dmmax / akka-spawn-protocol

Uses Spawn Protocol to create Akka Actors from outside. It can be applied at any level of actors' hierarchy

Akka Spawn Protocol

Uses Spawn Protocol to create Akka's Actors from outside. It can be applied at any level of the actors' hierarchy.

I was inspired by Akka's spawn protocol, but I think that any actor could be a spawner if the actor implements a method to spawn the child actors that is why I decided to extend the initial idea.

Setup

dependencies {
    implementation(
            'me.dmmax.akka:akka-spawn-protocol:1.1'
    )
    // ... other dependencies
}

BOM

As an alternative approach you can use BOM to manage the spawn protocol versions in one place

dependencies {
    implementation platform('me.dmmax.akka:akka-spawn-protocol-bom:1.1')
    // Don't need to specify the version for root and extensions
    implementation 'me.dmmax.akka:akka-spawn-protocol'
    implementation 'me.dmmax.akka:akka-spawn-protocol-guice'
    // ... other dependencies
}

BOM includes:

BOM	Artifact
Akka spawn protocol modules	me.dmmax.akka:akka-spawn-protocol-[module]
Akka BOM	com.typesafe.akka:akka-bom_2.12

Example of usage

Create a spawn protocol

// Preconditions
akka.actor.ActorSystem classicActorSystem = akka.actor.ActorSystem.create();
ActorSystem<Void> actorSystem = Adapter.toTyped(classicActorSystem);
Scheduler scheduler = actorSystem.scheduler();
// Actor-specific configuration
Duration askTimeout = Duration.ofSeconds(1);
ActorRef<SpawnerActor.Command> spawnerActor = actorSystem.systemActorOf(SpawnerActor.create(), "rootActor", Props.empty());
// Create the spawn actor
SpawnProtocol<SpawnerActor.Command> spawnProtocol = new SpawnProtocol<>(scheduler, askTimeout, spawnerActor, SpawnActorCommandWrapper::new);

In addition, you need to handle the wrapper message inside the spawner actor

private <CHILD> Behavior<Command> onSpawnActor(SpawnActorCommandWrapper<CHILD> wrapper) {
    SpawnProtocols.spawnChildActor(getContext(), wrapper.spawnActorCommand());
    return this;
}

Now, it is pssible to create child actors using the SpawnProtocol

SpawnProtocol<SpawnerActor.Command> spawnProtocol = ...;
// Create a child actor
SpawnActorInfo<Ping> pingActorInfo = new SpawnActorInfo<>(PingActor.create(), ActorCreationStrategy.unique("pinger"));
ActorRef<Ping> pingActor = spawnPtocol.create(pingActorInfo);

Available extensions

• Guice integration

Todo

I have a list of issues which I am planning to work in the nearest future. Feel free to add your own ideas there.