1. Introduction

The Akka HTTP modules implement a full server- and client-side HTTP stack on top of akka-actor and akka-stream. It’s not a web-framework but rather a more general toolkit for providing and consuming HTTP-based services. While interaction with a browser is of course also in scope it is not the primary focus of Akka HTTP.

Akka HTTP follows a rather open design and many times offers several different API levels for “doing the same thing”. You get to pick the API level of abstraction that is most suitable for your application. This means that, if you have trouble achieving something using a high-level API, there’s a good chance that you can get it done with a low-level API, which offers more flexibility but might require you to write more application code.

Philosophy

Akka HTTP has been driven with a clear focus on providing tools for building integration layers rather than application cores. As such it regards itself as a suite of libraries rather than a framework.

A framework, as we’d like to think of the term, gives you a “frame”, in which you build your application. It comes with a lot of decisions already pre-made and provides a foundation including support structures that lets you get started and deliver results quickly. In a way a framework is like a skeleton onto which you put the “flesh” of your application in order to have it come alive. As such frameworks work best if you choose them before you start application development and try to stick to the frameworks “way of doing things” as you go along.

For example, if you are building a browser-facing web application it makes sense to choose a web framework and build your application on top of it because the “core” of the application is the interaction of a browser with your code on the web-server. The framework makers have chosen one “proven” way of designing such applications and let you “fill in the blanks” of a more or less flexible “application-template”. Being able to rely on best-practice architecture like this can be a great asset for getting things done quickly.

However, if your application is not primarily a web application because its core is not browser-interaction but some specialized maybe complex business service and you are merely trying to connect it to the world via a REST/HTTP interface a web-framework might not be what you need. In this case the application architecture should be dictated by what makes sense for the core not the interface layer. Also, you probably won’t benefit from the possibly existing browser-specific framework components like view templating, asset management, JavaScript- and CSS generation/manipulation/minification, localization support, AJAX support, etc.

Akka HTTP was designed specifically as “not-a-framework”, not because we don’t like frameworks, but for use cases where a framework is not the right choice. Akka HTTP is made for building integration layers based on HTTP and as such tries to “stay on the sidelines”. Therefore you normally don’t build your application “on top of” Akka HTTP, but you build your application on top of whatever makes sense and use Akka HTTP merely for the HTTP integration needs.

On the other hand, if you prefer to build your applications with the guidance of a framework, you should give Play Framework or Lagom a try, which both use Akka internally.

Using Akka HTTP

Akka HTTP is provided in a separate jar file, to use it make sure to include the following dependency:

sbt

// For Akka 2.4.x or 2.5.x
"com.typesafe.akka" %% "akka-http" % "10.0.15" 
// Only when running against Akka 2.5 explicitly depend on akka-streams in same version as akka-actor
"com.typesafe.akka" %% "akka-stream" % "2.5.8" // or whatever the latest version is
"com.typesafe.akka" %% "akka-actor"  % "2.5.8" // or whatever the latest version is

Gradle

// For Akka 2.4.x or 2.5.x
compile group: 'com.typesafe.akka', name: 'akka-http_2.12', version: '10.0.15'
// Only when running against Akka 2.5 explicitly depend on akka-streams in same version as akka-actor
compile group: 'com.typesafe.akka', name: 'akka-stream_2.12', version: '2.5.8'
compile group: 'com.typesafe.akka', name: 'akka-actor_2.12', version: '2.5.8'

Maven

<!-- For Akka 2.4.x or 2.5.x -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>com.typesafe.akka</groupId>
  <artifactId>akka-http_2.12</artifactId>
  <version>10.0.15</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Only when running against Akka 2.5 explicitly depend on akka-streams in same version as akka-actor -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>com.typesafe.akka</groupId>
  <artifactId>akka-stream_2.12</artifactId>
  <version>2.5.8</version> <!-- Or whatever the latest version is -->
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>com.typesafe.akka</groupId>
  <artifactId>akka-actor_2.12</artifactId>
  <version>2.5.8</version>
</dependency>

Mind that Akka HTTP comes in two main modules: akka-http and akka-http-core. Because akka-http depends on akka-http-core you don’t need to bring the latter explicitly. Still you may need to do this in case you rely solely on the low-level API; make sure the Scala version is a recent release of version 2.11 or 2.12.

