API

Overview

The Strolch API revolves around the StrolchTransaction object. The main concept is to implement your use cases in Service implementations. You open a transaction using the openTx(String)-method and then perform the use case by adding your Command instances to the transaction.

Transactions are opened on a StrolchRealm. The realms are used to separate mandates in a single runtime instance of Strolch. Each realm has its own ResourceMap, OrderMap, ActivityMap instances from which the TX retrieves the elements.

Model

The Strolch model is implemented in the project li.strolch.model.

The Strolch model consists of three root level elements: Resource, Order and Activity. Each element has at least the following attributes:

Id → the element’s id
Name → the element’s name
Type → the element’s type

Each root element can have any number of ParameterBag instances on it, which in turn can have any number of Parameters on it. Accessing these objects is always done by their IDs. Strolch root elements are always stored in the respective ElementMaps in their Strolch realm. Thus accessing a certain parameter from a Resource would look like this:

public class Test {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try (StrolchTransaction tx = openTx(realmName)) {
      Resource resource = tx.getResourceBy("MyType", "myResource");
      ZonedDateTime date = resource.getDate("myBag", "myParam1");
      logger.info("myParam date has value " + date);
    }
  }
}

XML Presentation of Strolch’s top level elements of Resources:

<!-- Resource instance -->
<Resource Id="myResource" Name="Test Name" Type="MyType">
  <ParameterBag Id="parameters" Name="Parameters" Type="Parameters">
    <Parameter Id="myParam2" Name="StringList Param" Type="StringList" Value="Hello, World" />
    <Parameter Id="myParam1" Name="Date Param" Type="Date" Value="2012-11-30T18:12:05.628+01:00" />
    <Parameter Id="myParam3" Name="String Param" Type="String" Value="Strolch" />
  </ParameterBag>
  <ParameterBag Id="additionalParameters" Name="Parameters" Type="Parameters">
    <Parameter Id="myParam1" Name="Long Param" Type="Long" Value="4453234566" />
    <Parameter Id="myParam2" Name="Integer Param" Type="Integer" Value="77" />
    <Parameter Id="myParam3" Name="Float Param" Type="Float" Value="44.3" />
    <Parameter Id="myParam4" Name="Boolean Param" Type="Boolean" Value="true" />
  </ParameterBag>
  <TimedState Id="myState" Name="Integer State" Type="IntegerState">
    <Value Time="0" Value="1" />
    <Value Time="1" Value="2" />
    <Value Time="2" Value="3" />
  </TimedState>
</Resource>

XML Presentation of Strolch’s top level elements of Orders:

<!-- Order instance -->
<Order Id="myOrder" Name="Test Name" Type="MyOrderType" Date="2013-11-20T07:42:57.699Z" State="CREATED">
  <ParameterBag Id="parameters" Name="Parameters" Type="Parameters">
    <Parameter Id="myParam2" Name="StringList Param" Type="StringList" Value="Hello, World" />
    <Parameter Id="myParam1" Name="Date Param" Type="Date" Value="2012-11-30T18:12:05.628+01:00" />
    <Parameter Id="myParam3" Name="String Param" Type="String" Value="Strolch" />
  </ParameterBag>
  <ParameterBag Id="additionalParameters" Name="Parameters" Type="Parameters">
    <Parameter Id="myParam1" Name="Long Param" Type="Long" Value="4453234566" />
    <Parameter Id="myParam2" Name="Integer Param" Type="Integer" Value="77" />
    <Parameter Id="myParam3" Name="Float Param" Type="Float" Value="44.3" />
    <Parameter Id="myParam4" Name="Boolean Param" Type="Boolean" Value="true" />
  </ParameterBag>
</Order>

XML Presentation of Strolch’s top level elements of Activities:

