Procedure with mode WRITE does not truly stream in practice ?!

The @Procedure annotated method with return value of type Stream will allow it to be used streaming. This is functioning as expected as long as the mode=READ. When deploying as an extension, a client can obtain some of the results before all of them are actually computed in the database. When the mode=WRITE however, no results are delivered to the client until all of them are gathered on the server.

Is this as designed? And if so: how can we obtain some of the results before all of them are available serverside?

It should also stream the same way.

Depends on how your procedure works internally if there is something blocking?

Can you share more details?

I have prepared a small project. Seems I cannot upload the zip I prepared. The essence is:

public class TestPlugin {

	public class Result {
        public Long count;
        public String s = String.join("", Collections.nCopies(100, UUID.randomUUID().toString()));
	}

	public class TestIterator implements Iterator<Result> {
		private long count;
		public TestIterator(long count) {
			this.count = count;
		}

		@Override
		
		public synchronized boolean hasNext() {
			return (count > 0);
		}

		@Override
		public synchronized Result next() {
			count--;
			try {
				Thread.sleep(100);
			} catch (InterruptedException e) {
			}
			System.out.println(count + " count");
			Result result = new Result();
			result.count = count;
			return result;
		}
	}
 
    @Procedure( name = "test.testIteratorReadMode", mode = READ )
    public Stream<Result> testIteratorReadMode()
    {
    	Iterator<Result> it = new TestIterator(100);
    	Iterable<Result> iterable = () -> it;
    	return StreamSupport.stream(iterable.spliterator(), false);
    }
    @Procedure( name = "test.testIteratorWriteMode", mode = WRITE )
    public Stream<Result> testIteratorWriteMode()
    {
    	Iterator<Result> it = new TestIterator(100);
    	Iterable<Result> iterable = () -> it;
    	return StreamSupport.stream(iterable.spliterator(), false);
    }
}

With a unit tests using the neo4j harness:

public class TestPluginTest
{
	// This rule starts a Neo4j instance
    @Rule
    public Neo4jRule neo4j = new Neo4jRule()

            // This is the Procedure we want to test
            .withProcedure( TestPlugin.class );

    @Test
	public void testIteratorReadMode() {
		try (Driver driver = GraphDatabase.driver(neo4j.boltURI(), Config.build().withoutEncryption().toConfig())) {
			Session session = driver.session();
			StatementResult result = session.run("CALL test.testIteratorReadMode()");
			result.stream().forEach(e -> System.out.println(e));
		}
	}
    @Test
   	public void testIteratorWriteMode() {
   		try (Driver driver = GraphDatabase.driver(neo4j.boltURI(), Config.build().withoutEncryption().toConfig())) {
   			Session session = driver.session();
   			StatementResult result = session.run("CALL test.testIteratorWriteMode()");
   			result.stream().forEach(e -> System.out.println(e));
   		}
   	}
}

The first test shows the server ## count lines and the records received by the test code.
It begins with

99 count
98 count
97 count
Record<{count: 99, s: "23deb248-2e56-46ae-ad85-7c8f84751ef423de..
Record<{count: 98, s: "be34527e-886f-48e2-9696-e72861e5055abe34527e..
Record<{count: 97, s: "65f7c83f-51d0-4a8a-b514-bd59fc5559fd65f..
96 count
95 count
94 count
Record<{count: 96, s: "41c5d01e-1855-4b09-9f53-14643436a3a041c5..
Record<{count: 95, s: "b4d4071f-1170-4109-bf2d-4acf6e6081a4b4d40..

This shows that the results arrive at the test almost immediately. There is some delay, probably because of I/O buffering?

The second test shows that first all 100 Results are created, before they arrive:

99 count
98 count
..
0 count
Record<{count: 99, s: "ec735aa4-cdd6-4890-adc8-984a41c5b42eec7..
Record<{count: 98, s: "2f6b08f9-b05d-4a90-8a93-a88587cebb172f6b0..
..
Record<{count: 0, s: "ef4d19a2-e4d5-40ac-9961-30d7a26edb08ef4d19a2-..

Which version of Neo4j and the drivers were you using?
I think its might be more of a driver issue.