For more information about running against Akka 2.5 see also the Compatibility Notes.

Alternatively, you can bootstrap a new sbt project with Akka HTTP already configured using the Giter8 template:

sbt -Dsbt.version=0.13.15 new https://github.com/akka/akka-http-scala-seed.g8

sbt -Dsbt.version=0.13.15 new https://github.com/akka/akka-http-java-seed.g8

More instructions can be found on the template projecttemplate project. Note, requires sbt version 0.13.13 or newer.

Routing DSL for HTTP servers

The high-level, routing API of Akka HTTP provides a DSL to describe HTTP “routes” and how they should be handled. Each route is composed of one or more level of Directive s that narrows down to handling one specific type of request.

For example one route might start with matching the path of the request, only matching if it is “/hello”, then narrowing it down to only handle HTTP get requests and then complete those with a string literal, which will be sent back as a HTTP OK with the string as response body.

Transforming request and response bodies between over-the-wire formats and objects to be used in your application is done separately from the route declarations, in marshallers, which are pulled in implicitly using the “magnet” pattern. This means that you can complete a request with any kind of object as long as there is an implicit marshaller available in scope.

The RouteRoute created using the Route DSL is then “bound” to a port to start serving HTTP requests:

Scala

import akka.actor.ActorSystem
import akka.http.scaladsl.Http
import akka.http.scaladsl.model._
import akka.http.scaladsl.server.Directives._
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer
import scala.io.StdIn

object WebServer {
  def main(args: Array[String]) {

    implicit val system = ActorSystem("my-system")
    implicit val materializer = ActorMaterializer()
    // needed for the future flatMap/onComplete in the end
    implicit val executionContext = system.dispatcher

    val route =
      path("hello") {
        get {
          complete(HttpEntity(ContentTypes.`text/html(UTF-8)`, "<h1>Say hello to akka-http</h1>"))
        }
      }

    val bindingFuture = Http().bindAndHandle(route, "localhost", 8080)

    println(s"Server online at http://localhost:8080/\nPress RETURN to stop...")
    StdIn.readLine() // let it run until user presses return
    bindingFuture
      .flatMap(_.unbind()) // trigger unbinding from the port
      .onComplete(_ => system.terminate()) // and shutdown when done
  }
}

Java

import akka.NotUsed;
import akka.actor.ActorSystem;
import akka.http.javadsl.ConnectHttp;
import akka.http.javadsl.Http;
import akka.http.javadsl.ServerBinding;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.HttpRequest;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.HttpResponse;
import akka.http.javadsl.server.AllDirectives;
import akka.http.javadsl.server.Route;
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer;
import akka.stream.javadsl.Flow;

import java.util.concurrent.CompletionStage;

public class HttpServerMinimalExampleTest extends AllDirectives {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    // boot up server using the route as defined below
    ActorSystem system = ActorSystem.create("routes");

    final Http http = Http.get(system);
    final ActorMaterializer materializer = ActorMaterializer.create(system);

    //In order to access all directives we need an instance where the routes are define.
    HttpServerMinimalExampleTest app = new HttpServerMinimalExampleTest();

    final Flow<HttpRequest, HttpResponse, NotUsed> routeFlow = app.createRoute().flow(system, materializer);
    final CompletionStage<ServerBinding> binding = http.bindAndHandle(routeFlow,
        ConnectHttp.toHost("localhost", 8080), materializer);

    System.out.println("Server online at http://localhost:8080/\nPress RETURN to stop...");
    System.in.read(); // let it run until user presses return

    binding
        .thenCompose(ServerBinding::unbind) // trigger unbinding from the port
        .thenAccept(unbound -> system.terminate()); // and shutdown when done
  }

  private Route createRoute() {
    return route(
        path("hello", () ->
            get(() ->
                complete("<h1>Say hello to akka-http</h1>"))));
  }
}

A common use case is to reply to a request using a model object having the marshaller transform it into JSON. In this case shown by two separate routes. The first route queries an asynchronous database and marshalls the Future[Option[Item]]CompletionStage<Optional<Item>> result into a JSON response. The second unmarshalls an Order from the incoming request saves it to the database and replies with an OK when done.

