temporalio / temporalio/sdk-java

Reuse of ActivityStubs from another workflow should produce a usable diagnostic or be allowed

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enhancement
Dominant language
Java
Stars
433
Forks
249
Avg merge
5d 6h
Merged PRs (30d)
26

Description

Expected Behavior

ActivityStubs should be created for each workflow instance / execution separately.

But if somebody uses Dependency Injection frameworks with Temporal it's very easy to misconfigure the wiring (for example, by making them lazily initialized on first usage singletons) in a way that activity stubs will be leaking between workflow instances.
We should detect or provide better protection or diagnostic if this happens that actually helps to understand the problem.

Actual Behavior

Cryptic Event Loop error that makes to look in a completely wrong direction.

        Caused by:
        io.temporal.failure.ApplicationFailure: message='Operation allowed only while eventLoop is running', type='java.lang.IllegalStateException', nonRetryable=false
            at io.temporal.internal.statemachines.WorkflowStateMachines.checkEventLoopExecuting(WorkflowStateMachines.java:915)
            at io.temporal.internal.statemachines.WorkflowStateMachines.randomUUID(WorkflowStateMachines.java:611)
            at io.temporal.internal.replay.ReplayWorkflowContextImpl.randomUUID(ReplayWorkflowContextImpl.java:93)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.SyncWorkflowContext.constructExecuteLocalActivityParameters(SyncWorkflowContext.java:351)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.SyncWorkflowContext.executeLocalActivityOnce(SyncWorkflowContext.java:292)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.SyncWorkflowContext.executeLocalActivityOnce(SyncWorkflowContext.java:275)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.SyncWorkflowContext.lambda$executeLocalActivity$a6925f48$1(SyncWorkflowContext.java:269)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.WorkflowRetryerInternal.retryAsync(WorkflowRetryerInternal.java:232)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.SyncWorkflowContext.executeLocalActivity(SyncWorkflowContext.java:268)
            at io.temporal.common.interceptors.WorkflowOutboundCallsInterceptorBase.executeLocalActivity(WorkflowOutboundCallsInterceptorBase.java:48)
            at io.temporal.opentracing.internal.OpenTracingWorkflowOutboundCallsInterceptor.executeLocalActivity(OpenTracingWorkflowOutboundCallsInterceptor.java:70)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.LocalActivityStubImpl.executeAsync(LocalActivityStubImpl.java:50)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.ActivityStubBase.execute(ActivityStubBase.java:38)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.LocalActivityStubImpl.execute(LocalActivityStubImpl.java:29)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.LocalActivityInvocationHandler.lambda$getActivityFunc$0(LocalActivityInvocationHandler.java:72)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.ActivityInvocationHandlerBase.invoke(ActivityInvocationHandlerBase.java:70)
            at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy158.execute(Unknown Source:0)
            <!-- a project specific workflow code -->
            at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method:0)
            at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
            at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
            at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:566)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.POJOWorkflowImplementationFactory$POJOWorkflowImplementation$RootWorkflowInboundCallsInterceptor.execute(POJOWorkflowImplementationFactory.java:321)
            at io.temporal.common.interceptors.WorkflowInboundCallsInterceptorBase.execute(WorkflowInboundCallsInterceptorBase.java:37)
            at io.temporal.opentracing.internal.OpenTracingWorkflowInboundCallsInterceptor.execute(OpenTracingWorkflowInboundCallsInterceptor.java:72)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.POJOWorkflowImplementationFactory$POJOWorkflowImplementation.execute(POJOWorkflowImplementationFactory.java:295)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.WorkflowExecuteRunnable.run(WorkflowExecuteRunnable.java:53)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.SyncWorkflow.lambda$start$0(SyncWorkflow.java:131)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.CancellationScopeImpl.run(CancellationScopeImpl.java:101)
            at io.temporal.internal.sync.WorkflowThreadImpl$RunnableWrapper.run(WorkflowThreadImpl.java:110)
            at java.base/java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:515)
            at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
            at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
            at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
            at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:829)

This specific issue happened with DI wiring using Dagger

Alternative

There is no reason for ActivityStub that is a pair of ActivityType, ActivityOptions to don't be workflow context-independent. We can make internal changes to make them safely shareable, which is probably a better user experience.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with ActivityStubBase, LocalActivityStubImpl, and the WorkflowStateMachines.checkEventLoopExecuting path shown in the stack trace. Reproduce the failure with ActivityStubs shared across workflow instances, including the described Dagger wiring. Done means the misuse produces a useful diagnostic or the stub can be safely shared, with regression coverage for the chosen behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
backend-api-design, distributed-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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