akka.actor

Actor

trait Actor extends AnyRef

Actor base trait that should be extended by or mixed to create an Actor with the semantics of the 'Actor Model': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor_model

An actor has a well-defined (non-cyclic) life-cycle.

The Actor's own akka.actor.ActorRef is available as self, the current message’s sender as sender and the akka.actor.ActorContext as context. The only abstract method is receive which shall return the initial behavior of the actor as a partial function (behavior can be changed using context.become and context.unbecome).

This is the Scala API (hence the Scala code below), for the Java API see akka.actor.UntypedActor.

class ExampleActor extends Actor {

override val supervisorStrategy = OneForOneStrategy(maxNrOfRetries = 10, withinTimeRange = 1 minute) {
  case _: ArithmeticException      => Resume
  case _: NullPointerException     => Restart
  case _: IllegalArgumentException => Stop
  case _: Exception                => Escalate
}

def receive = {
                                   // directly calculated reply
  case Request(r)               => sender ! calculate(r)

                                   // just to demonstrate how to stop yourself
  case Shutdown                 => context.stop(self)

                                   // error kernel with child replying directly to 'sender'
  case Dangerous(r)             => context.actorOf(Props[ReplyToOriginWorker]).tell(PerformWork(r), sender)

                                   // error kernel with reply going through us
  case OtherJob(r)              => context.actorOf(Props[ReplyToMeWorker]) ! JobRequest(r, sender)
  case JobReply(result, orig_s) => orig_s ! result
}
}

The last line demonstrates the essence of the error kernel design: spawn one-off actors which terminate after doing their job, pass on sender to allow direct reply if that is what makes sense, or round-trip the sender as shown with the fictitious JobRequest/JobReply message pair.

If you don’t like writing context you can always import context._ to get direct access to actorOf, stop etc. This is not default in order to keep the name-space clean.

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Type Members

  1. type Receive = PartialFunction[Any, Unit]

Abstract Value Members

  1. abstract def receive: Actor.Receive

    This defines the initial actor behavior, it must return a partial function with the actor logic.

Concrete Value Members

  1. final def !=(arg0: AnyRef): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
  2. final def !=(arg0: Any): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    Any
  3. final def ##(): Int

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef → Any
  4. def +(other: String): String

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to StringAdd performed by method any2stringadd in scala.Predef.
    Definition Classes
    StringAdd
  5. def ->[B](y: B): (Actor, B)

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to ArrowAssoc[Actor] performed by method any2ArrowAssoc in scala.Predef.
    Definition Classes
    ArrowAssoc
    Annotations
    @inline()
  6. final def ==(arg0: AnyRef): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
  7. final def ==(arg0: Any): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    Any
  8. final def asInstanceOf[T0]: T0

    Definition Classes
    Any
  9. def clone(): AnyRef

    Attributes
    protected[java.lang]
    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
    Annotations
    @throws( ... )
  10. implicit val context: ActorContext

    Stores the context for this actor, including self, and sender.

    Stores the context for this actor, including self, and sender. It is implicit to support operations such as forward.

    WARNING: Only valid within the Actor itself, so do not close over it and publish it to other threads!

    akka.actor.ActorContext is the Scala API. getContext returns a akka.actor.UntypedActorContext, which is the Java API of the actor context.

  11. def ensuring(cond: (Actor) ⇒ Boolean, msg: ⇒ Any): Actor

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to Ensuring[Actor] performed by method any2Ensuring in scala.Predef.
    Definition Classes
    Ensuring
  12. def ensuring(cond: (Actor) ⇒ Boolean): Actor

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to Ensuring[Actor] performed by method any2Ensuring in scala.Predef.
    Definition Classes
    Ensuring
  13. def ensuring(cond: Boolean, msg: ⇒ Any): Actor

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to Ensuring[Actor] performed by method any2Ensuring in scala.Predef.
    Definition Classes
    Ensuring
  14. def ensuring(cond: Boolean): Actor

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to Ensuring[Actor] performed by method any2Ensuring in scala.Predef.
    Definition Classes
    Ensuring
  15. final def eq(arg0: AnyRef): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
  16. def equals(arg0: Any): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef → Any
  17. def finalize(): Unit

    Attributes
    protected[java.lang]
    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
    Annotations
    @throws( classOf[java.lang.Throwable] )
  18. def formatted(fmtstr: String): String

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to StringFormat performed by method any2stringfmt in scala.Predef.
    Definition Classes
    StringFormat
    Annotations
    @inline()
  19. final def getClass(): Class[_]

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef → Any
  20. def hashCode(): Int

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef → Any
  21. final def isInstanceOf[T0]: Boolean

    Definition Classes
    Any
  22. final def ne(arg0: AnyRef): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
  23. final def notify(): Unit

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
  24. final def notifyAll(): Unit

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
  25. def postRestart(reason: Throwable): Unit

    User overridable callback: By default it calls preStart().