Scala

import akka.actor.ActorSystem
import akka.http.scaladsl.Http
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer
import akka.Done
import akka.http.scaladsl.server.Route
import akka.http.scaladsl.server.Directives._
import akka.http.scaladsl.model.StatusCodes
import akka.http.scaladsl.marshallers.sprayjson.SprayJsonSupport._
import spray.json.DefaultJsonProtocol._

import scala.io.StdIn

import scala.concurrent.Future

object WebServer {

  // needed to run the route
  implicit val system = ActorSystem()
  implicit val materializer = ActorMaterializer()
  // needed for the future map/flatmap in the end and future in fetchItem and saveOrder
  implicit val executionContext = system.dispatcher

  var orders: List[Item] = Nil

  // domain model
  final case class Item(name: String, id: Long)
  final case class Order(items: List[Item])

  // formats for unmarshalling and marshalling
  implicit val itemFormat = jsonFormat2(Item)
  implicit val orderFormat = jsonFormat1(Order)

  // (fake) async database query api
  def fetchItem(itemId: Long): Future[Option[Item]] = Future {
    orders.find(o => o.id == itemId)
  }
  def saveOrder(order: Order): Future[Done] = {
    orders = order match {
      case Order(items) => items ::: orders
      case _            => orders
    }
    Future { Done }
  }

  def main(args: Array[String]) {

    val route: Route =
      get {
        pathPrefix("item" / LongNumber) { id =>
          // there might be no item for a given id
          val maybeItem: Future[Option[Item]] = fetchItem(id)

          onSuccess(maybeItem) {
            case Some(item) => complete(item)
            case None       => complete(StatusCodes.NotFound)
          }
        }
      } ~
        post {
          path("create-order") {
            entity(as[Order]) { order =>
              val saved: Future[Done] = saveOrder(order)
              onComplete(saved) { done =>
                complete("order created")
              }
            }
          }
        }

    val bindingFuture = Http().bindAndHandle(route, "localhost", 8080)
    println(s"Server online at http://localhost:8080/\nPress RETURN to stop...")
    StdIn.readLine() // let it run until user presses return
    bindingFuture
      .flatMap(_.unbind()) // trigger unbinding from the port
      .onComplete(_ ⇒ system.terminate()) // and shutdown when done

  }
}

Java

import akka.Done;
import akka.NotUsed;
import akka.actor.ActorSystem;
import akka.http.javadsl.ConnectHttp;
import akka.http.javadsl.Http;
import akka.http.javadsl.ServerBinding;
import akka.http.javadsl.marshallers.jackson.Jackson;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.HttpRequest;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.HttpResponse;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.StatusCodes;
import akka.http.javadsl.server.AllDirectives;
import akka.http.javadsl.server.Route;
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer;
import akka.stream.javadsl.Flow;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonCreator;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;
import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
import java.util.concurrent.CompletionStage;

import static akka.http.javadsl.server.PathMatchers.longSegment;

public class JacksonExampleTest extends AllDirectives {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    // boot up server using the route as defined below
    ActorSystem system = ActorSystem.create("routes");

    final Http http = Http.get(system);
    final ActorMaterializer materializer = ActorMaterializer.create(system);

    //In order to access all directives we need an instance where the routes are define.
    JacksonExampleTest app = new JacksonExampleTest();

    final Flow<HttpRequest, HttpResponse, NotUsed> routeFlow = app.createRoute().flow(system, materializer);
    final CompletionStage<ServerBinding> binding = http.bindAndHandle(routeFlow,
      ConnectHttp.toHost("localhost", 8080), materializer);

    System.out.println("Server online at http://localhost:8080/\nPress RETURN to stop...");
    System.in.read(); // let it run until user presses return

    binding
      .thenCompose(ServerBinding::unbind) // trigger unbinding from the port
      .thenAccept(unbound -> system.terminate()); // and shutdown when done
  }

  // (fake) async database query api
  private CompletionStage<Optional<Item>> fetchItem(long itemId) {
    return CompletableFuture.completedFuture(Optional.of(new Item("foo", itemId)));
  }

