Initial docs for async support

_layouts/bootstrap.html

@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@
                 Handlers</a></li>
             <li data-section="debug"><a href="{{site.baseurl}}/doc/debugging.html">
                 Debugging</a></li>
+            <li data-section="asynchronous"><a href="{{site.baseurl}}/doc/asynchronous-resources.html">
+                Asynchronous resources</a></li>    
             <!-- Doesn't exist yet
             <li data-section="integration"><a href="{{site.baseurl}}/doc/integration.html">
                 Integration</a></li>

changelog.md

@@ -4,6 +4,12 @@ title: Changelog
 ---
 # Changelog
 
+# New in 0.12.0
+
+* Async support. Resource functions may now return core.async channels to
+  trigger non blocking mode, in which case the resource execution will
+  itself return a channel onto which the eventual response will be placed.
+
 # New in 0.11.0
 
 * \#97 Adds support for a default resource definition map parameter

doc/asynchronous-resources.md

@@ -0,0 +1,133 @@
+---
+layout: default
+title: Asynchronous Resources
+---
+# Asynchronous Resources <span class="label label-info">since 0.12.0</span>
+
+The [core.async](https://github.com/clojure/core.async) library provides an
+excellent set of facilities for asynchronous (strictly speaking: concurrent
+sequential) programming which, when paired with event-driven / non-blocking
+web servers such as [Aleph](https://github.com/ztellman/aleph),
+[HTTP Kit](http://http-kit.org) or [Netty](http://netty.io/)
+allows us to create web services with extremely desirable scaling
+characteristics and performance under load.
+Liberator integrates with core.async in order to allow resource functions
+(decisions, actions, handlers and directives) to execute, near seamlessly, in a
+non-blocking fashion; simply return true from the new ````:async?```` decision
+to enable async support, then return a channel from any resource function to
+switch liberator into non-blocking mode. The returned channel must eventually
+yield the appropriate result depending on the resource function type, or an
+````Exception````. The resource execution will return a skeleton response
+object containing only a ````:body```` key whose value will be a channel onto
+which the eventual response will be placed (rather than yielding the response
+directly).
+
+Note that there is no requirement to return a channel from *every* resource
+function; use them only where processing may block on IO, and return "normal"
+clojure values from pure functions.
+
+## Simple Example
+
+The following, contrived, example shows a simple non-blocking resource (but
+see the section called [Channel Caveats](#channel_caveats) before using the
+example directly):
+
+{% highlight clojure %}
+(require '[clojure.core.async :refer (go <!)])
+
+(defresource user-resource
+  [userId]
+  :async? true
+  :handle-not-found
+  (fn [_] (str "User id: " userId " not found"))
+  :exists?
+  (fn [ctx]
+    (go
+      (when-let [user (<! (get-user-from-db-async userId))]
+        {:user user})))
+  :handle-ok
+  (fn [{:keys [user] :as ctx}]
+    (str "User id: " userId ", user name: " (:name user))))
+{% endhighlight %}
+
+## Web Server Integration
+
+Integrating asynchronous responses may vary depending on the web server being
+used, but will most likely involve writing some
+[Ring middleware](https://github.com/ring-clojure/ring/wiki/Concepts#middleware).
+An example piece of middleware for [HTTP Kit](http://http-kit.org) is shown below:
+
+{% highlight clojure %}
+(require '[clojure.core.async :refer [take!]]
+         '[liberator.async :refer [async-response]]
+         '[org.httpkit.server :refer [close send! with-channel]])
+
+(defn wrap-async
+  [f]
+  (fn [request]
+    (let [raw-response (f request)]
+      ;; Only switch to async when neccessary; allows us to support sync
+      ;; and async handling.
+      (if-let [response-channel (async-response raw-response)]
+        (with-channel request out-channel
+          (take! response-channel
+                 (fn [response]
+                   (send! out-channel response)
+                   (close out-channel))
+                 false))
+        raw-response))))
+{% endhighlight %}
+
+## Channel Caveats
+
+Liberator does not (currently) perform any form of timeout handling
+(````alt!```` etc.) on the channels returned by resource functions.
+It is important, therefore, to ensure that all channels returned from
+such functions *will* eventually yield a value, or else liberator
+handling of the request will deadlock.
+There are two main areas that need to be considered when implementing resource
+functions which support this: *third party channels* and *exception handling*.
+
+*Third party channels* are any channel that may not ever return a response;
+for example if you are using a non blocking HTTP client library such as
+HTTP Kit (and have bridged it to core.async channels), then you should
+ensure either that your requests will always deliver *some* sort of response
+to the channel, or else use ````alt!```` in combination with a ````timeout````
+inside your resource function and respond accordingly.
+
+*Exception handling* is a concern because core.async ````go```` blocks run
+inside their own executor pool, and any exceptions thrown from inside a
+block will not propagate out of it (as they would for normal code).
+Liberator allows for this, while maintaining reasonable semantics, by
+checking if the value returned from a channel is an ````Exception````;
+if it is then the value is rethrown at the point where it is read
+(as per traditional resource execution). Clients need only ensure that
+any exceptions thrown from their own code are placed onto the response
+channel rather than discarded by the executor. The simplest way to achieve
+this is with a ````go?```` macro wrapper around core.async ````go```` which
+catches any thrown exceptions and places them onto the return channel.
+Liberator provides this macro, along with several others, in the
+````liberator.async```` namespace (see below).
+
+## Async Utilities
+
+Liberator provides several macros in the ````liberator.async```` namespace
+designed to make integrating and working with non-blocking resources as
+straightforward and error-free as possible.
+
+The ````go?```` macro executes its body inside a core.async ````go```` block,
+but catches any exceptions which would otherwise propagate outside the block,
+and places them onto the result channel. It is often used in conjunction
+with ````<?````, a wrapper around core.async ````<!```` which performs the
+channel read, checks if the resulting value is an ````Exception````, and if
+so throws it. ````channel?```` can be used to test if a value is a core.async
+channel, and is intended for use in integration code.
+Rounding out the integration functions are ````async-response````, which
+checks if a response map contains a ````:body```` which is a channel, and if
+so returns it
+(see the [web server integration example](#web_server_integration))
+and ````async-middleware```` which can be used to create async aware
+middleware functions from a pair of request and response handling functions,
+such as those found in
+[ring-core](https://github.com/ring-clojure/ring/tree/master/ring-core).
+