Java executors: how to be notified, without blocking, when a task completes?

Question

Define a callback interface to receive whatever parameters you want to pass along in the completion notification. Then invoke it at the end of the task.

You could even write a general wrapper for Runnable tasks, and submit these to ExecutorService. Or, see below for a mechanism built into Java 8.

class CallbackTask implements Runnable {

  private final Runnable task;

  private final Callback callback;

  CallbackTask(Runnable task, Callback callback) {
    this.task = task;
    this.callback = callback;
  }

  public void run() {
    task.run();
    callback.complete();
  }

}

---

With CompletableFuture, Java 8 included a more elaborate means to compose pipelines where processes can be completed asynchronously and conditionally. Here's a contrived but complete example of notification.

import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
import java.util.concurrent.ThreadLocalRandom;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

public class GetTaskNotificationWithoutBlocking {

  public static void main(String... argv) throws Exception {
    ExampleService svc = new ExampleService();
    GetTaskNotificationWithoutBlocking listener = new GetTaskNotificationWithoutBlocking();
    CompletableFuture<String> f = CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(svc::work);
    f.thenAccept(listener::notify);
    System.out.println("Exiting main()");
  }

  void notify(String msg) {
    System.out.println("Received message: " + msg);
  }

}

class ExampleService {

  String work() {
    sleep(7000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS); /* Pretend to be busy... */
    char[] str = new char[5];
    ThreadLocalRandom current = ThreadLocalRandom.current();
    for (int idx = 0; idx < str.length; ++idx)
      str[idx] = (char) ('A' + current.nextInt(26));
    String msg = new String(str);
    System.out.println("Generated message: " + msg);
    return msg;
  }

  public static void sleep(long average, TimeUnit unit) {
    String name = Thread.currentThread().getName();
    long timeout = Math.min(exponential(average), Math.multiplyExact(10, average));
    System.out.printf("%s sleeping %d %s...%n", name, timeout, unit);
    try {
      unit.sleep(timeout);
      System.out.println(name + " awoke.");
    } catch (InterruptedException abort) {
      Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
      System.out.println(name + " interrupted.");
    }
  }

  public static long exponential(long avg) {
    return (long) (avg * -Math.log(1 - ThreadLocalRandom.current().nextDouble()));
  }

}

In Java 8 you can use CompletableFuture. Here's an example I had in my code where I'm using it to fetch users from my user service, map them to my view objects and then update my view or show an error dialog (this is a GUI application):

    CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(
            userService::listUsers
    ).thenApply(
            this::mapUsersToUserViews
    ).thenAccept(
            this::updateView
    ).exceptionally(
            throwable -> { showErrorDialogFor(throwable); return null; }
    );

It executes asynchronously. I'm using two private methods: mapUsersToUserViews and updateView.

Use Guava's listenable future API and add a callback. Cf. from the website :

ListeningExecutorService service = MoreExecutors.listeningDecorator(Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10));
ListenableFuture<Explosion> explosion = service.submit(new Callable<Explosion>() {
  public Explosion call() {
    return pushBigRedButton();
  }
});
Futures.addCallback(explosion, new FutureCallback<Explosion>() {
  // we want this handler to run immediately after we push the big red button!
  public void onSuccess(Explosion explosion) {
    walkAwayFrom(explosion);
  }
  public void onFailure(Throwable thrown) {
    battleArchNemesis(); // escaped the explosion!
  }
});

You could extend FutureTask class, and override the done() method, then add the FutureTask object to the ExecutorService, so the done() method will invoke when the FutureTask completed immediately.

ThreadPoolExecutor also has beforeExecute and afterExecute hook methods that you can override and make use of. Here is the description from ThreadPoolExecutor's Javadocs.

Hook methods

This class provides protected overridable beforeExecute(java.lang.Thread, java.lang.Runnable) and afterExecute(java.lang.Runnable, java.lang.Throwable) methods that are called before and after execution of each task. These can be used to manipulate the execution environment; for example, reinitializing ThreadLocals, gathering statistics, or adding log entries. Additionally, method terminated() can be overridden to perform any special processing that needs to be done once the Executor has fully terminated. If hook or callback methods throw exceptions, internal worker threads may in turn fail and abruptly terminate.

Use a CountDownLatch.

It's from java.util.concurrent and it's exactly the way to wait for several threads to complete execution before continuing.

In order to achieve the callback effect you're looking after, that does require a little additional extra work. Namely, handling this by yourself in a separate thread which uses the CountDownLatch and does wait on it, then goes on about notifying whatever it is you need to notify. There is no native support for callback, or anything similar to that effect.

---

EDIT: now that I further understand your question, I think you are reaching too far, unnecessarily. If you take a regular SingleThreadExecutor, give it all the tasks, and it will do the queueing natively.