A tuple COMING off a SPOUT can trigger thousands of tuples to be created based on it. Consider.

for example:

the streaming word count topology:TopologyBuilder builder = new TopologyBuilder();
builder.setSpout("sentences", new KestrelSpout("kestrel.backtype.com",
22133,
"sentence_queue",
new StringScheme()));
builder.setBolt("split", new SplitSentence(), 10)
.shuffleGrouping("sentences");
builder.setBolt("count", new WORDCOUNT(), 20)
.fieldsGrouping("split", new Fields("word"));

This topology reads sentences off a Kestrel queue, splits the sentences into its constituent words, and then emits for each word the number of times it has seen that word before. A tuple coming off the spout triggers many tuples being created based on it: a tuple for each word in the sentence and a tuple for the updated count for each word.

Storm considers a tuple coming off a spout “fully processed” when the tuple tree has been exhausted and every message in the tree has been processed. A tuple is considered failed when its tree of messages FAILS to be fully processed within a specified timeout. This timeout can be CONFIGURED on a topology-specific basis using the Config.TOPOLOGY_MESSAGE_TIMEOUT_SECS configuration and defaults to 30 seconds.

A tuple coming off a spout can trigger thousands of tuples to be created based on it. Consider.

for example:

the streaming word count topology:TopologyBuilder builder = new TopologyBuilder();
builder.setSpout("sentences", new KestrelSpout("kestrel.backtype.com",
22133,
"sentence_queue",
new StringScheme()));
builder.setBolt("split", new SplitSentence(), 10)
.shuffleGrouping("sentences");
builder.setBolt("count", new WordCount(), 20)
.fieldsGrouping("split", new Fields("word"));

This topology reads sentences off a Kestrel queue, splits the sentences into its constituent words, and then emits for each word the number of times it has seen that word before. A tuple coming off the spout triggers many tuples being created based on it: a tuple for each word in the sentence and a tuple for the updated count for each word.

Storm considers a tuple coming off a spout “fully processed” when the tuple tree has been exhausted and every message in the tree has been processed. A tuple is considered failed when its tree of messages fails to be fully processed within a specified timeout. This timeout can be configured on a topology-specific basis using the Config.TOPOLOGY_MESSAGE_TIMEOUT_SECS configuration and defaults to 30 seconds.