Events4J

Porting of Node.js events library (https://nodejs.org/api/events.html) using new Java 8 API

Feature

• lighweith. No dependencies.
• thread safe.

Documentation

Create Event Emitter

To create an event emitter you could instantiate the class EventEmitter or extend it (best way)

EventEmitter eventEmitter = new EventEmitter();

Create And Register An Event Listener

An EventListener is a Java 8 @FunctionalInterface that have a call method that accept optional Arguments and return void. So you can create an event listener as a lambda expression that accept only one parameter.

Any EventListener can be attached to an event identified by a name.

eventEmitter.on("event_name", arg -> System.out.println("I am an event!"));`

A listener may require arguments.

//user argument with name "a"
eventEmitter.on("event_name", arg -> System.out.println("Event argument: " + arg.getArgument("a")));`

An Argument value can be retrieved by its name. If argument's name not exist return null. Argument instances are immutable to avoid values changing in a event listener function.

An event can have more than one listener. When the event is emitted, listeners are called following the register order

//#1
eventEmitter.on("event_name", args -> System.out.println("I am an event by listener1!");`
//#2
eventEmitter.on("event_name", args -> System.out.println("I am an event by listener2!");`

Only Once Event

An event can be emitted only once time

eventEmitter.once("event_name", args -> System.out.println("I am an event!");`

Emit Event

A registered event can be emitted using its name. Not registered events will be ignored.

eventEmitter.emit("event_name");`

Arguments can be passed when an event is emitted.

//create argument with name "a" and value "b"
//A value can be any Java Type
Argument argA = Argument.of("a", "b");

//create instance of arguments
Arguments args = Arguments.of(Arrays.asList(argA));

eventEmitter.emit("event_name", args);

Arguments and Argument are immutable to avoid problems when use it on EventListener

Remove Event Listener

Remove a EventListener for an event. This operation require pointer to instance of the listener to be removed

EventListener eventListener = System.out.println("I am an event!");

//add event listener
eventEmitter.on("event_name", eventListener);

//remove event listener
eventEmitter.removeListener("event_name", eventListener);

###TODO

• emit events when a listener is registered or is removed for an event
• delete all listener of an event
• async emit
• limit number of listeners per event
• return Option on retrieve an argument value. This remove casting problem of null values