Threaded Stream

In this example, the disruptive.Stream.event_stream() resource method and built-in threading package is used together to continuously stream events in a separate thread, independent of the main program. Every time a new event appears in the stream it is appended to a buffer list which is accessible from the main thread.

Full Example

The following snippet implements the example. Remember to update user-defined variables.

import time
import threading

import disruptive as dt

# User-defined variables.
PROJECT_ID = '<YOUR_PROJECT_ID>'


# Function which will be the target for our thread.
def stream_worker(project_id: str):
    # Create stream generator
    for new_event in dt.Stream.event_stream(project_id):
        # When a new event arrives, lock buffer before writing.
        print('[Thread] New Event')
        with buffer_lock:
            print('\t- locked')
            # Append new event to our buffer.
            event_buffer.append(new_event)
        print('\t- unlocked')


# Initialize the stream buffer list where we will store events.
event_buffer: list = []

# Use locking to avoid corrupting data by writing simultaneously.
buffer_lock = threading.Lock()

# Start the stream worker in a separate thread.
t = threading.Thread(
    target=stream_worker,
    args=(PROJECT_ID,),
)
t.start()

# Do something else while stream is running in the background.
# Here we print and trim the buffer length every 5 second.
while True:
    # Print length of the buffer.
    n_events = len(event_buffer)
    print('[Main] Length: {}/15. Popping {} events.'.format(
        n_events,
        -1*(min(0, 15-n_events)),
    ))

    # Pop older events until buffer is no longer than 15.
    while len(event_buffer) > 15:
        print('\t- pop')
        event_buffer.pop(0)

    # Patiently wait for 5 seconds.
    time.sleep(5)

Step-by-Step Explanation

The package is authenticated as described in the Authentication using environment variables.

When using the threading package, the target code to be ran in the newly spawned thread must be wrapped in a function, here called stream_worker. It’s job is to start the stream generator, then append new events to buffer as they arrive.

# Function which will be the target for our thread.
def stream_worker(project_id):
    # Create stream generator
    for new_event in dt.Stream.event_stream(project_id):
        # When a new event arrives, lock buffer before writing.
        print('[Thread] New Event')
        with buffer_lock:
            print('\t- locked')
            # Append new event to our buffer.
            event_buffer.append(new_event)
        print('\t- unlocked')

Before the thread is spawned using the target stream_worker, a locking object is created. This can be called inside the thread when writing or reading a variable to make sure that other jobs that want to use it, like our main code, has to wait until we finish.

# Use locking to avoid corrupting data by writing simultaneously.
buffer_lock = threading.Lock()

# Start the stream worker in a separate thread.
t = threading.Thread(
    target=stream_worker,
    args=(PROJECT_ID,),
)
t.start()

The rest is simply an infinite while loop that trims the buffer to a certain length every 5 seconds. This is where your main code would go.

# Do something else while stream is running in the background.
# Here we print and trim the buffer length every 5 second.
while True:
    # Print length of the buffer.
    n_events = len(event_buffer)
    print('[Main] Length: {}/15. Popping {} events.'.format(
        n_events,
        -1*(min(0, 15-n_events)),
    ))

    # Pop older events until buffer is no longer than 15.
    while len(event_buffer) > 15:
        print('\t- pop')
        event_buffer.pop(0)

    # Patiently wait for 5 seconds.
    time.sleep(5)