= Vert.x Circuit Breaker

Vert.x Circuit Breaker is an implementation of the Circuit Breaker _pattern_ for Vert.x. It keeps track of the
number of failures and _opens the circuit_ when a threshold is reached. Optionally, a fallback is executed.

Supported failures are:

* failures reported by your code in a `link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/core/Future.html[Future]`
* exception thrown by your code
* uncompleted futures (timeout)

Operations guarded by a circuit breaker are intended to be non-blocking and asynchronous in order to benefit from
the Vert.x execution model.

== Using the vert.x circuit breaker

To use the Vert.x Circuit Breaker, add the following dependency to the _dependencies_ section of your build
descriptor:

* Maven (in your `pom.xml`):

[source,xml,subs="+attributes"]
----
<dependency>
 <groupId>io.vertx</groupId>
 <artifactId>vertx-circuit-breaker</artifactId>
 <version>3.9.9</version>
</dependency>
----

* Gradle (in your `build.gradle` file):

[source,groovy,subs="+attributes"]
----
compile 'io.vertx:vertx-circuit-breaker:3.9.9'
----

== Using the circuit breaker

To use the circuit breaker you need to:

1. Create a circuit breaker, with the configuration you want (timeout, number of failure before opening the circuit)
2. Execute some code using the breaker

**Important**: Don't recreate a circuit breaker on every call. A circuit breaker is a staful entity. It is recommended
to store the circuit breaker instance in a field.

Here is an example:

[source,kotlin]
----
var breaker = CircuitBreaker.create("my-circuit-breaker", vertx, CircuitBreakerOptions(
  maxFailures = 5,
  timeout = 2000,
  fallbackOnFailure = true,
  resetTimeout = 10000))

// ---
// Store the circuit breaker in a field and access it as follows
// ---

breaker.execute<Any>({ future ->
  // some code executing with the breaker
  // the code reports failures or success on the given future.
  // if this future is marked as failed, the breaker increased the
  // number of failures
}).setHandler({ ar ->
  // Get the operation result.
})

----

The executed block receives a `link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/core/Future.html[Future]` object as parameter, to denote the
success or failure of the operation as well as the result. For example in the following example, the result is the
output of a REST endpoint invocation:

[source,kotlin]
----
var breaker = CircuitBreaker.create("my-circuit-breaker", vertx, CircuitBreakerOptions(
  maxFailures = 5,
  timeout = 2000))

// ---
// Store the circuit breaker in a field and access it as follows
// ---

breaker.execute<String>({ future ->
  vertx.createHttpClient().getNow(8080, "localhost", "/", { response ->
    if (response.statusCode() != 200) {
      future.fail("HTTP error")
    } else {
      response.exceptionHandler({ future.fail(it) }).bodyHandler({ buffer ->
        future.complete(buffer.toString())
      })
    }
  })
}).setHandler({ ar ->
  // Do something with the result
})

----

The result of the operation is provided using the:

* returned `link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/core/Future.html[Future]` when calling `execute` methods
* provided `link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/core/Future.html[Future]` when calling the `executeAndReport` methods

Optionally, you can provide a fallback which is executed when the circuit is open:

[source,kotlin]
----
var breaker = CircuitBreaker.create("my-circuit-breaker", vertx, CircuitBreakerOptions(
  maxFailures = 5,
  timeout = 2000))

// ---
// Store the circuit breaker in a field and access it as follows
// ---

breaker.executeWithFallback({ future ->
  vertx.createHttpClient().getNow(8080, "localhost", "/", { response ->
    if (response.statusCode() != 200) {
      future.fail("HTTP error")
    } else {
      response.exceptionHandler({ future.fail(it) }).bodyHandler({ buffer ->
        future.complete(buffer.toString())
      })
    }
  })
}, { v ->
  // Executed when the circuit is opened
  return "Hello"
}).setHandler({ ar ->
  // Do something with the result
})

----

The fallback is called whenever the circuit is open, or if the
`link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/circuitbreaker/CircuitBreakerOptions.html#isFallbackOnFailure--[isFallbackOnFailure]` is enabled. When a fallback is
set, the result is using the output of the fallback function. The fallback function takes as parameter a
`link:../../apidocs/java/lang/Throwable.html[Throwable]` object and returns an object of the expected type.

The fallback can also be set on the `link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/circuitbreaker/CircuitBreaker.html[CircuitBreaker]` object directly:

[source,kotlin]
----
var breaker = CircuitBreaker.create("my-circuit-breaker", vertx, CircuitBreakerOptions(
  maxFailures = 5,
  timeout = 2000)).fallback({ v ->
  // Executed when the circuit is opened.
  return "hello"
})

breaker.execute<Any>({ future ->
  vertx.createHttpClient().getNow(8080, "localhost", "/", { response ->
    if (response.statusCode() != 200) {
      future.fail("HTTP error")
    } else {
      response.exceptionHandler({ future.fail(it) }).bodyHandler({ buffer ->
        future.complete(buffer.toString())
      })
    }
  })
})

----

== Retries

You can also specify how often the circuit breaker should try your code before failing with
`link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/circuitbreaker/CircuitBreakerOptions.html#setMaxRetries-int-[setMaxRetries]`.
If you set this to something higher than 0 your code gets executed several times before finally failing
in the last execution. If the code succeeded in one of the retries your handler gets notified and any
retries left are skipped. Retries are only supported when the circuit is closed.

