Spring Batch Write processed records to file

Question

This is in continuation of my previous question. As the original question is closed

As per accepted answer, tasklet can be used , I have also tried implementing custom item writer in a chunk oriented step which uses jackson / JsonFileItemWriter, can we use this or does it have any performance impact ?

public void write(final List<? extends Person> persons) throws Exception {
            
       for (Person  person: persons) {
            objectMapper.writeValue(new File("D:/cp/dataTwo.json"), person);
       }
            
}

Question 1 : "Is the above approach recommended ?"

Question 2 : "Can we generate file in item processor itself and use no-op item writer ?"

Can some one please help ?

Answer 1

Question 1 : Is the above approach recommended?

• Your case is sequential and you have to write one file per record. So you are not achieving any additional advantage by having a writer that receives chunk of records.

• If any error happens in your writer, spring batch will have to retry the whole chunk and rewrite the files that succeeded so far in that chunk as spring batch wouldn't which record in the check failed to write. So I see it as downside compared to tasklet based answer on the other question.

Can we generate file in item processor itself and use no-op item writer?

• I don't see a big performance issue here or error handling issue here as it is record by record even if an empty no-op writer invoked for every chunk. But Spring must be caching the chunk before passing it to writer so incase writer throws skippable exception, it can retry. So even if you use no-op writer, it will be caching it but I don't know how quickly it will clear it as yours is a no-op writer.

• I am very uneasy about this approach from best practices point of view, as if a new dev join, he will not go looking into your processor to understand it is acting as writer.

Summary

I will go with Tasklet based approach on the other question

Answer 2

If you look at the spring batch framework, it contains three steps, as mentioned here -

Which means it is separating input and output as a separate operation. So, if you plan to mix up writing and processing together, basically its a violation of purpose, and will introduce tight coupling which might impact your performance in long run. (think of it as a map-reduce operation. Those need to be mutually exclusive, clearly defined input and outputs.)

Now, the question about recommendation, Yes. If you are using spring batch, this is the best way to process the records, read them in chunk, and then write them in chunk. Usually batch is used to process isolated tasks, so that it time comes, the stuff can be executed in parallel. So, as long as you are not modifying the same file concurrently, you should be good to go with this approach..