Task server on ML - multithreading

Question

I have a query that may return up to 2000 documents.
Within these documents I need six pcdata items return as string values.
There is a possiblity, since the documents size range from small to very large,
exp tree cache error.
I am looking at spawn-function to break up my result set.
I will pass wildcard values, based on known "unique key structure", and will know the max number of results possible;each wildcard values will return 100 documents max.
Note: The pcdata for the unique key structure does have a range index on it.
Am I on the right track with below?
The task server will create three tasks.
The task server will allow multiple queries to run, but what stops them all running simultaneously and blowing out the exp tree cache?
i.e. What, if anything, forces one thread to wait for another? Or one task to wait for another so they all do not blow out the exp tree cache together?
xquery version "1.0-ml";
let $messages :=
(:each wildcard values will return 100 documents max:)
for $message in ("WILDCARDVAL1","WILDCARDVAL2", "WILDCARDVAL3")
let $_ := xdmp:log("Starting")
return
xdmp:spawn-function(function() {
let $_ := xdmp:sleep(5000)
let $_ := xdmp:log(concat("Searching on wildcard val=", $message))
return concat("100 pcdata items from the matched documents for ", $message) },
<options xmlns="xdmp:eval">
<result>true</result>
<transaction-mode>update-auto-commit</transaction-mode>
</options>)
return $messages

Answer 1

The Task Server configuration listed in the Admin UI defines the maximum number of simultaneous threads. If more tasks are spawned than there are threads, they are queued (FIFO I think, although ML9 has task priority options that modify that behavior), and the first queued task takes the next available thread.
The <result>true</result> option will force the spawning query to block until the tasks return. The tasks themselves are run independently and in parallel, and they don't wait on each other to finish. You may still run into problems with the expanded tree cache, but by splitting up the query into smaller ones, it could be less likely.
For a better understanding of why you are blowing out the cache, take a look at the functions xdmp:query-trace() and xdmp:query-meters(). Using the Task Server is more of a brute force solution, and you will probably get better results by optimizing your queries using information from those functions.
If you can't make your query more selective than 2000 documents, but you only need a few string values, consider creating range indexes on those values and using cts:values to select only those values directly from the index, filtered by the query. That method would avoid forcing the database to load documents into the cache.

Answer 2

It might be more efficient to use MarkLogic's capability to return co-occurrences, or even 3+ tuples of value combinations from within documents using functions like cts:values. You can blend in a (cts:uri-reference](http://docs.marklogic.com/cts:uri-reference) to get the document uri returned as part of the tuples.
It requires having range indexes on all those values though..
HTH!