Initiate long running processes from a Tomcat server?

[Steve]

Hi,

I'm trying to design a web server where users can login, initiate long
running processes on uploaded files, monitor the progress via a web page and
download some results when the process has finished.

My first attempt was to do the file processing in the servlet, but the
browser timed out eventually! I appreciate this is not the way to solve it!

I was wondering if there is a common mechanism for doing this sort of thing
within a Tomcat server? Are any libraries available?

Thanks for any help.

--
Regards,
Steve

"...which means he created the heaven and the earth... in the DARK! How good
is that?"

[Oliver Wong]

"Steve" <ro**@127.0.0.1 > wrote in message
news:C0B0336E.B C6C%ro**@127.0. 0.1...

Hi,

I'm trying to design a web server where users can login, initiate long
running processes on uploaded files, monitor the progress via a web page
and
download some results when the process has finished.

My first attempt was to do the file processing in the servlet, but the
browser timed out eventually! I appreciate this is not the way to solve
it!

I was wondering if there is a common mechanism for doing this sort of
thing
within a Tomcat server? Are any libraries available?

Thanks for any help.

I don't know about libraries, but you'll basically need to create the
concept of a job. As soon as the user finishes uploading the file, save what
tasks need to be performed on that file, and immediately return to the an
"OK, we'll get to it as soon as possible" message to the user.

Potentially, thousands or millions of users might be uploading files at
the same time, but maybe only 1 or 2 thread is actually going around doing
whatever processing needs to be done.

Users can log in and query the status of the job. Depending on how much
detail you want, you might simply say something like "Job is done", "Job is
running" or "There are 248 jobs in queue before yours", for example.

You can optionally have a notification system (perhaps via e-mail) to
let a user know when their job is done.

- Oliver

[Steve]

On 12/6/06 17:44, in article oRgjg.29575$771 .28803@edtnps89 , "Oliver Wong"
<ow***@castorte ch.com> wrote:

I don't know about libraries, but you'll basically need to create the
concept of a job. As soon as the user finishes uploading the file, save what
tasks need to be performed on that file, and immediately return to the an
"OK, we'll get to it as soon as possible" message to the user.

Potentially, thousands or millions of users might be uploading files at
the same time, but maybe only 1 or 2 thread is actually going around doing
whatever processing needs to be done.

Users can log in and query the status of the job. Depending on how much
detail you want, you might simply say something like "Job is done", "Job is
running" or "There are 248 jobs in queue before yours", for example.

You can optionally have a notification system (perhaps via e-mail) to
let a user know when their job is done.

Thanks very much, Oliver.

My original thinking was along these lines. I'm glad you've confirmed them -
at least I'm going in the right direction!

Its given me something to think about with jobs, job managers, queues, etc.

Thanks again.

--
Regards,
Steve

"...which means he created the heaven and the earth... in the DARK! How good
is that?"