  // (fake) async database query api
  private CompletionStage<Done> saveOrder(final Order order) {
    return CompletableFuture.completedFuture(Done.getInstance());
  }

  private Route createRoute() {

    return route(
      get(() ->
        pathPrefix("item", () ->
          path(longSegment(), (Long id) -> {
            final CompletionStage<Optional<Item>> futureMaybeItem = fetchItem(id);
            return onSuccess(futureMaybeItem, maybeItem ->
              maybeItem.map(item -> completeOK(item, Jackson.marshaller()))
                .orElseGet(() -> complete(StatusCodes.NOT_FOUND, "Not Found"))
            );
          }))),
      post(() ->
        path("create-order", () ->
          entity(Jackson.unmarshaller(Order.class), order -> {
            CompletionStage<Done> futureSaved = saveOrder(order);
            return onSuccess(futureSaved, done ->
              complete("order created")
            );
          })))
    );
  }

  private static class Item {

    final String name;
    final long id;

    @JsonCreator
    Item(@JsonProperty("name") String name,
         @JsonProperty("id") long id) {
      this.name = name;
      this.id = id;
    }

    public String getName() {
      return name;
    }

    public long getId() {
      return id;
    }
  }

  private static class Order {

    final List<Item> items;

    @JsonCreator
    Order(@JsonProperty("items") List<Item> items) {
      this.items = items;
    }

    public List<Item> getItems() {
      return items;
    }
  }
}

The logic for the marshalling and unmarshalling JSON in this example is provided by the “spray-json”“Jackson” library (details on how to use that here: JSON Support)JSON Support).

One of the strengths of Akka HTTP is that streaming data is at its heart meaning that both request and response bodies can be streamed through the server achieving constant memory usage even for very large requests or responses. Streaming responses will be backpressured by the remote client so that the server will not push data faster than the client can handle, streaming requests means that the server decides how fast the remote client can push the data of the request body.

Example that streams random numbers as long as the client accepts them:

Scala

import akka.actor.ActorSystem
import akka.stream.scaladsl._
import akka.util.ByteString
import akka.http.scaladsl.Http
import akka.http.scaladsl.model.{HttpEntity, ContentTypes}
import akka.http.scaladsl.server.Directives._
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer
import scala.util.Random
import scala.io.StdIn

object WebServer {

  def main(args: Array[String]) {

    implicit val system = ActorSystem()
    implicit val materializer = ActorMaterializer()
    // needed for the future flatMap/onComplete in the end
    implicit val executionContext = system.dispatcher

    // streams are re-usable so we can define it here
    // and use it for every request
    val numbers = Source.fromIterator(() =>
      Iterator.continually(Random.nextInt()))

    val route =
      path("random") {
        get {
          complete(
            HttpEntity(
              ContentTypes.`text/plain(UTF-8)`,
              // transform each number to a chunk of bytes
              numbers.map(n => ByteString(s"$n\n"))
            )
          )
        }
      }

    val bindingFuture = Http().bindAndHandle(route, "localhost", 8080)
    println(s"Server online at http://localhost:8080/\nPress RETURN to stop...")
    StdIn.readLine() // let it run until user presses return
    bindingFuture
      .flatMap(_.unbind()) // trigger unbinding from the port
      .onComplete(_ => system.terminate()) // and shutdown when done
  }
}

Java

import akka.NotUsed;
import akka.actor.ActorSystem;
import akka.http.javadsl.ConnectHttp;
import akka.http.javadsl.Http;
import akka.http.javadsl.ServerBinding;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.*;
import akka.http.javadsl.server.AllDirectives;
import akka.http.javadsl.server.Route;
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer;
import akka.stream.javadsl.Flow;
import akka.stream.javadsl.Source;
import akka.util.ByteString;

import java.util.Random;
import java.util.concurrent.CompletionStage;
import java.util.stream.Stream;

public class HttpServerStreamRandomNumbersTest extends AllDirectives {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    // boot up server using the route as defined below
    ActorSystem system = ActorSystem.create("routes");

    final Http http = Http.get(system);
    final ActorMaterializer materializer = ActorMaterializer.create(system);

