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Distributed Object Events

Listening for Map Events

You can listen to map-level or entry-based events using the listeners provided by the Hazelcast’s eventing framework. To listen to these events, implement a MapListener sub-interface.

A map-level event is fired as a result of a map-level operation, e.g., IMap.clear() or IMap.evictAll(). An entry-based event is fired after the operations that affect a specific entry, e.g., IMap.remove() or IMap.evict().

Here are the listeners for map-level and entry-based events:

  • EntryAddedListener: It is notified when an entry is added to the map.

  • EntryEvictedListener: It is notified when an entry is removed from the map due to size-based eviction. See the Map Eviction section for more information.

  • EntryExpiredListener: It is notified when an entry is removed from the map due to expiration-based eviction (happens when time-to-live and/or maximum idle seconds are configured for the entries). If your listener implements both this one and EntryEvictedListener together, the listener may receive both expiration and eviction events for the same entry; this is because, size-based eviction removes entries regardless of whether entries are expired or not.

  • EntryLoadedListener: It is notified when an entry is loaded by a MapLoader implementation.

  • EntryMergedListener: It is notified when a WAN-replicated entry is merged.

  • EntryRemovedListener: It is notified when an entry is directly removed from the map, for example using IMap’s remove() method or the REST DELETE call.

  • EntryUpdatedListener: It is notified when an entry is updated.

  • EventLostListener: It is notified when events are lost.

  • MapClearedListener: It is notified when all the entries of a map are removed using IMap’s clear() method.

  • MapEvictedListener: It is notified when all the entries of a map are removed using IMap’s `evictAll() method.

  • MapPartitionLostListener: It is notified when the owner and all backups of a partition is lost for a specific map. See the Listening for Lost Map Partitions section for details.

Catching a Map Event

To catch an event, you should explicitly implement a corresponding sub-interface of a MapListener, such as EntryAddedListener or MapClearedListener.

The EntryListener interface still can be implemented (we kept it for backward compatibility reasons). However, if you need to listen to a different event, one that is not available in the EntryListener interface, you should also implement a relevant MapListener sub-interface.

Let’s take a look at the following class example.

public class Listen {

    public static void main( String[] args ) {
        HazelcastInstance hz = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance();
        IMap<String, String> map = hz.getMap( "somemap" );
        map.addEntryListener( new MyEntryListener(), true );
        System.out.println( "EntryListener registered" );
    }

    static class MyEntryListener implements
            EntryAddedListener<String, String>,
            EntryRemovedListener<String, String>,
            EntryUpdatedListener<String, String>,
            EntryEvictedListener<String, String>,
            EntryLoadedListener<String,String>,
            MapEvictedListener,
            MapClearedListener   {
        @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 );
        }

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

        @Override
        public void entryLoaded( EntryEvent<String, String> event ) {
            System.out.println( "Entry Loaded:" + event );
        }
        
        @Override
        public void mapEvicted( MapEvent event ) {
            System.out.println( "Map Evicted:" + event );
        }

        @Override
        public void mapCleared( MapEvent event ) {
            System.out.println( "Map Cleared:" + event );
        }
    }
}

Now, let’s perform some modifications on the map entries using the following example code.

public class ModifyMap {

    public static void main( String[] args ) {
        HazelcastInstance hz = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance();
        IMap<String, String> map = hz.getMap( "somemap");
        String key = "" + System.nanoTime();
        String value = "1";
        map.put( key, value );
        map.put( key, "2" );
        map.delete( key );
    }
}

If you execute the Listen class and then the Modify class, you get the following output produced by the Listen class.

Entry Added:EntryEvent{entryEventType=ADDED, member=Member [192.168.1.100]]:5702
 - ffedb655-bbad-43ea-aee8-d429d37ce528, name='somemap', key=11455268066242,
 oldValue=null, value=1, mergingValue=null}

Entry Updated:EntryEvent{entryEventType=UPDATED, member=Member [192.168.1.100]]:5702
 - ffedb655-bbad-43ea-aee8-d429d37ce528, name='somemap', key=11455268066242,
 oldValue=1, value=2, mergingValue=null}

Entry Removed:EntryEvent{entryEventType=REMOVED, member=Member [192.168.1.100]]:5702
 - ffedb655-bbad-43ea-aee8-d429d37ce528, name='somemap', key=11455268066242,
 oldValue=null, value=null, mergingValue=null}
Please note that the method IMap.clear() does not fire an "EntryRemoved" event, but fires a "MapCleared" event.
Listeners have to offload all blocking operations to another thread (pool).

Listening for Lost Map Partitions

You can listen to MapPartitionLostEvent instances by registering an implementation of MapPartitionLostListener, which is also a sub-interface of MapListener.

