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Side Effects - Temporal Go SDK feature guide

Side Effects are used to execute non-deterministic code, such as generating a UUID or a random number, without compromising deterministic in the Workflow. This is done by storing the non-deterministic results of the Side Effect into the Workflow Event History.

A Side Effect does not re-execute during a Replay. Instead, it returns the recorded result from the Workflow Execution Event History.

Side Effects should not fail. An exception that is thrown from the Side Effect causes failure and retry of the current Workflow Task.

An Activity or a Local Activity may also be used instead of a Side effect, as its result is also persisted in Workflow Execution History.

note

You shouldn't modify the Workflow state inside a Side Effect function, because it is not reexecuted during Replay. Side Effect function should be used to return a value.

Use the SideEffect function from the go.temporal.io/sdk/workflow package to execute a Side Effect directly in your Workflow.

Pass it an instance of context.Context and the function to execute.

The SideEffect API returns a Future, an instance of converter.EncodedValue.

Use the Get method on the Future to retrieve the result of the Side Effect.

Correct implementation

The following example demonstrates the correct way to use SideEffect:

encodedRandom := workflow.SideEffect(ctx, func(ctx workflow.Context) interface{} {
 return rand.Intn(100)
})

var random int
encodedRandom.Get(&random)
// ...
}

Incorrect implementation

The following example demonstrates how NOT to use SideEffect:

// Warning: This is an incorrect example.
// This code is non-deterministic.
var random int
workflow.SideEffect(func(ctx workflow.Context) interface{} {
      random = rand.Intn(100)
      return nil
})
// random will always be 0 in replay, so this code is non-deterministic.

On replay the provided function is not executed, the random number will always be 0, and the Workflow Execution could take a different path, breaking determinism.

Mutable Side Effects​

Mutable Side Effects execute the provided function once, and then it looks up the History of the value with the given Workflow ID.

  • If there is no existing value, then it records the function result as a value with the given Workflow Id on the History.
  • If there is an existing value, then it compares whether the existing value from the History has changed from the new function results, by calling the equals function.
    • If the values are equal, then it returns the value without recording a new Marker Event
    • If the values aren't equal, then it records the new value with the same ID on the History.
note

During a Workflow Execution, every new Side Effect call results in a new Marker recorded on the Workflow History; whereas Mutable Side Effects only records a new Marker on the Workflow History if the value for the Side Effect ID changes or is set the first time.

During a Replay, Mutable Side Effects will not execute the function again. Instead, it returns the exact same value that was returned during the Workflow Execution.

To use MutableSideEffect() in Go, provide a unique name within the scope of the workflow.

if err := workflow.MutableSideEffect(ctx, "configureNumber", get, eq).Get(&number); err != nil {
    panic("can't decode number:" + err.Error())
  }