How do I set up multiple observables from an event in F#? - f#

Question

I'm trying to learn about the Observable module in F# by writing a program that connects to a web socket, listens for messages, and then handles them in some set of streams based on Observables. However, I'm having a hard time understanding the actual behavior.
First, I set up a web socket like this:
open System
open System.Net.WebSockets
open System.Threading
let connectFeed =
let feedUrl = "blah blah"
let buffer : byte array = Array.zeroCreate 1024
let segment = ArraySegment(buffer)
let socketEvent = new Event<string>()
let task = async {
let random = Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond)
use socket = new ClientWebSocket()
let! token = Async.CancellationToken
do! Async.AwaitTask (socket.ConnectAsync(Uri(feedUrl), token))
while not token.IsCancellationRequested do
let! result = Async.AwaitTask (socket.ReceiveAsync(segment, token))
socketEvent.Trigger (Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer))
Array.fill buffer 0 buffer.Length 0uy
}
(task, socketEvent.Publish)
let deserializeMsg (raw:string) =
// returns a MsgType based on the received message
let tryGetData (msg:MsgType) =
// returns Some data for specific kind of message; None otherwise
[<EntryPoint>]
let main argv =
let feedProc, feedStream = connectFeed
let msgStream = feedStream |> Observable.map deserializeMsg
msgStream |> Observable.subscribe (fun m -> printfn "got msg: %A" m) |> ignore
let dataStream = feedStream |> Observable.choose tryGetData
dataStream |> Observable.subscribe (fun d -> printfn "got data: %A" d) |> ignore
Async.RunSynchronously feedProc
0
I'm expecting to see a printout like:
got msg: { some: "field" }
got msg: { some: "other" }
got msg: { some: "data" }
got data: { // whatever }
got msg: ...
...
Instead, only the "got msg" messages appear, even though there are messages that would cause tryGetData to return Some.
What's going on here? How do I set up multiple Observable streams from a single event?
Update: I've updated my code with this:
let isMsgA msg =
printfn "isMsgA"
match msg with
| MsgA -> true // where MsgA is a member of a DU defined elsewhere, and is the result of deserializeMsg
| _ -> false
let isStringMsgA msg =
printfn "isStringMsgA"
if msg.StartsWith("{ \"type\": \"msga\"") then true else false
[<EntryPoint>]
let main argv =
let feedProc, feedStream = connectFeed
let msgStream = feedStream |> Observable.map deserializeMsg
msgStream
|> Observable.filter isMsgA
|> Observable.subscribe (fun m -> printfn "got msg MsgA")
|> ignore
feedStream
|> Observable.filter isStringMsgA
|> Observable.subscribe (fun m -> printfn "got string MsgA")
|> ignore
And I get a screen full of "isStringMsgA" and "got string MsgA" messages, but exactly one each of "isMsgA" and "got msg MsgA".
I am baffled.
Here is a trimmed-down, reproducible example for anyone interesting in fiddling with it:
https://github.com/aggieben/test-observable
Update 2: looks like I may be seeing this behavior due to an exception being thrown in the deserializeMsg function. Still digging...

Answer 1

I do not see any obvious reason why this should be happening - can you add some logging to tryGetData to check what inputs it gets and what results it returns?
When using the Observable module, you construct a description of the processing pipeline and Observable.subscribe creates a concrete chain of listeners that do the work and attach handlers to the primary event source. However, the events do not get "consumed" - they should be sent to all the observers.
For example, try playing with the following minimal demo:
let evt = Event<int>()
let e1 = evt.Publish |> Observable.choose (fun n ->
if n % 2 = 0 then Some "woop!" else None)
let e2 = evt.Publish |> Observable.map (fun n -> n * 10)
e1 |> Observable.subscribe (printfn "E1: %s")
e2 |> Observable.subscribe (printfn "E2: %d")
evt.Trigger(1)
evt.Trigger(2)
If you run this, it prints the expected result:
E2: 10
E1: woop!
E2: 20