    //In order to access all directives we need an instance where the routes are define.
    HttpServerStreamRandomNumbersTest app = new HttpServerStreamRandomNumbersTest();

    final Flow<HttpRequest, HttpResponse, NotUsed> routeFlow = app.createRoute().flow(system, materializer);
    final CompletionStage<ServerBinding> binding = http.bindAndHandle(routeFlow,
        ConnectHttp.toHost("localhost", 8080), materializer);

    System.out.println("Server online at http://localhost:8080/\nPress RETURN to stop...");
    System.in.read(); // let it run until user presses return

    binding
        .thenCompose(ServerBinding::unbind) // trigger unbinding from the port
        .thenAccept(unbound -> system.terminate()); // and shutdown when done
  }


  private Route createRoute() {
    final Random rnd = new Random();
    // streams are re-usable so we can define it here
    // and use it for every request
    Source<Integer, NotUsed> numbers = Source.fromIterator(() -> Stream.generate(rnd::nextInt).iterator());

    return route(
        path("random", () ->
            get(() ->
                complete(HttpEntities.create(ContentTypes.TEXT_PLAIN_UTF8,
                    // transform each number to a chunk of bytes
                    numbers.map(x -> ByteString.fromString(x + "\n")))))));
  }
}

Connecting to this service with a slow HTTP client would backpressure so that the next random number is produced on demand with constant memory usage on the server. This can be seen using curl and limiting the rate curl --limit-rate 50b 127.0.0.1:8080/random

Akka HTTP routes easily interacts with actors. In this example one route allows for placing bids in a fire-and-forget style while the second route contains a request-response interaction with an actor. The resulting response is rendered as json and returned when the response arrives from the actor.

Scala

import akka.actor.{Actor, ActorSystem, Props, ActorLogging}
import akka.http.scaladsl.Http
import akka.http.scaladsl.model.StatusCodes
import akka.http.scaladsl.server.Directives._
import akka.http.scaladsl.marshallers.sprayjson.SprayJsonSupport._
import akka.pattern.ask
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer
import akka.util.Timeout
import spray.json.DefaultJsonProtocol._
import scala.concurrent.Future
import scala.concurrent.duration._
import scala.io.StdIn

object WebServer {

  case class Bid(userId: String, offer: Int)
  case object GetBids
  case class Bids(bids: List[Bid])

  class Auction extends Actor with ActorLogging {
    var bids = List.empty[Bid]
    def receive = {
      case bid @ Bid(userId, offer) =>
        bids = bids :+ bid
        log.info(s"Bid complete: $userId, $offer")
      case GetBids => sender() ! Bids(bids)
      case _ => log.info("Invalid message")
    }
  }

  // these are from spray-json
  implicit val bidFormat = jsonFormat2(Bid)
  implicit val bidsFormat = jsonFormat1(Bids)

  def main(args: Array[String]) {
    implicit val system = ActorSystem()
    implicit val materializer = ActorMaterializer()
    // needed for the future flatMap/onComplete in the end
    implicit val executionContext = system.dispatcher

    val auction = system.actorOf(Props[Auction], "auction")

    val route =
      path("auction") {
        put {
          parameter("bid".as[Int], "user") { (bid, user) =>
            // place a bid, fire-and-forget
            auction ! Bid(user, bid)
            complete((StatusCodes.Accepted, "bid placed"))
          }
        } ~
        get {
          implicit val timeout: Timeout = 5.seconds

          // query the actor for the current auction state
          val bids: Future[Bids] = (auction ? GetBids).mapTo[Bids]
          complete(bids)
        }
      }

    val bindingFuture = Http().bindAndHandle(route, "localhost", 8080)
    println(s"Server online at http://localhost:8080/\nPress RETURN to stop...")
    StdIn.readLine() // let it run until user presses return
    bindingFuture
      .flatMap(_.unbind()) // trigger unbinding from the port
      .onComplete(_ => system.terminate()) // and shutdown when done

