Elixir GenEvent Testing

This project is used to show three methods of adding event handlers to a GenEvent manager.

1. use add_handler:

• this adds a handler to the GenEvent manager, but does not do any supervision and is not fault tolerant

2. use add_mon_handler without handling exits:

• this adds a monitored handler to the GenEvent manager, but does not explicitly handle :gen_event_EXIT messages. instead it relies on crashing the server its in so that it can be restarted by its supervisor

3. user add_mon_handler handle exits:

• this adds a monitored handler to the GenEvent manager, and explicitly handles exits. reading the event handler for any reason that is not :normal or :shutdown

In addition to the three handlers there are also two supervisors. One supervisor manages the three handlers with a :one_for_one strategy. The other manages the GenEvent manager and the handlers supervisor with a :one_for_all strategy. This ensures the handlers are re-added if the manager crashes for any reason.

Generic Event Handler used in module

defmodule EventHandler do
  use GenEvent
  require Logger

  def init(parent) do
    {:ok, parent}
  end

  def handle_event({:log, msg}, parent) do
    "handled log: #{inspect msg} in #{__MODULE__}"
    |> Logger.info

    {:ok, parent}
  end

  def handle_event({:crash, _}, parent) do
    "crash event handler #{__MODULE__}"
    |> Logger.info

    1 = 2
  end

  def handle_event(event, parent) do
    "handled event: #{inspect event} in #{__MODULE__}"
    |> Logger.info

    {:ok, parent}
  end
end

Pattern 1 - basic event handler with no monitoring

defmodule EventHandlerServer do
  def start_link(opts) do
    GenServer.start_link(__MODULE__, opts, []);
  end

  def init([opts]) do
    GenEvent.add_handler(opts.manager_name, EventHandler, self())

    {:ok, opts}
  end
end

Pattern 2 - monitored event handler

defmodule EventHandlerServer do
  def start_link(opts) do
    GenServer.start_link(__MODULE__, opts,[]);
  end

  def init([opts]) do
    :ok = GenEvent.add_mon_handler(opts.manager_name, EventHandler, self())

    {:ok, opts}
  end
end

Pattern 3 - monitored event handler, restarts handler on exit

defmodule EventHandlerServer do
  def start_link(opts) do
    GenServer.start_link(__MODULE__, opts,[]);
  end

  def init([opts]) do
    start_handler(opts)
    {:ok, opts}
  end

  def start_handler(opts) do
    :ok = GenEvent.add_mon_handler(opts.manager_name, EventHandler, self())
  end

  def handle_info({:gen_event_EXIT, handler, reason}, state)
    when reason in [:normal, :shutdown] do
    {:stop, reason, state}
  end

  def handle_info({:gen_event_EXIT, handler, reason}, state) do
    start_handler(state)

    {:noreply, state}
  end
end