<!-- Activity instance -->
<Activity Id="bicycleProduction" Name="Bicycle Production" Type="Series">
  <Activity Id="componentProduction" Name="Production of components" Type="Series">
    <Action Id="consumeGears" Name="Gears" ResourceId="gears" ResourceType="Article" Type="Consume">
      <ParameterBag Id="objectives" Name="Production goals" Type="Objectives">
        <Parameter Id="quantity" Name="Quantity" Type="Float" Value="1"/>
        <Parameter Id="duration" Name="Duration" Type="Duration" Value="PT0S"/>
      </ParameterBag>
    </Action>
    <Activity Id="frameProduction" Name="Production frame" Type="Series">
      <Action Id="produce" Name="Production frame" ResourceId="frameProduction" ResourceType="Machine" Type="Use">
        <ParameterBag Id="objectives" Name="Production goals" Type="Objectives">
          <Parameter Id="quantity" Name="Quantity" Type="Float" Value="1"/>
          <Parameter Id="duration" Name="Duration" Type="Duration" Value="PT5M"/>
        </ParameterBag>
      </Action>
      <Action Id="toStock" Name="Frame ToStock" ResourceId="frame" ResourceType="Article" Type="Produce">
        <ParameterBag Id="objectives" Name="Production goals" Type="Objectives">
          <Parameter Id="quantity" Name="Quantity" Type="Float" Value="1"/>
          <Parameter Id="duration" Name="Duration" Type="Duration" Value="PT1M"/>
        </ParameterBag>
      </Action>
    </Activity>
    <Activity Id="brakeProduction" Name="Herstellen Bremsen" TimeOrdering="Series" Type="Series">
      <Action Id="produce" Name="Production saddle" ResourceId="saddleProduction" ResourceType="Machine" Type="Use">
        <ParameterBag Id="objectives" Name="Production goals" Type="Objectives">
          <Parameter Id="quantity" Name="Quantity" Type="Float" Value="1"/>
          <Parameter Id="duration" Name="Duration" Type="Duration" Value="PT5M"/>
        </ParameterBag>
      </Action>
      <Action Id="toStock" Name="Saddle ToStock" ResourceId="frame" ResourceType="Article" Type="Produce">
        <ParameterBag Id="objectives" Name="Production goals" Type="Objectives">
          <Parameter Id="quantity" Name="Quantity" Type="Float" Value="1"/>
          <Parameter Id="duration" Name="Duration" Type="Duration" Value="PT1M"/>
        </ParameterBag>
      </Action>
    </Activity>
  </Activity>
  <Action Id="assembly" Name="Bicycle assemble" ResourceId="bicycleAssembly" ResourceType="Assembly" Type="Use">
    <ParameterBag Id="objectives" Name="Production goals" Type="Objectives">
      <Parameter Id="quantity" Name="Quantity" Type="Float" Value="1"/>
      <Parameter Id="duration" Name="Duration" Type="Duration" Value="PT5M"/>
    </ParameterBag>
  </Action>
  <Action Id="toStock" Name="Bicycle to stock" ResourceId="bicycle" ResourceType="Product" Type="Produce">
    <ParameterBag Id="objectives" Name="Production goals" Type="Objectives">
      <Parameter Id="quantity" Name="Quantity" Type="Float" Value="1"/>
      <Parameter Id="duration" Name="Duration" Type="Duration" Value="PT1M"/>
    </ParameterBag>
  </Action>
</Activity>

Realms

Strolch realms implement the multi-client capability which is thus baked right into the Strolch runtime. When configuring a Strolch runtime, realms are configured and for each realm the data store mode is set. Each realm has its own persistence configuration and can thus run in one of the 4 modes that the Strolch agent implements:

EMPTY This is a transient data store mode, where no model changes are persisted, but they are only kept in memory. When the Strolch agent is started, this realm stays empty as no data is loaded.
TRANSIENT This is the same as EMPTY, but with the difference that when the Strolch agent is started, an XML file is parsed and the in memory realm is populated with the elements parsed from that XML file.
CACHED In this mode, all data is stored in memory, and any changes made are written back to the persistence layer. This allows for fast in-memory quries, but makes sure no data is lost when the agent is restarted.

Strolch Realms are also responsible for opening Transactions, as these are bound to the persistence layer configured for this realm. At runtime, a realm is then accessed from the ComponentContainer:

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    ComponentContainer container = getAgent().getContainer();
    StrolchRealm realm = container.getRealm(StrolchConstants.DEFAULT_REALM);
    try (StrolchTransaction tx = realm.openTx()) {
      Resource resource = tx.getResourceBy("TestType", "MyTestResource");
    }
  }
}