---
title: Using Polling
order: 17
layout: page
---

[[using-polling]]
= Using Polling

To set up polling for your UI, you only need to set a poll interval
using `UI.setPollInterval(timeout)`. By doing this the browser will poll
the server each "timeout" ms and retrieve any possibly pending changes.
You can test this in practice by creating a small application which
initially creates a small "please wait" UI and then loads the actual UI
in a background thread.

[source,java]
....
public class PollingUI extends UI {

    @WebServlet(value = "/*")
    @VaadinServletConfiguration(productionMode = false, ui = Polling7UI.class)
    public static class Servlet extends VaadinServlet {
    }

    @Override
    protected void init(VaadinRequest request) {
        setContent(new Label("Loading data, please wait..."));
        setPollInterval(1000);
        new Thread(new Loader()).start();
    }

    class Loader implements Runnable {

        @Override
        public void run() {
            // Simulate a heavy database operation
            try {
                Thread.sleep(4500);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            }

            // Wrap UI updates in access to properly deal with locking
            access(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    setContent(new Label("This is the real content"));

                    // Stop polling once the update is done
                    setPollInterval(-1);
                }
            });
        }
    }
}
....

For more information regarding locking the session, see [Using server
initiated events]

[[polling-for-multiple-components]]
Polling for multiple components
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you have the situation that several components need polling at some
point you should use some kind of Manager to handle the polling, for it
can only be set UI-wise (which makes perfectly sense)

A simple `UIPollingManager` which always uses the lowest registered
`intervalTime` could look like this:

[source,java]
....
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.WeakHashMap;

import com.vaadin.ui.UI;

public class UIPollingManager
{

    private Map<UI, Map<Object, Integer>> pollRequests;

    public UIPollingManager()
    {
        pollRequests = new WeakHashMap<>(); // Let's use weak references in case someone forgets to unregister properly
    }

    /**
     * Registers a poll request for the given UI. Sets the pollInterval of this UI to the lowest registered interval.
     * @param ui
     * @param requestor
     * @param pollIntervalInMillis poll interval in milliseconds
     */
    public void registerPollRequest(UI ui, Object requestor, int pollIntervalInMillis)
    {
        Map<Object, Integer> uiRequests = pollRequests.get(ui);
        if (uiRequests == null)
        {
            uiRequests = new HashMap<>();
            pollRequests.put(ui, uiRequests);
        }

        uiRequests.put(requestor, pollIntervalInMillis);

        setPollInterval(ui);
    }

    /**
     * Removes a poll request for the given UI (if existent). Sets the pollInterval of this UI to the lowest registered interval
     * remaining or -1 if no more requests exist for the UI
     * @param ui
     * @param requestor
     */
    public void unregisterPollRequest(UI ui, Object requestor)
    {
        Map<Object, Integer> uiRequests = pollRequests.get(ui);
        if (uiRequests != null)
        {
            uiRequests.remove(requestor);

            // Remove the UI from our map if no requests exist anymore
            if (uiRequests.size() <= 0) pollRequests.remove(ui);
        }

        setPollInterval(ui);
    }

    /**
     * Removes all poll requests of the given UI and sets the pollInterval to -1
     * @param ui
     */
    public void unregisterAllPollRequests(UI ui)
    {
        pollRequests.remove(ui);

        ui.setPollInterval(-1);
    }

    /**
     * Sets the pollInterval of the given UI to the lowest registered interval time of this UI
     * @param ui
     */
    private void setPollInterval(UI ui)
    {
        Map<Object, Integer> uiRequests = pollRequests.get(ui);
        if (uiRequests != null)
        {
            ui.setPollInterval(getLowestNumber(uiRequests.values()));
        }
    }

    /**
     * Returns the lowest number of a given Integer-Collection. Returns -1 if no valid Integer is included in the collection.
     * @param intervalArray
     * @return
     */
    private Integer getLowestNumber(Collection<Integer> intervalArray)
    {
        Integer lowestNum = null;

        for (Integer i : intervalArray)
        {
            if (i != null && ( lowestNum == null || i < lowestNum )) lowestNum = i;
        }

        if (lowestNum == null) return -1;
        else
            return lowestNum;
    }
}
....

The changed example could then look like this:

[source,java]
....
public class Polling7UI extends UI {

    private UIPollingManager pollingManager; // Instantiate this via Spring or get it via Singleton or whatever

    @WebServlet(value = "/*")
    @VaadinServletConfiguration(productionMode = false, ui = Polling7UI.class)
    public static class Servlet extends VaadinServlet {
    }

    @Override
    protected void init(VaadinRequest request) {
        setContent(new Label("Loading data, please wait..."));
        Loader loader = new Loader();
        pollingManager.registerPollRequest(this, loader, 1000);
        new Thread(loader).start();
    }

    class Loader implements Runnable {
        private UI ui;
        private UIPollingManager pollingManager;
        public Loader( UI ui, UIPollingManager pollingManager )
        {
            this.ui = ui;
            this.pollingManager = pollingManager;
        }

        @Override
        public void run() {
            // Simulate a heavy database operation
            try {
                Thread.sleep(4500);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            }

            final Loader loader = this;
            // Wrap UI updates in access to properly deal with locking
            access(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    setContent(new Label("This is the real content"));

                    // Stop polling once the update is done
                    pollingManager.unregisterPollRequest(ui, loader);
                }
            });
        }
    }
}
....