Let’s consider the following example code:

public class ListenMapPartitionLostEvents {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Config config = new Config();
        // keeps its data if a single node crashes
        config.getMapConfig("map").setBackupCount(1);

        HazelcastInstance instance = HazelcastInstanceFactory.newHazelcastInstance(config);

        IMap<Object, Object> map = instance.getMap("map");
        map.put(0, 0);

        map.addPartitionLostListener(new MapPartitionLostListener() {
            @Override
            public void partitionLost(MapPartitionLostEvent event) {
                System.out.println(event);
            }
        });
    }
}

Within this example code, a MapPartitionLostListener implementation is registered to a map that is configured with one backup. For this particular map and any of the partitions in the system, if the partition owner member and its first backup member crash simultaneously, the given MapPartitionLostListener receives a corresponding MapPartitionLostEvent. If only a single member crashes in the cluster, there is no MapPartitionLostEvent fired for this map since backups for the partitions owned by the crashed member are kept on other members.

See the Listening for Partition Lost Events section for more information about partition lost detection and partition lost events.

Registering Map Listeners

After you create your listener class, you can configure your cluster to include map listeners using the method addEntryListener (as you can see in the example Listen class above). Below is the related portion from this code, showing how to register a map listener.

HazelcastInstance hz = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance();
IMap<String, String> map = hz.getMap( "somemap" );
map.addEntryListener( new MyEntryListener(), true );

With the above approach, there is the possibility of missing events between the creation of the instance and registering the listener. To overcome this race condition, Hazelcast allows you to register listeners in configuration. You can register listeners using declarative, programmatic, or Spring configuration, as shown below.

The following is an example programmatic configuration.

mapConfig.addEntryListenerConfig(
new EntryListenerConfig( "com.yourpackage.MyEntryListener",
                                 false, false ) );

The following is an example of the equivalent declarative configuration.

  • XML

  • YAML

  • Spring

<hazelcast>
    ...
    <map name="somemap">
        <entry-listeners>
            <entry-listener include-value="false" local="false">
                com.yourpackage.MyEntryListener
            </entry-listener>
        </entry-listeners>
    </map>
    ...
</hazelcast>
hazelcast:
  somemap:
    map:
      entry-listeners:
        - class-name: com.your-package.MyEntryListener
          include-value: false
          local: false
<hz:map name="somemap">
    <hz:entry-listeners>
        <hz:entry-listener include-value="true"
            class-name="com.hazelcast.spring.DummyEntryListener"/>
        <hz:entry-listener implementation="dummyEntryListener" local="true"/>
    </hz:entry-listeners>
</hz:map>

Map Listener Attributes

As you see, there are attributes of the map listeners in the above examples: include-value and local. The attribute include-value is a boolean attribute that is optional, and if you set it to true, the map event contains the map value. Its default value is true.

The attribute local is also a boolean attribute that is optional, and if you set it to true, you can listen to the map on the local member. Its default value is false.

Listening for MultiMap Events

You can listen to entry-based events in the MultiMap using EntryListener. The following is an example entry listener implementation for MultiMap.

public class ExampleEntryListener implements EntryListener<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 );
    }
    @Override
    public void entryEvicted(EntryEvent<String, String> event) {
        System.out.println( "Entry evicted: " + event );
    }
    @Override
    public void mapCleared(MapEvent event) {
        System.out.println( "Map Cleared: " + event );
    }
    @Override
    public void mapEvicted(MapEvent event) {
        System.out.println( "Map Evicted: " + event );
    }
}

Registering MultiMap Listeners

After you create your listener class, you can configure your cluster to include MultiMap listeners using the method addEntryListener. Below is the related portion from a code, showing how to register a map listener.

HazelcastInstance hz = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance();
MultiMap<String, String> map = hz.getMultiMap( "somemap" );
map.addEntryListener( new ExampleEntryListener(), true );

With the above approach, there is the possibility of missing events between the creation of the instance and registering the listener. To overcome this race condition, Hazelcast allows you to register listeners in the configuration. You can register listeners using declarative, programmatic, or Spring configuration, as shown below.

The following is an example programmatic configuration.

multiMapConfig.addEntryListenerConfig(
  new EntryListenerConfig( "com.yourpackage.ExampleEntryListener",
    false, false ) );

The following is an example of the equivalent declarative configuration.

  • XML

  • YAML

  • Spring

<hazelcast>
    ...
    <multimap name="somemap">
        <value-collection-type>SET</value-collection-type>
        <entry-listeners>
            <entry-listener include-value="false" local="false">
                com.yourpackage.ExampleEntryListener
            </entry-listener>
        </entry-listeners>
    </multimap>
    ...
</hazelcast>
hazelcast:
  multimap:
    somemap:
      value-collection: SET
      entry-listeners:
        - class-name: com.your-package.MyEntryListener
          include-value: false
          local: false
<hz:multimap name="somemap" value-collection-type="SET">
    <hz:entry-listeners>
        <hz:entry-listener include-value="false"
            class-name="com.yourpackage.ExampleEntryListener"/>
        <hz:entry-listener implementation="EntryListener" local="false"/>
    </hz:entry-listeners>
</hz:multimap>

MultiMap Listener Attributes

As you see, there are attributes of the MultiMap listeners in the above examples: include-value and local. The attribute include-value is a boolean attribute that is optional, and if you set it to true, the MultiMap event contains the map value. Its default value is true.

