAndDestroy(woodchuck);
}

The waitAndDestroy method uses the getStatus method to poll for the stream's status:

private void waitAndDestroy(Stream stream) throws InterruptedException {

  while(!stream.getStatus().equals("deployed")){
    System.out.println("Wating for deployment of stream.");
    Thread.sleep(5000);
  }

  System.out.println("Letting the stream run for 2 minutes.");
  // Let the stream run for 2 minutes
  Thread.sleep(120000);

  System.out.println("Destroying stream");
  stream.destroy();
}

When using the definition style, the deployment properties are specified as a java.util.Map in the same manner as the shell. The following listing shows the createDeploymentProperties method:

private Map<String, String> createDeploymentProperties() {
  DeploymentPropertiesBuilder propertiesBuilder = new DeploymentPropertiesBuilder();
  propertiesBuilder.memory("log", 512);
  propertiesBuilder.count("log",2);
  propertiesBuilder.put("app.splitter.producer.partitionKeyExpression", "payload");
  return propertiesBuilder.build();
}

Is this case, application properties are also overridden at deployment time, in addition to setting the deployer property count for the log application. When using the fluent style, the deployment properties are added by using the addDeploymentProperty method (for example, new StreamApplication("log").addDeploymentProperty("count", 2)), and you need not prefix the property with deployer.<app_name>.

To create and deploy your streams, you need to make sure that the corresponding apps have been registered in the Data Flow server first. Attempting to create or deploy a stream that contains an unknown application throws an exception. You can register your application by using the DataFlowTemplate, as follows:

dataFlowOperations.appRegistryOperations().importFromResource(
            "https://dataflow.spring.io/rabbitmq-maven-latest", true);

Stream applications can also be beans within your application that are injected into other classes to create Streams. There are many ways to structure Spring applications, but one way is to have a @Configuration class define the StreamBuilder and StreamApplications:

@Configuration
public class StreamConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public StreamBuilder builder() {
    return Stream.builder(new DataFlowTemplate(URI.create("http://localhost:9393")));
  }

  @Bean
  public StreamApplication httpSource(){
    return new StreamApplication("http");
  }

  @Bean
  public StreamApplication logSink(){
    return new StreamApplication("log");
  }
}

Then, in another class, you can @Autowire these classes and deploy a stream:

@Component
public class MyStreamApps {

  @Autowired
  private StreamBuilder streamBuilder;

  @Autowired
  private StreamApplication httpSource;

  @Autowired
  private StreamApplication logSink;

  public void deploySimpleStream() {
    Stream simpleStream = streamBuilder.name("simpleStream")
                            .source(httpSource)
                            .sink(logSink)
                            .create()
                            .deploy();
  }
}

This style lets you share StreamApplications across multiple Streams.

Using the DeploymentPropertiesBuilder

Regardless of the style you choose, the deploy(Map<String, String> deploymentProperties) method allows customization of how your streams are deployed. We made it easier to create a map with properties by using a builder style, as well as creating static methods for some properties so you need not remember the name of such properties. You could rewrite the previous example of createDeploymentProperties as follows:

private Map<String, String> createDeploymentProperties() {
	return new DeploymentPropertiesBuilder()
		.count("log", 2)
		.memory("log", 512)
		.put("app.splitter.producer.partitionKeyExpression", "payload")
		.build();
}

This utility class is meant to help with the creation of a Map and adds a few methods to assist with defining pre-defined properties.

Skipper Deployment Properties

In addition to Spring Cloud Data Flow, you need to pass certain Skipper-specific deployment properties — for example, selecting the target platform. The SkipperDeploymentPropertiesBuilder provides all the properties in DeploymentPropertiesBuilder and adds those needed for Skipper. The following example creates a SkipperDeploymentPropertiesBuilder:

private Map<String, String> createDeploymentProperties() {
	return new SkipperDeploymentPropertiesBuilder()
		.count("log", 2)
		.memory("log", 512)
		.put("app.splitter.producer.partitionKeyExpression", "payload")
		.platformName("pcf")
		.build();
}