dmproc

This is the stream processor engine, which is a fancy name to a component that is able to apply functions over a set of events.

It is important to notice that you do not interact with this directly. Rather it is used by other components, like xmpp, to fulfill a user request.

Nevertheless, as the functions available here are usually used as-is by users through these higher level components, the first part of this documentation focuses on the available functions, whereas the second part contains detailed explanation about the protocol.

Function syntax

Each function contains a name, usually as ascii encoded string, followed by zero or more arguments. For instance, the maximum function, which computes the maximum value of a set of events, takes no arguments. Operators are the sole exception to this rule, as they are enclosed by parenthesis or brackets. Currently all functions (as well as operators) depends only on the input. They will only produce a result when it receives one or more events. In other words, they are pure functions.

You may compose functions using the | (pipe) operator which resembles greatly the unix pipe operator. So you may think of each function as a combinator and using the pipe operator allow you to grow bigger pipelines. For instance, suppose you have a event that ranges from 0 to 1, the following function should compute the mean of the current set of events and then multiply this value by 100 (left to right application), only returning those greater than 50:

mean | (* 100) | [> 50]

Operators are always enclosed by parenthesis or brackets. Parenthesis are used for arithmetic operators whereas brackets are used for comparison operators. The syntax allow the operator to be placed either on the left or right side. For instance, (/ 100) will divide by 100 whereas (100 /) will divide 100 by the value of the event. The same applies for comparison operators.

There are four arithmetic operators defined: *, +, - and /, which respectively computes the multiplication, addition, subtraction and division.

And there are six comparison operators defined: > [greater than], < [less than], >= [greater than or equal to], <= [less than or equal to], = [equal to] and /= [not equal to].

Functions reference

abs

Computes the absolute value a number.

ceil

Smallest integral value that is not less than the current number.

floor

Largest integral value not greater than the current value.

round

Round towards infinity.

truncate

Round towards zero.

mean

The mean of the set of events.

sma :n

Computes the simple moving average. The actual implementation makes use of ewma using 1-2/(n+1) as the alpha parameter.

ewma :alpha

Computes the exponential weighted moving average using :alpha as the alpha parameter.

Arguments:

n:A positive integer number;

sample :n/:m

Samples n elements out from a population of m items. The exact frequency of elements generated by this function is defined as follows. Let L the total of elements:

n * (L (mod m)) + minimum n (L (mod m))

Arguments:

n:The number of elements pick out of m;
m:The so called population size;

Example::

sma 30 | sample 1/5

minimum

The minimum value.

maximum

The maximum value.

prod

Multiplication of all values in the stream.

sum

Summation of all values in the stream.

window :n :pipeline

Creates an window of n items and when this is full applies a function to produce a result.

Arguments:

n:An positive integer number [ n > 0 ], which defines the size of the window;
pipeline:The function to apply, enclosed with parenthesis. You may use the pipe to combine multiple functions, and all functions here defined but sma, sample and window;

Example::

window 30 (mean | (* 100))

id

The identity function: id x == x.

Operators reference

Arithmetic

+:Addition (e.g.: (+ n) or (n +));
-:Subtraction (e.g.: (- n) or (n -));
*:Multiplication (e.g.: (* n) or (n *));
/:Division (e.g.: (/ n) or (n /));

Comparison

>:Greater than (e.g: [> n] or [n >])
>=:Greater than or equal to (e.g: [>= n] or [n >=])
<=:Less than equal to (e.g: [<= n] or [n <=])
>:Less than (e.g: [< n] or [< n])
=:Equal to (e.g: [n =] or [= n])
/=:Not equal to (e.g: [n /=] or [/= n])