Yes, that's possible. You have to implement a custom trigger for that. The Trigger.onElement() method will be called for each incoming event. If you return TriggerResult.FIRE, it will call the WindowFunction. You can register a timer which will call the Trigger.onXTime() method once time is up and you can return TriggerResult.PURGE to clear the window.
This other blog post shows how to define a custom trigger [1]. Best, Fabian [1] https://www.mapr.com/blog/essential-guide-streaming-first-processing-apache-flink 2016-03-18 12:02 GMT+01:00 Bart van Deenen <bartvandee...@fastmail.fm>: > Hi Fabian > > So you're saying that with a windowed stream I can still emit a folded > aggregate for each event as it comes in? I didn't realize that, I thought > that windows was a sort of micro batching. > I'll go read the link you posted > > Thanks > > -- > Bart van Deenen > bartvandee...@fastmail.fm > > > > On Fri, Mar 18, 2016, at 11:54, Fabian Hueske wrote: > > Hi Bart, > if you run a fold function on a keyed stream without a window, there is no > way to remove the key and the folded value. > You will eventually run out of memory if your key space is continuously > growing. > > If you apply a fold function in a window on a keyed stream you can bound > the "lifetime" of the key and value. > Similar as with a non-windowed fold, you can emit a record for each > incoming record. Additionally, you can register a timer to purge the window > content after a certain time (such as a few days). This blog post should be > a good introduction into Flink's window and trigger mechanism [1]. > > Best, Fabian > > [1] http://flink.apache.org/news/2015/12/04/Introducing-windows.html > > > 2016-03-18 11:42 GMT+01:00 Bart van Deenen <bartvandee...@fastmail.fm>: > > If I do a fold on a KeyedStream, I aggregate events for such-and-such > key. > My question is, what happens with the aggregate (and its key) when > events for this key stop coming? > My keys are browser session keys, and are virtually limitless. > > Ideally, I'd like to send some sort of purge event on keys a couple of > days later, where I empty the aggregate in the fold. That still leaves > the key though, where does that go? > > Any answers highly appreciated... > > Greetings > > Bart > > >