The attribute local is also a boolean attribute that is optional, and if you set it to true, you can listen to the MultiMap on the local member. Its default value is false.

Listening for Item Events

The Item Listener is used by the Hazelcast IQueue, ISet and IList interfaces.

To write an Item Listener class, you implement the ItemListener interface and its methods itemAdded and itemRemoved. These methods are invoked when an item is added or removed.

The following is an example Item Listener class for an ISet structure.

public class ExampleItemListener implements ItemListener<Price> {

    @Override
    public void itemAdded(ItemEvent<Price> event) {
        System.out.println( "Item added:  " + event );
    }

    @Override
    public void itemRemoved(ItemEvent<Price> event) {
        System.out.println( "Item removed: " + event );
    }
}
You can use ICollection when creating any of the collection (queue, set and list) data structures, as shown above. You can also use IQueue, ISet or IList instead of ICollection.

Registering Item Listeners

After you create your class, you can configure your cluster to include item listeners. Below is an example using the method addItemListener for ISet (it applies also to IQueue and IList). You can also see this portion in the above class creation.

HazelcastInstance hazelcastInstance = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance();

ICollection<Price> set = hazelcastInstance.getSet( "default" );
// or ISet<Prices> set = hazelcastInstance.getSet( "default" );
set.addItemListener( new ExampleItemListener(), true );

With the above approach, there is the possibility of missing events between the creation of the instance and registering the listener. To overcome this race condition, Hazelcast allows you to register listeners in the configuration. You can register listeners using declarative, programmatic, or Spring configuration, as shown below.

The following is an example programmatic configuration.

setConfig.addItemListenerConfig(
new ItemListenerConfig( "com.yourpackage.ExampleItemListener", true ) );

The following is an example of the equivalent declarative configuration.

  • XML

  • YAML

  • Spring

<hazelcast>
    ...
    <set>
        <item-listeners>
            <item-listener include-value="true">
                com.yourpackage.ExampleItemListener
            </item-listener>
        </item-listeners>
    </set>
    ...
</hazelcast>
hazelcast:
  set:
    default:
      item-listeners:
        - class-name: com.yourpackage.ExampleItemListener
          include-value: true
<hz:set name="default" >
    <hz:item-listeners>
        <hz:item-listener include-value="true"
            class-name="com.yourpackage.ExampleItemListener"/>
    </hz:item-listeners>
</hz:set>

Item Listener Attributes

As you see, there is an attribute in the above examples: include-value. It is a boolean attribute that is optional, and if you set it to true, the item event contains the item value. Its default value is true.

There is also another attribute called local, which is not shown in the above examples. It is also a boolean attribute that is optional, and if you set it to true, you can listen to the items on the local member. Its default value is false.

Listening for Topic Messages

The Message Listener is used by the ITopic interface. It notifies when a message is received for the registered topic.

To write a Message Listener class, you implement the MessageListener interface and its method onMessage, which is invoked when a message is received for the registered topic.

The following is an example Message Listener class.

public class ExampleMessageListener implements MessageListener<MyEvent> {

    public void onMessage( Message<MyEvent> message ) {
        MyEvent myEvent = message.getMessageObject();
        System.out.println( "Message received = " + myEvent.toString() );
    }
}

Registering Message Listeners

After you create your class, you can configure your cluster to include message listeners. Below is an example using the method addMessageListener.

HazelcastInstance hazelcastInstance = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance();

ITopic topic = hazelcastInstance.getTopic( "default" );
topic.addMessageListener( new ExampleMessageListener() );

With the above approach, there is the possibility of missing messaging events between the creation of the instance and registering the listener. To overcome this race condition, Hazelcast allows you to register this listener in the configuration. You can register it using declarative, programmatic, or Spring configuration, as shown below.

The following is an example programmatic configuration.

topicConfig.addMessageListenerConfig(
  new ListenerConfig( "com.yourpackage.ExampleMessageListener" ) );

The following is an example of the equivalent declarative configuration.

  • XML

  • YAML

  • Spring

<hazelcast>
    ...
    <topic name="default">
        <message-listeners>
            <message-listener>
                com.yourpackage.ExampleMessageListener
            </message-listener>
        </message-listeners>
    </topic>
    ...
</hazelcast>
hazelcast:
  topic:
    default:
      message-listeners:
        - com.yourpackage.ExampleMessageListener
<hz:topic name="default">
    <hz:message-listeners>
        <hz:message-listener
            class-name="com.yourpackage.ExampleMessageListener"/>
    </hz:message-listeners>
</hz:topic>