EventWinder

EventWinder is a simple event engine, that allows you to emit events in some parts of the program and handle them in other parts.

For example, in an online game when a user was connected the achievement, promotion, monitoring, and friends notification subsystems can independently react to this event.

It's better than calling all the subsystems directly because you can plug those subsystems in and unplug them without touching the user's connection code.

For example, with events, all the achievements logic can be described in each achievement file, and not all around the codebase.

EventWinder works on Crystal's fiber and channels, provides error handling and simple monitoring.

Installation

1. Add the dependency to your shard.yml:

   dependencies:
     event-winder:
       github: Xanders/event-winder
   

2. Run shards install

Usage

First, you need to register the event.

require "event-winder"

EventWinder.register MyCoolEvent

The MyCoolEvent type will be created.

Then you should declare the handlers.

EventWinder.on MyCoolEvent do
  puts "Some cool event just happend!"
end

EventWinder.on MyCoolEvent do
  puts "Wow, I can have any number of handlers!"
end

Finally, emit the event!

EventWinder.emit MyCoolEvent # Shows two strings on the screen

Scope

You can register events in the subsystem where they will be emitted.

struct User
  EventWinder.register Connected
  EventWinder.register Disconnected
end

In this case, the type will be created with a scope prefix.

module UsefulLogs
  EventWinder.on User::Connected do
    puts "Unbelievable! Someone connected!"
    puts "Hope it's not me..."
  end

  EventWinder.on User::Disconnected do
    puts "Oh no, user gone! :("
  end
end

Payload

Events also can have a payload, which you should provide when emitting and have access to when handling. You should declare the payload type on registration.

struct User
  EventWinder.register Connected, payload: User
end

module UsefulLogs
  EventWinder.on User::Connected do |user|
    puts "I'm the greatest spy, I know #{user.name} just connected!"
  end
end

user = User.new
EventWinder.emit User::Connected, user

You can use several objects in the payload via tuples.

struct User
  EventWinder.register Connected, payload: {String, Int32}
end

module UsefulLogs
  EventWinder.on User::Connected do |name, visits|
    puts "#{name} visited us #{visits} times"
    puts "It's our most loyal fun!!!" if visits > 5
  end
end

EventWinder.emit User::Connected, "John Smith", 8

Error handling

There are several ways to deal with errors in event handlers.

• You can define a global error handler for all the events:

EventWinder.handle_errors_with do
  puts "#{self.name} event failed to handle with #{error} error, payload was #{payload_inspect}"
end

There are two magic variables available in the block: error for exception object and payload_inspect for text representation of a payload passed to emit. You also can use self.name to get current event.

• You can define a handler for events of a specific type:

EventWinder.register MyVerySafeEvent, error_handler: ->{
  puts "I cannot believe! It was the best one! :("
}

The same error and payload_inspect variables are available.

• You can use your own begin-rescue-end block in the specific handler:

EventWinder.on SomeBoringEvent do
  begin
    raise "You shall not pass!"
  rescue error
    puts "I have a sneaky way!"
  end
end

If you do not use any of them for some handler, the program will crash at the first error that occurs in it.

Note: both global and per-event handlers are not capturing the context. That does not work:

my_shiny_local_variable = "Wow, so cool, wuf-wuf!"

EventWinder.handle_errors_with do
  my_shiny_local_variable # Ooops! Not available!
end

Monitoring

EventWinder use EventWinder for monitoring. :) There are two events you can handle for this goal:

• EventWinder::Emitted event firing before emitting with following payload:
  • event_name : String
  • emit_time : Time (usually equals to Time.utc except in the case of a lot of handlers)
  • number_of_handlers : Int32
• EventWinder::Handled event firing after handling with following payload:
  • event_name : String
  • emit_time : Time
  • queue_time_span : Time::Span (time between emitting and start of handling)
  • handle_time_span : Time::Span (time between start and finish of handling)
  • success : Bool (true if it was handled without exceptions, false otherwise)

EventWinder.on EventWinder::Emitted do |event_name, emit_time, number_of_handlers|
  puts "#{emit_time} | The #{event_name} event was emitted for #{number_of_handlers} handlers"

  SomeExternalMonitoring.increase "emitted_events", by: number_of_handlers
end

EventWinder.on EventWinder::Handled do |event_name, emit_time, queue_time_span, handle_time_span, success|
  puts "#{Time.utc} | The #{event_name} event was handled #{success ? "successfully" : "with exception"} in #{queue_time_span + handle_time_span}"

  SomeExternalMonitoring.increase "handled_events", by: 1
  SomeExternalMonitoring.increase "errors_in_events", by: 1 unless success
  SomeExternalMonitoring.set "queue_alert" if queue_time_span > 1.second
  SomeExternalMonitoring.set "handler_alert" if handle_time_span > 10.seconds
end

It's a good idea to have some external monitoring system for queue_time_span, handle_time_span, and success variables, as well as the difference between the number of Emitted events multiplied to number_of_handlers and number of Handled events: it always should be near zero.

Monitoring events, of course, does not cause other monitoring events.

You cannot access events payload in monitoring events for performance reasons.

Please keep in mind that every handler for those two events will lead to performance degradation, as well as any monitoring.

Performance

EventWinder was built with the compromise between performance and the principle of less surprise. Every emit causes the creation of a fiber for every handler for this event. Only sending to the handler's channel performing in that fiber. So, even when some handler is slow, others do not stop.

On other hand, there is only one fiber for each handler to run handling code. So if some handling process is slow, a new event of the same type for this handler will wait in a queue. Queue exists only in memory, so interrupting the program will cause the loss of all events. So, EventWinder guarantees at-most-once delivery and order of events in the same handler. Queues are limited by the possible number of fibers.

EventWinder.register SomeEvent, payload: String

EventWinder.on SomeEvent do |message|
  sleep rand
  puts message
end

EventWinder.on SomeEvent do |message|
  puts "Fast!"
end

EventWinder.emit SomeEvent, "One"
EventWinder.emit SomeEvent, "Two"
EventWinder.emit SomeEvent, "Three"

# Fast!
# Fast!
# Fast!
# One
# Two
# Three

As a side effect of such design, you cannot modify local variables in the handler:

EventWinder.register SomeEvent

variable = "initial"

normal_proc = -> do
  variable = "modified_from_proc"
end

normal_proc.call
puts variable # modified_from_proc

EventWinder.on SomeEvent do
  puts variable # you can read variables
  variable = "modified_from_handler" # but modify only local copies
end

EventWinder.emit SomeEvent

puts variable # modified_from_proc

But mutable structures are OK:

array = [] of String

EventWinder.on SomeEvent do
  array.push "Mutable structures are bad (or not)"
end

EventWinder.emit SomeEvent

puts array # ["Mutable structures are bad (or not)"]

There are a few other possible design choices. For example, I can emit the event without creating a fiber. In this case, every emit will stop until the last handler will receive the event. However, there is no problem with only one handler or with rare events.

The other possible design is not to use channels and handling fiber, but to perform the handler code in the emitting fiber. In this case, the event order cannot be guaranteed, which can be critical in a lot of cases.

Finally, there is an option not to use fibers and channels at all. In this case, emit will stop until all the handlers finish their job, which is usually the worst case.

EventWinder is not designed to fit every case, but only the most simple and common ones. Also, it is designed for real-time systems with a number of simultaneous events in order of thousands. And it is absolutely not designed for communications outside of one process.

Development

I'm using Docker for library development. If you have Docker available, you can use the make command to see the help, powered by make-help project. There are commands for testing, formatting, and documentation.

Contributing

1. Fork it (https://github.com/Xanders/event-winder/fork)
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request