@emartech/program-executor

Program Executor JS

Program executor is a scalable, resilient job framework that is capable of concurrently executing programs, while jobs inside a program are executed in order. Execution can be distributed between resources (multiple workers/threads). It is fault tolerant by storing its progress, so it can continue execution in case of failures.

Prerequisites

• NodeJS 7.10.1+
• RabbitMQ
• Database (Postgres, MSSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite3, Oracle, and Amazon Redshift) and a connected knex instance

Install

npm i -E @emartech/program-executor

Usage

Configuration

Config	Required	Description
knex	true	Connected knex instance (docs).
amqpUrl	true	Connection string for RabbitMQ instance.
tableName	true	The name of the table to store bookkeeping data. The table is created automatically if it does not exist.
queueName	true	RabbitMQ queue used by the executor. The queue is created automatically if it does not exist.

const { ProgramExecutor } = require('@emartech/program-executor');

const config = {
  knex: require('knex')({
    client: 'mysql',
    connection: {
      host: '127.0.0.1',
      user: 'your_database_user',
      password: 'your_database_password',
      database: 'myapp_test'
    }
  }),
  amqpUrl: 'amqp://guest:guest@localhost:9999',
  tableName: 'programs',
  queueName: 'program-executor'
};

const programExecutor = ProgramExecutor.create(config);

How to create a program

Creating a program will add a row to the database table and insert a message into the program queue. A unique runId will be returned, that can be used to query the table and track progress.

Config	Required	Type	Description
jobs	true	Array<String>	Ordered list of job names to be executed.
programData	false	Object	Optional data available for all jobs.
jobsData	false	Object	Optional job specific data keyed by job name.

const runId = await this._programExecutor.createProgram({
  jobs: ['first_job', 'second_job'],
  programData: {
    global: 'data for every job'
  },
  jobData: {
    first_job: {
      property: 'value for first job only'
    },
    second_job: {
      property: 'value for second job only'
    }
  }
});

How to execute programs

In a long-running process (e. g. throng) call processPrograms with a collection of executable jobs (see Job Library).

const throng = require('throng');
const jobLibrary = require('../../../lib/jobs');

throng((id) => {
  ProgramExecutor.create(config).processPrograms(jobLibrary);
});

Built-in logging

This library is using @emartech/json-logger, so in order to see the logs you have to enable the program-executor namespace (DEBUG=...,program-executor*,...) in your environment.

If a program execution fails search for the following pattern in your logs:

{
  "name": "program-executor-<queueName>-consumer",
  "action": "Consumer error finish",
  "event": "Consumer error finish",
  "error_message": "...",
  "error_stack": "...",
  "content": "<whole RabbitMQ message>"
}

Also you may build metrics on "Consumer error retry" events.

Program

A program is a list of jobs to be executed in serial order. Jobs may depend on other job's results higher in the order, because of the serial execution. If any job fails to execute successfully the program will be cancelled, the error will be logged and the remaining jobs will be skipped.

Programs can be executed concurrently, therefore cannot depend on each other. However a job in a program may start another program.

Bookkeeping

The following information will be managed for every program in the configured database table:

Column	Type	Description
id	Integer	Increment id.
run_id	String	Generated UUID of the program.
program_data	Object	Data available for all jobs.
jobs	Array<String>	Ordered list of job names to be executed.
job_data	Object	Job specific data keyed by job name.
step	Integer	Index of the currently executed job. On program error it indicates the job index where the error happened.
step_retry_count	Integer	Indicates the retry count of the current job.
finished_at	Date	Filled in only if the program completed successfully.
errored_at	Date	Filled in only if the program failed permanently.
error_message	String	Contains the message of the last caught error. May be a retryable error message, but in this case errored_at will not be filled.
created_at	Date	Timestamp of program creation.

Job

A job is a individually executable part of a program. It's referred by its name in a program, therefore it has to expose its globally unique name, a static create method that instantiates the job, and an execute method.

• create() will be called with the programData object that may contain globally available data of the program.
• execute() will be called with the queue message and the corresponding jobDataHandler. jobDataHandler is used to manage data specific for the job.

Anatomy

class SampleJob {
  static get name() {
    return 'sample_job_name';
  }

  static create(programData) {
    return new SampleJob(programData);
  }

  constructor(programData) {
    /// ... initialize member variables based on programData if needed
  }

  async execute(message, jobDataHandler) {
    const jobSpecificData = await jobDataHandler.get();

    /// ... do some processing

    // to update the job data with a new object:
    await jobDataHandler.set({ stored: 'progress' });
    // or to partially update job data:
    // (later properties overwrite earlier properties with the same name):
    await jobDataHandler.merge({ stored: 'progress' });
  }
}

module.exports = SampleJob;

Error handling

Generally unhandled job errors will bubble up to the executor where further execution of the program will be terminated. See bookkeeping.

The executor can handle retryable and ignorable errors.

Retryable errors

On transient errors a job can throw a retryable error, so the executor will restart program execution from the specific job. Using the jobDataHandler the job may implement logic so that the job resumes from a stored progress (ie. { currentPage: 50, totalPages: 200 }).

You may use the RetryableError exposed by this library

const { RetryableError } = require('@emartech/program-executor');

or throw any other error with a property retryable: true.

Example RetryableError implementation:

class RetryableError extends Error {
  constructor(message, code) {
    super();
    this.message = message;
    this.code = code;
    RetryableError.decorate(this);
  }

  static decorate(error) {
    error.retryable = true;
    return error;
  }
}

module.exports = RetryableError;

Job library

Job Library is a javascript object containing jobs identified by the job name. Program executor instantiates and executes jobs from the library while working on a program.

Anatomy

class FirstJob {
  static get name() { return 'first_job'; }
  async create() { ... }
  async execute() { ... }
}

class SecondJob {
  static get name() { return 'second_job'; }
  async create() { ... }
  async execute() { ... }
}

const jobLibrary = {
  [FirstJob.name]: FirstJob,
  // ... or manually
  'second_job': SecondJob
}

Helper script to re-export every job from given sub-directories

const glob = require('glob');
const path = require('path');

glob.sync('./server/lib/jobs/+(common|other|folders)/*/index.js').forEach(function (file) {
  const job = require(path.resolve(file));
  const jobName = job.name;

  if (module.exports[job.name]) {
    console.log(`${job.name} job already exists, please choose a unique name!\n\n`);
  }

  module.exports[jobName] = job;
});

Manually stopping a program

To stop a stuck program and remove it from RabbitMq you may set the program's errored_at column manually in the database, and the program will be thrown away in the next execution cycle.

Development

Default Commit Message Format

This module ships with the AngularJS Commit Message Conventions and changelog generator, but you can define your own style.

Each commit message consists of a header, a body and a footer. The header has a special format that includes a type, a scope and a subject and a JIRA ticket id:

<type>(<scope>): <subject>
<BLANK LINE>
<body> - <JIRA ticket id>
<BLANK LINE>
<footer>

Full explanation

Use dev version without releasing

• Run npm link command to create a symlink
• In the other location (eg. ..-connector-service) run npm link @emartech/program-executor
• Now any changes to the lib will be reflected in the service 🎉
• To check if the package is linked run npm ls -g --depth 0
• To reverse run npm unlink @emartech/program-executor && npm i -E @emartech/program-executor

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