Notice that if you set `maxRetries` to 2 for instance, your operation may be called 3 times: the initial attempt
and 2 retries.

By default the timeout between retries is set to 0 which means that retries will be executed one after another without
any delay. This, however, will result in increased load on the called service and may delay it's recovery.
In order to mitigate this problem it is recommended to execute retries with delays. `link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/circuitbreaker/CircuitBreaker.html#retryPolicy-java.util.function.Function-[retryPolicy]`
method can be used to specify retry policy. Retry policy is a function which receives retry count as single argument
and returns timeout in milliseconds before retry is executed and allows to implement a more complex policy, e.g.
exponential backoff with jitter. Below is an example of retry timeout which grows linearly with each retry count:

[source,kotlin]
----
var breaker = CircuitBreaker.create("my-circuit-breaker", vertx, CircuitBreakerOptions(
  maxFailures = 5,
  maxRetries = 5,
  timeout = 2000)).openHandler({ v ->
  println("Circuit opened")
}).closeHandler({ v ->
  println("Circuit closed")
}).retryPolicy({ retryCount ->
  retryCount * 100L
})

breaker.execute<Any>({ future ->
  vertx.createHttpClient().getNow(8080, "localhost", "/", { response ->
    if (response.statusCode() != 200) {
      future.fail("HTTP error")
    } else {
      // Do something with the response
      future.complete()
    }
  })
})

----

== Callbacks

You can also configures callbacks invoked when the circuit is opened or closed:

[source,kotlin]
----
var breaker = CircuitBreaker.create("my-circuit-breaker", vertx, CircuitBreakerOptions(
  maxFailures = 5,
  timeout = 2000)).openHandler({ v ->
  println("Circuit opened")
}).closeHandler({ v ->
  println("Circuit closed")
})

breaker.execute<Any>({ future ->
  vertx.createHttpClient().getNow(8080, "localhost", "/", { response ->
    if (response.statusCode() != 200) {
      future.fail("HTTP error")
    } else {
      // Do something with the response
      future.complete()
    }
  })
})

----

You can also be notified when the circuit breaker decides to attempt to reset (half-open state). You can register
such a callback with `link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/circuitbreaker/CircuitBreaker.html#halfOpenHandler-io.vertx.core.Handler-[halfOpenHandler]`.

== Event bus notification

Every time the circuit state changes, an event is published on the event bus. The address on which the events are
sent is configurable with
`link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/circuitbreaker/CircuitBreakerOptions.html#setNotificationAddress-java.lang.String-[setNotificationAddress]`. If `null` is
passed to this method, the notifications are disabled. By default, the used address is `vertx.circuit-breaker`.

Each event contains a Json Object with:

* `state` : the new circuit breaker state (`OPEN`, `CLOSED`, `HALF_OPEN`)
* `name` : the name of the circuit breaker
* `failures` : the number of failures
* `node` : the identifier of the node (`local` if Vert.x is not running in cluster mode)

== The half-open state

When the circuit is "open", calls to the circuit breaker fail immediately, without any attempt to execute the real
operation. After a suitable amount of time (configured from
`link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/circuitbreaker/CircuitBreakerOptions.html#setResetTimeout-long-[setResetTimeout]`, the circuit breaker decides that the
operation has a chance of succeeding, so it goes into the `half-open` state. In this state, the next call to the
circuit breaker is allowed to execute the dangerous operation. Should the call succeed, the circuit breaker resets
and returns to the `closed` state, ready for more routine operation. If this trial call fails, however, the circuit
breaker returns to the `open` state until another timeout elapses.

== Reported exceptions

The fallback receives a:

* `link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/circuitbreaker/OpenCircuitException.html[OpenCircuitException]` when the circuit breaker is opened
* `link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/circuitbreaker/TimeoutException.html[TimeoutException]` when the operation timed out

== Pushing circuit breaker metrics to the Hystrix Dashboard

Netflix Hystrix comes with a dashboard to present the current state of the circuit breakers. The Vert.x circuit
breakers can publish their metrics in order to be consumed by this Hystrix Dashboard. The Hystrix dashboard requires
a SSE stream sending the metrics. This stream is provided by the
`link:../../apidocs/io/vertx/circuitbreaker/HystrixMetricHandler.html[HystrixMetricHandler]` Vert.x Web Handler:


[source,kotlin]
----
// Create the circuit breaker as usual.
var breaker = CircuitBreaker.create("my-circuit-breaker", vertx)
var breaker2 = CircuitBreaker.create("my-second-circuit-breaker", vertx)

// Create a Vert.x Web router
var router = Router.router(vertx)
// Register the metric handler
router.get("/hystrix-metrics").handler(HystrixMetricHandler.create(vertx))

// Create the HTTP server using the router to dispatch the requests
vertx.createHttpServer().requestHandler(router).listen(8080)


----

In the Hystrix Dashboard, configure the stream url like: `http://localhost:8080/metrics`. The dashboard now consumes
the metrics from the Vert.x circuit breakers.

Notice that the metrics are collected by the Vert.x Web handler using the event bus notifications. If you don't use
the default notification address, you need to pass it when creating the metrics handler.

