Add documention on http client pool

components/client-common.rst

@@ -81,3 +81,74 @@ PluginClient
 ------------
 
 See :doc:`/plugins/introduction`
+
+HttpClientPool
+--------------
+
+The ``HttpClientPool`` allows to balance requests between a pool of ``HttpClient`` and/or ``HttpAsyncClient``.
+
+The use cases are:
+
+- Using a cluster (like an Elasticsearch service with multiple master nodes)
+- Using fallback servers with the combination of the ``RetryPlugin`` (see :doc:`/plugins/retry`)
+
+You can attach HTTP clients to this kind of client by using the ``addHttpClient`` method::
+
+    use Http\Client\Common\HttpClientPool\LeastUsedClientPool;
+    use Http\Discovery\HttpAsyncClientDiscovery;
+    use Http\Discovery\HttpClientDiscovery;
+    use Http\Discovery\MessageFactoryDiscovery;
+
+    $messageFactory = MessageFactoryDiscovery::find();
+
+    $httpClient = HttpClientDiscovery::find();
+    $httpAsyncClient = HttpAsyncClientDiscovery::find();
+
+    $httpClientPool = new LeastUsedClientPool();
+    $httpClientPool->addHttpClient($httpClient);
+    $httpClientPool->addHttpClient($httpAsyncClient);
+
+    $httpClientPool->sendRequest($messageFactory->createRequest('GET', 'http://example.com/update'));
+
+Clients added to the pool are decorated with the ``HttpClientPoolItem`` class unless they already are an instance of this class.
+The pool item class lets the pool be aware of the number of requests currently being processed by that client.
+It is also used to deactivate clients when they receive errors.
+Deactivated clients can be reactivated after a certain amount of time, however, by default, they stay deactivated forever.
+To enable the behavior, wrap the clients with the ``HttpClientPoolItem`` class yourself and specify the re-enable timeout::
+
+    // Reactivate after 30 seconds
+    $httpClientPool->addHttpClient(new HttpClientPoolItem($httpClient, 30));
+    // Reactivate after each call
+    $httpClientPool->addHttpClient(new HttpClientPoolItem($httpClient, 0));
+    // Never reactivate the client (default)
+    $httpClientPool->addHttpClient(new HttpClientPoolItem($httpClient, null));
+
+``HttpClientPool`` is abstract. There are three concrete implementations with specific strategies on how to choose clients:
+
+LeastUsedClientPool
+*******************
+
+``LeastUsedClientPool`` choose the client with the fewest requests in progress. As it sounds the best strategy for
+sending a request on a pool of clients, this strategy has some limitations: :
+
+- The counter is not shared between PHP process, so this strategy is not so useful in a web context, however it will make
+  better sense in a PHP command line context.
+- This pool only makes sense with asynchronous clients. If you use ``sendRequest``, the call is blocking, and the pool
+  will only ever use the first client as its request count will be 0 once ``sendRequest`` finished.
+
+A deactivated client will be removed for the pool until it is reactivated, if none are available it will throw a
+``NotFoundHttpClientException``
+
+RoundRobinClientPool
+********************
+
+``RoundRobinClientPool`` keeps an internal pointer on the pool. At each call the pointer is moved to the next client, if
+the current client is disabled it will move to the next client, and if none are available it will throw a
+``NotFoundHttpClientException``
+
+The pointer is not shared across PHP processes, so for each new one it will always start on the first client.
+
+RandomClientPool
+****************
+
+``RandomClientPool`` randomly choose an available client, throw a ``NotFoundHttpClientException`` if none are available.

spelling_word_list.txt

@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ multipart
 param
 params
 profiler
+PHP
 Puli
 rebase
 Semver