Distributed Data Structures Map Listening to Map entries with Predicates

Listening to Map Entries with Predicates

You can listen to the modifications performed on specific map entries. You can think of it as an entry listener with predicates. Please see the Listening for Map Events section for information on how to add entry listeners to a map.

IMPORTANT: The default backwards-compatible event publishing strategy only publishes UPDATED events when map entries are updated to a value that matches the predicate with which the listener was registered. This implies that when using the default event publishing strategy, your listener will not be notified about an entry whose value is updated from one that matches the predicate to a new value that does not match the predicate.

Since version 3.7, when you configure Hazelcast members with property hazelcast.map.entry.filtering.natural.event.types set to true, handling of entry updates conceptually treats value transition as entry, update or exit with regards to the predicate value space. The following table compares how a listener is notified about an update to a map entry value under the default backwards-compatible Hazelcast behavior (when property hazelcast.map.entry.filtering.natural.event.types is not set or is set to false) versus when set to true:

As an example, let's listen to the changes made on an employee with the surname "Smith". First, let's create the Employee class.

import java.io.Serializable;

public class Employee implements Serializable {

    private final String surname;

    public Employee(String surname) {
        this.surname = surname;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Employee{" +
                "surname='" + surname + '\'' +
                '}';
    }
}

Then, let's create a listener with predicate by adding a listener that tracks ADDED, UPDATED and REMOVED entry events with the surname predicate.

import com.hazelcast.core.*;
import com.hazelcast.query.SqlPredicate;

public class ListenerWithPredicate {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Config config = new Config();
        config.setProperty("hazelcast.map.entry.filtering.natural.event.types", "true");
        HazelcastInstance hz = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance(config);
        IMap<String, String> map = hz.getMap("map");
        map.addEntryListener(new MyEntryListener(),
                new SqlPredicate("surname=smith"), true);
        System.out.println("Entry Listener registered");
    }

    static class MyEntryListener
            implements EntryAddedListener<String, String>,
                       EntryUpdatedListener<String, String>,
                       EntryRemovedListener<String, String> {
        @Override
        public void entryAdded(EntryEvent<String, String> event) {
            System.out.println("Entry Added:" + event);
        }

        @Override
        public void entryRemoved(EntryEvent<String, String> event); {
            System.out.println("Entry Removed:" + event);
        }

        @Override
        public void entryUpdated(EntryEvent<String, String> event) {
            System.out.println("Entry Updated:" + event);
        }
        
    }
}

And now, let's play with the employee "smith" and see how that employee will be listened to.

import com.hazelcast.core.Hazelcast;
import com.hazelcast.core.HazelcastInstance;
import com.hazelcast.core.IMap;

public class Modify {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Config config = new Config();
        config.setProperty("hazelcast.map.entry.filtering.natural.event.types", "true");
        HazelcastInstance hz = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance(config);
        IMap<String, Employee> map = hz.getMap("map");

        map.put("1", new Employee("smith"));
        map.put("2", new Employee("jordan"));
        System.out.println("done");
        System.exit(0);
    }
}

When you first run the class ListenerWithPredicate and then run Modify, you will see output similar to the listing below.

entryAdded:EntryEvent {Address[192.168.178.10]:5702} key=1,oldValue=null,
value=Person{name= smith }, event=ADDED, by Member [192.168.178.10]:5702

RELATED INFORMATION

Please refer to Continuous Query Cache for more information.