  }
}

Java

import akka.NotUsed;
import akka.actor.ActorRef;
import akka.actor.ActorSystem;
import akka.actor.Props;
import akka.actor.AbstractActor;
import akka.event.Logging;
import akka.event.LoggingAdapter;
import akka.http.javadsl.ConnectHttp;
import akka.http.javadsl.Http;
import akka.http.javadsl.ServerBinding;
import akka.http.javadsl.marshallers.jackson.Jackson;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.HttpRequest;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.HttpResponse;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.StatusCodes;
import akka.http.javadsl.server.AllDirectives;
import akka.http.javadsl.server.Route;
import akka.http.javadsl.unmarshalling.StringUnmarshallers;
import akka.japi.pf.ReceiveBuilder;
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer;
import akka.stream.javadsl.Flow;
import akka.util.Timeout;
import scala.concurrent.duration.FiniteDuration;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.CompletionStage;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

import static akka.pattern.PatternsCS.ask;


public class HttpServerActorInteractionExample extends AllDirectives {

  private final ActorRef auction;

  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    // boot up server using the route as defined below
    ActorSystem system = ActorSystem.create("routes");

    final Http http = Http.get(system);
    final ActorMaterializer materializer = ActorMaterializer.create(system);

    //In order to access all directives we need an instance where the routes are define.
    HttpServerActorInteractionExample app = new HttpServerActorInteractionExample(system);

    final Flow<HttpRequest, HttpResponse, NotUsed> routeFlow = app.createRoute().flow(system, materializer);
    final CompletionStage<ServerBinding> binding = http.bindAndHandle(routeFlow,
      ConnectHttp.toHost("localhost", 8080), materializer);

    System.out.println("Server online at http://localhost:8080/\nPress RETURN to stop...");
    System.in.read(); // let it run until user presses return

    binding
      .thenCompose(ServerBinding::unbind) // trigger unbinding from the port
      .thenAccept(unbound -> system.terminate()); // and shutdown when done
  }

  private HttpServerActorInteractionExample(final ActorSystem system) {
    auction = system.actorOf(Auction.props(), "auction");
  }

  private Route createRoute() {
    return route(
      path("auction", () -> route(
        put(() ->
          parameter(StringUnmarshallers.INTEGER, "bid", bid ->
            parameter("user", user -> {
              // place a bid, fire-and-forget
              auction.tell(new Bid(user, bid), ActorRef.noSender());
              return complete(StatusCodes.ACCEPTED, "bid placed");
            })
          )),
        get(() -> {
          final Timeout timeout = Timeout.durationToTimeout(FiniteDuration.apply(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS));
          // query the actor for the current auction state
          CompletionStage<Bids> bids = ask(auction, new GetBids(), timeout).thenApply((Bids.class::cast));
          return completeOKWithFuture(bids, Jackson.marshaller());
        }))));
  }

  static class Bid {
    final String userId;
    final int offer;

    Bid(String userId, int offer) {
      this.userId = userId;
      this.offer = offer;
    }
  }

  static class GetBids {

  }

  static class Bids {
    public final List<Bid> bids;

    Bids(List<Bid> bids) {
      this.bids = bids;
    }
  }

  // compiles only against Akka 2.4, see migration guide for how to rewrite for Akka 2.5
  static class Auction extends AbstractActor {

    private final LoggingAdapter log = Logging.getLogger(context().system(), this);

    List<HttpServerActorInteractionExample.Bid> bids = new ArrayList<>();

    static Props props() {
      return Props.create(Auction.class);
    }

    public Auction() {
      receive(ReceiveBuilder.
        match(HttpServerActorInteractionExample.Bid.class, bid -> {
          bids.add(bid);
          log.info("Bid complete: {}, {}", bid.userId, bid.offer);
        }).
        match(HttpServerActorInteractionExample.GetBids.class, m -> {
          sender().tell(new HttpServerActorInteractionExample.Bids(bids), self());
        }).
        matchAny(o -> log.info("Invalid message")).
        build()
      );
    }
  }
}

More details on how JSON marshalling and unmarshalling works can be found in the JSON Support section.

Read more about the details of the high level APIs in the section High-level Server-Side API.

Low-level HTTP server APIs

The low-level Akka HTTP server APIs allows for handling connections or individual requests by accepting HttpRequestHttpRequest s and answering them by producing HttpResponseHttpResponse s. This is provided by the akka-http-core module. APIs for handling such request-responses as function calls and as a Flow<HttpRequest, HttpResponse, ?>Flow[HttpRequest, HttpResponse, _] are available.

