FAQ

How do I configure SLF4J?

To configure SLF4J in Gradle project:

  1. Add a log4j-test.properties under the directory of the java test.

  2. Add the following snippets into your build.gradle file.


    test {
    systemProperty "log4j.configuration", "log4j-test.properties"
    }
    
    dependencies {
    shadow library.java.slf4j_api
    shadow library.java.slf4j_log4j14
    // or shadow library.java.slf4j_jdk12
    }

    Note: as of Beam 2.53.0, Beam does not support slf4j 2.x. Make sure your slf4j dependencies are of version 1.x

  3. The second dependency shadow library.java.slf4j_log4j14 is not necessary if another library already provides this dependency.
  4. Check the dependency included in the dependency tree, execute:

    ./gradlew dependencies.


  5. Check If you encounter an error message like the following.

    SLF4J: Failed to load class "org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder".
    SLF4J: Defaulting to no-operation (NOP) logger implementation


    1. If so, it means there is no SLF4J.Add  library.java.slf4j_log4j12 or library.java.slf4j_jdk14 in the  build.gradle file.

To configure SLF4J in Maven project

  1. Configure the dependency in pom.xml:

    <properties>
    <slf4j.version>1.7.30</slf4j.version>
    </properties>
    
    <dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
        <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>slf4j-jdk14</artifactId>
        <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
        <!-- When loaded at runtime this will wire up slf4j to the JUL backend -->
        <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependencies>


How to format code automatically and avoid spotless errors?

  1. Set up a git pre-commit hook to always autoformat code, add the following in .git/hooks/pre-commit.

  2. Set the executable bit.
  3. For more information about git hooks, go to:  https://git-scm.com/docs/githooks .
  4. To skip it, use --no-verify.
  5. To disable it, use `chmod u-x.

How to run a single test?

How to run Java Dataflow Hello World pipeline with compiled Dataflow Java worker.

You can dump multiple definitions for a gcp project name and temp folder. They are present since different targets use different names.

  1. Before running the command, configure your gcloud credentials.
  2. Add GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to your env variables.
  3. Execute:
./gradlew :runners:google-cloud-dataflow-java:examples:preCommitLegacyWorker -PdataflowProject=<GcpProjectName> -Pproject=<GcpProjectName> -PgcpProject=<GcpProjectName> -PgcsTempRoot=<Gcs location in format: gs://..., no trailing slash> -PdataflowTempRoot=<Gcs location in format: gs://...>


./gradlew :runners:google-cloud-dataflow-java:examples:preCommitFnApiWorker -PdataflowProject=<GcpProjectName> -Pproject=<GcpProjectName> -PgcpProject=<GcpProjectName>  -PgcsTempRoot=<Gcs location in format: gs://..., no trailing slash> -PdataflowTempRoot=<Gcs location in format: gs://..., no trailing slash> -PdockerImageRoot=<docker image store location in format gcr.io/...>

How to run a User Defined Pipeline - Java Direct Runner example 

If you want to run your own pipeline, and in the meanwhile change beam repo code for dev/testing purposes. Here is an example for a simple runner like directRunner:

  1. Put your pipeline code under the example folder.
  2. Add the following build target to the related build.gradle

    task execute(type:JavaExec) {
    main = "org.apache.beam.examples.SideInputWordCount"
    classpath = configurations."directRunnerPreCommit"
    }



There are also alternative choices, with a slight difference:

Option 1

  1. Create a maven project. 

  2. Use the following command  to publish changed code to the local repository. 

     ./gradlew -Ppublishing -PnoSigning publishMavenJavaPublicationToMavenLocal


Option 2

  1. Make use of Integration tests.
  2. Make your user-defined pipeline part of the integration test. 

How to use a snapshot Beam Java SDK version?

To use snapshot BEAM new features prior to the next Beam release, you need to;

  1. Add the apache.snapshots repository to your pom.xml. Check this  example .
  2. Set beam.version to a snapshot version, e.g. "2.24.0-SNAPSHOT" or later ( listed here ).



Common Errors

Continue on error

Use the --continue flag makes to compileJava task and to dump all found errors, not stop on first.

IntelliJ Proto Intellisense doesn't work.

This can happen when you start IntelliJ or (in my case) after modifying protos.

This is not a solved problem yet. But here are some current approaches:

  1. Clean build from console
  2. Build from IntelliJ
  3. Refresh Gradle Project in IntelliJ
  4. Restart IntelliJ
  5. Another option is if index is not updated with 3 or 4 steps. For more information, go to Rebuild IntelliJ project indexes.

A workaround that did the trick. Since many things were tried in the process and no clear way to reproduce the error, this might not be the correct or best step. Update steps if you find a shorter or cleaner way to do the trick.

  1. Refresh gradle project in IntelliJ.

  2. Close Intellij.
  3. Clean build project from the console. Execute>

    ./gradlew clean cleanTest build -x testWebsite -x :rat -x test


  4. Open IntelliJ.

Build errors due to inconsistent Gradle cache

Sometimes build fails even for the main (master) branch either using IntelliJ or command line. If it worked before but now consistently failing, most likely this is due to inconsistent Gradle cache. It could happen when switching branches back and forth. Run the build Gradle command line with "--rerun-tasks" would do the trick.

What command should I run locally before creating a pull request?

We recommend running this command, in order to catch common style issues, potential bugs (using code analysis), and Javadoc issues before creating a pull request. Running this takes 5 to 10 minutes.

./gradlew spotlessApply && ./gradlew -PenableCheckerFramework=true checkstyleMain checkstyleTest javadoc spotbugsMain compileJava compileTestJava

If you don't run this locally Jenkins will run them during pre-submit. However, if these fail during pre-submit, you may not see the output of test failures. So doing this first is recommended to make your development process a bit smoother and iterate on your PR until it passes the pre-submit.

Dependency Upgrades