[RT] New Observation Support

[Carsten Ziegeler <cz...@apache.org>]

Right now, resources changes are propagated through event admin - which
at the time sounded like a good idea. Over time, this has shown to be a
bottle neck.
Basically there are at least three problems:
- the sender of the resource events does not know whether there is a
receiver, therefore events for each and every change need to be sent
- event objects are immutable and therefore all relevant data needs to
be calculated upfront, even if it's not used. For example a resource
event contains the resource type which needs to be fetched from the
repository, even if no one is interested in it.
- receivers of the events can't easily act on behalf of the user who
initiated the change.

I created a new listener api at [1] which defines a ResourceListener
interface and some ways how to specify the events one is interested in.
The user aware resource listener allows to act on behalf of the user (if
that information is available).

On the other side, a new service, the ObservationReporter [2] is
defined. Resource providers report changes through this interface. The
payload of such an event is an interface which allows for lazy retrieval
of the information.

We can also use this mechanism for compatibility and an implementation
of the observation reporter might sent all events via the event admin.

[1]
https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/sling/whiteboard/cziegeler/api-v3/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/api/resource/observation/
[2]
https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/sling/whiteboard/cziegeler/api-v3/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/api/resource/provider/ObservationReporter.java

Regards
Carsten
-- 
Carsten Ziegeler
Adobe Research Switzerland
cziegeler@apache.org

RE: [RT] New Observation Support

[Stefan Seifert <ss...@pro-vision.de>]

looks fine to me

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Carsten Ziegeler [mailto:cziegeler@apache.org]
>Sent: Monday, May 18, 2015 8:17 AM
>To: Sling Developers
>Subject: [RT] New Observation Support
>
>Right now, resources changes are propagated through event admin - which
>at the time sounded like a good idea. Over time, this has shown to be a
>bottle neck.
>Basically there are at least three problems:
>- the sender of the resource events does not know whether there is a
>receiver, therefore events for each and every change need to be sent
>- event objects are immutable and therefore all relevant data needs to
>be calculated upfront, even if it's not used. For example a resource
>event contains the resource type which needs to be fetched from the
>repository, even if no one is interested in it.
>- receivers of the events can't easily act on behalf of the user who
>initiated the change.
>
>I created a new listener api at [1] which defines a ResourceListener
>interface and some ways how to specify the events one is interested in.
>The user aware resource listener allows to act on behalf of the user (if
>that information is available).
>
>On the other side, a new service, the ObservationReporter [2] is
>defined. Resource providers report changes through this interface. The
>payload of such an event is an interface which allows for lazy retrieval
>of the information.
>
>We can also use this mechanism for compatibility and an implementation
>of the observation reporter might sent all events via the event admin.
>
>[1]
>https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/sling/whiteboard/cziegeler/api-
>v3/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/api/resource/observation/
>[2]
>https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/sling/whiteboard/cziegeler/api-
>v3/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/api/resource/provider/ObservationReporter.ja
>va
>
>Regards
>Carsten
>--
>Carsten Ziegeler
>Adobe Research Switzerland
>cziegeler@apache.org