Tuning copy operations with the ObjectTransformer interface

The ObjectTransformer interface uses callbacks to the application to provide custom implementations of common and expensive operations such as object serialization and deep copies on objects.

Deprecated feature The ObjectTransformer interface has been replaced by the DataSerializer plug-ins, which you can use to efficiently store arbitrary data in WebSphere® eXtreme Scale so that existing product APIs can efficiently interact with your data.

Overview

Copies of values are always made except when the NO_COPY mode is used. The default copying mechanism that is employed in eXtreme Scale is serialization, which is known as an expensive operation. The ObjectTransformer interface is used in this situation. The ObjectTransformer interface uses callbacks to the application to provide a custom implementation of common and expensive operations, such as object serialization and deep copies on objects.

An application can provide an implementation of the ObjectTransformer interface to a map, and eXtreme Scale then delegates to the methods on this object and relies on the application to provide an optimized version of each method in the interface. The ObjectTransformer interface follows:

public interface ObjectTransformer {
    void serializeKey(Object key, ObjectOutputStream stream) throws IOException;
    void serializeValue(Object value, ObjectOutputStream stream) throws IOException;
    Object inflateKey(ObjectInputStream stream) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException;
    Object inflateValue(ObjectInputStream stream) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException;
    Object copyValue(Object value);
    Object copyKey(Object key);
}

You can associate an ObjectTransformer interface with a BackingMap by using the following example code:

ObjectGrid g = ...;
BackingMap bm = g.defineMap("PERSON");
MyObjectTransformer ot = new MyObjectTransformer();
bm.setObjectTransformer(ot);

Tune deep copy operations

After an application receives an object from an ObjectMap, eXtreme Scale performs a deep copy on the object value to ensure that the copy in the BaseMap map maintains data integrity. The application can then modify the object value safely. When the transaction commits, the copy of the object value in the BaseMap map is updated to the new modified value and the application stops using the value from that point on. You could have copied the object again at the commit phase to make a private copy. However, in this case the performance cost of this action was traded off against requiring the application programmer not to use the value after the transaction commits. The default ObjectTransformer attempts to use either a clone or a serialize and inflate pair to generate a copy. The serialize and inflate pair is the worst case performance scenario. If profiling reveals that serialize and inflate is a problem for your application, write an appropriate clone method to create a deep copy. If you cannot alter the class, then create a custom ObjectTransformer plug-in and implement more efficient copyValue and copyKey methods.