Programming

From JPPF Documentation version 2.x

Base concepts

This page presents the basic (and most common use) of the JPPF APIs.

The JPPFJob API and JPPF-annotated tasks

Introduced in JPPF 1.5, new APIs bring a simplification of the client APIs, along with additional ways to create tasks from existing code, while keeping full compatibility with previous JPPF versions. JPPF 1.6 introduces the ability to use POJOs directly as tasks and extends the annotation capabilities to constructors, as well as the capability to use existing POJOs as tasks.

Using non-serializable classes in a task

We have seen that a JPPF task requires the use of serializable classes for the type of its instance variables, or any object that is part of its object graph. Sometimes, however, the source code of these classes is not accessible (for instance in a 3rd-party library) and it may be an issue to use these classes with JPPF.
Here, we are presenting an overview of 2 ways to get around this limitation.

Running a non-Java program or script

JPPF has a pre-defined task type that allows you to run an external process from a task. This process can be any executable program (including java), shell script or command. The JPPF API also provides a set of simple classes to access data, whether in-process or outside, local or remote.

Caveats & Pitfalls

Some common problems are described in these sections.