Github user aljoscha commented on a diff in the pull request:
https://github.com/apache/flink/pull/3191#discussion_r97828488
--- Diff: docs/dev/windows.md ---
@@ -622,133 +690,138 @@ input
</div>
</div>
-## Dealing with Late Data
+## Triggers
-When working with event-time windowing it can happen that elements arrive
late, i.e the
-watermark that Flink uses to keep track of the progress of event-time is
already past the
-end timestamp of a window to which an element belongs. Please
-see [event time](./event_time.html) and especially
-[late elements](./event_time.html#late-elements) for a more thorough
discussion of
-how Flink deals with event time.
+A `Trigger` determines when a window (as formed by the `WindowAssigner`)
is ready to be
+processed by the *window function*. Each `WindowAssigner` comes with a
default `Trigger`.
+If the default trigger does not fit your needs, you can specify a custom
trigger using `trigger(...)`.
-You can specify how a windowed transformation should deal with late
elements and how much lateness
-is allowed. The parameter for this is called *allowed lateness*. This
specifies by how much time
-elements can be late. Elements that arrive within the allowed lateness are
still put into windows
-and are considered when computing window results. If elements arrive after
the allowed lateness they
-will be dropped. Flink will also make sure that any state held by the
windowing operation is garbage
-collected once the watermark passes the end of a window plus the allowed
lateness.
+The trigger interface provides five methods that react to different
events:
-<span class="label label-info">Default</span> By default, the allowed
lateness is set to
-`0`. That is, elements that arrive behind the watermark will be dropped.
+* The `onElement()` method is called for each element that is added to a
window.
+* The `onEventTime()` method is called when a registered event-time timer
fires.
+* The `onProcessingTime()` method is called when a registered
processing-time timer fires.
+* The `onMerge()` method is relevant for stateful triggers and merges the
states of two triggers when their corresponding windows merge, *e.g.* when
using session windows.
+* Finally the `clear()` method performs any action needed upon removal of
the corresponding window.
-You can specify an allowed lateness like this:
+Any of these methods can be used to register processing- or event-time
timers for future actions.
-<div class="codetabs" markdown="1">
-<div data-lang="java" markdown="1">
-{% highlight java %}
-DataStream<T> input = ...;
+### Fire and Purge
-input
- .keyBy(<key selector>)
- .window(<window assigner>)
- .allowedLateness(<time>)
- .<windowed transformation>(<window function>);
-{% endhighlight %}
-</div>
+Once a trigger determines that a window is ready for processing, it fires.
This is the signal for the window operator to emit the result of the current
window. Given a window with a `WindowFunction`
--- End diff --
Maybe we should mention earlier which trigger methods can return a
`TriggerResult` and quickly mention what that means. "A trigger fires when it
returns FIRE or FIRE_AND_PURGE."
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