    User overridable callback: By default it calls preStart().

    reason

    the Throwable that caused the restart to happen

    Is called right AFTER restart on the newly created Actor to allow reinitialization after an Actor crash.

    Annotations
    @throws( classOf[Exception] )
  26. def postStop(): Unit

    User overridable callback.

    User overridable callback.

    Is called asynchronously after 'actor.stop()' is invoked. Empty default implementation.

    Annotations
    @throws( classOf[Exception] )
  27. def preRestart(reason: Throwable, message: Option[Any]): Unit

    User overridable callback: By default it disposes of all children and then calls postStop().

    User overridable callback: By default it disposes of all children and then calls postStop().

    reason

    the Throwable that caused the restart to happen

    message

    optionally the current message the actor processed when failing, if applicable

    Is called on a crashed Actor right BEFORE it is restarted to allow clean up of resources before Actor is terminated.

    Annotations
    @throws( classOf[Exception] )
  28. def preStart(): Unit

    User overridable callback.

    User overridable callback.

    Is called when an Actor is started. Actors are automatically started asynchronously when created. Empty default implementation.

    Annotations
    @throws( classOf[Exception] )
  29. implicit final val self: ActorRef

    The 'self' field holds the ActorRef for this actor.

    The 'self' field holds the ActorRef for this actor.

    Can be used to send messages to itself:

    self ! message
    

  30. final def sender: ActorRef

    The reference sender Actor of the last received message.

    The reference sender Actor of the last received message. Is defined if the message was sent from another Actor, else deadLetters in akka.actor.ActorSystem.

    WARNING: Only valid within the Actor itself, so do not close over it and publish it to other threads!

  31. def supervisorStrategy: SupervisorStrategy

    User overridable definition the strategy to use for supervising child actors.

  32. final def synchronized[T0](arg0: ⇒ T0): T0

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
  33. def toString(): String

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef → Any
  34. def unhandled(message: Any): Unit

    User overridable callback.

    User overridable callback.

    Is called when a message isn't handled by the current behavior of the actor by default it fails with either a akka.actor.DeathPactException (in case of an unhandled akka.actor.Terminated message) or publishes an akka.actor.UnhandledMessage to the actor's system's akka.event.EventStream

  35. final def wait(): Unit

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
    Annotations
    @throws( ... )
  36. final def wait(arg0: Long, arg1: Int): Unit

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
    Annotations
    @throws( ... )
  37. final def wait(arg0: Long): Unit

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
    Annotations
    @throws( ... )
  38. def [B](y: B): (Actor, B)

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to ArrowAssoc[Actor] performed by method any2ArrowAssoc in scala.Predef.
    Definition Classes
    ArrowAssoc

Shadowed Implicit Value Members

  1. val self: Any

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to StringAdd performed by method any2stringadd in scala.Predef.
    Shadowing
    This implicitly inherited member is shadowed by one or more members in this class.
    To access this member you can use a type ascription:
    (actor: StringAdd).self
    Definition Classes
    StringAdd
  2. val self: Any

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to StringFormat performed by method any2stringfmt in scala.Predef.
    Shadowing
    This implicitly inherited member is shadowed by one or more members in this class.
    To access this member you can use a type ascription:
    (actor: StringFormat).self
    Definition Classes
    StringFormat

Deprecated Value Members

  1. def x: Actor

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to ArrowAssoc[Actor] performed by method any2ArrowAssoc in scala.Predef.
    Shadowing
    This implicitly inherited member is ambiguous. One or more implicitly inherited members have similar signatures, so calling this member may produce an ambiguous implicit conversion compiler error.
    To access this member you can use a type ascription:
    (actor: ArrowAssoc[Actor]).x
    Definition Classes
    ArrowAssoc
    Annotations
    @deprecated
    Deprecated

    (Since version 2.10.0) Use leftOfArrow instead

  2. def x: Actor

    Implicit information
    This member is added by an implicit conversion from Actor to Ensuring[Actor] performed by method any2Ensuring in scala.Predef.
    Shadowing
    This implicitly inherited member is ambiguous. One or more implicitly inherited members have similar signatures, so calling this member may produce an ambiguous implicit conversion compiler error.
    To access this member you can use a type ascription:
    (actor: Ensuring[Actor]).x
    Definition Classes
    Ensuring
    Annotations
    @deprecated
    Deprecated

    (Since version 2.10.0) Use resultOfEnsuring instead

Inherited from AnyRef

Inherited from Any

Inherited by implicit conversion any2stringadd from Actor to StringAdd

Inherited by implicit conversion any2stringfmt from Actor to StringFormat

Inherited by implicit conversion any2ArrowAssoc from Actor to ArrowAssoc[Actor]

Inherited by implicit conversion any2Ensuring from Actor to Ensuring[Actor]

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