Scala

import akka.actor.ActorSystem
import akka.http.scaladsl.Http
import akka.http.scaladsl.model.HttpMethods._
import akka.http.scaladsl.model._
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer
import scala.io.StdIn

object WebServer {

  def main(args: Array[String]) {
    implicit val system = ActorSystem()
    implicit val materializer = ActorMaterializer()
    // needed for the future map/flatmap in the end
    implicit val executionContext = system.dispatcher

    val requestHandler: HttpRequest => HttpResponse = {
      case HttpRequest(GET, Uri.Path("/"), _, _, _) =>
        HttpResponse(entity = HttpEntity(
          ContentTypes.`text/html(UTF-8)`,
          "<html><body>Hello world!</body></html>"))

      case HttpRequest(GET, Uri.Path("/ping"), _, _, _) =>
        HttpResponse(entity = "PONG!")

      case HttpRequest(GET, Uri.Path("/crash"), _, _, _) =>
        sys.error("BOOM!")

      case r: HttpRequest =>
        r.discardEntityBytes() // important to drain incoming HTTP Entity stream
        HttpResponse(404, entity = "Unknown resource!")
    }

    val bindingFuture = Http().bindAndHandleSync(requestHandler, "localhost", 8080)
    println(s"Server online at http://localhost:8080/\nPress RETURN to stop...")
    StdIn.readLine() // let it run until user presses return
    bindingFuture
      .flatMap(_.unbind()) // trigger unbinding from the port
      .onComplete(_ => system.terminate()) // and shutdown when done

  }
}

Java

import akka.actor.ActorSystem;
import akka.http.javadsl.ConnectHttp;
import akka.http.javadsl.Http;
import akka.http.javadsl.ServerBinding;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.ContentTypes;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.HttpResponse;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.StatusCodes;
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer;
import akka.stream.Materializer;
import akka.util.ByteString;

import java.util.concurrent.CompletionStage;

public class HttpServerLowLevelExample {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    ActorSystem system = ActorSystem.create();

    try {
      final Materializer materializer = ActorMaterializer.create(system);
      CompletionStage<ServerBinding> serverBindingFuture =
        Http.get(system).bindAndHandleSync(
          request -> {
            if (request.getUri().path().equals("/"))
              return HttpResponse.create().withEntity(ContentTypes.TEXT_HTML_UTF8,
                ByteString.fromString("<html><body>Hello world!</body></html>"));
            else if (request.getUri().path().equals("/ping"))
              return HttpResponse.create().withEntity(ByteString.fromString("PONG!"));
            else if (request.getUri().path().equals("/crash"))
              throw new RuntimeException("BOOM!");
            else {
              request.discardEntityBytes(materializer);
              return HttpResponse.create().withStatus(StatusCodes.NOT_FOUND).withEntity("Unknown resource!");
            }
          }, ConnectHttp.toHost("localhost", 8080), materializer);

      System.out.println("Server online at http://localhost:8080/\nPress RETURN to stop...");
      System.in.read(); // let it run until user presses return

      serverBindingFuture
        .thenCompose(ServerBinding::unbind) // trigger unbinding from the port
        .thenAccept(unbound -> system.terminate()); // and shutdown when done

    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
      system.terminate();
    }
  }
}

Read more details about the low level APIs in the section Core Server API.

HTTP client API

The client APIs provide methods for calling a HTTP server using the same HttpRequestHttpRequest and HttpResponseHttpResponse abstractions that Akka HTTP server uses but adds the concept of connection pools to allow multiple requests to the same server to be handled more performantly by re-using TCP connections to the server.

Example simple request:

Scala

import akka.actor.ActorSystem
import akka.http.scaladsl.Http
import akka.http.scaladsl.model._
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer

import scala.concurrent.Future
import scala.util.{ Failure, Success }

object Client {
  def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
    implicit val system = ActorSystem()
    implicit val materializer = ActorMaterializer()
    // needed for the future flatMap/onComplete in the end
    implicit val executionContext = system.dispatcher

    val responseFuture: Future[HttpResponse] = Http().singleRequest(HttpRequest(uri = "https://akka.io"))

    responseFuture
      .onComplete {
        case Success(res) => println(res)
        case Failure(_)   => sys.error("something wrong")
      }
  }
}

Java

import akka.actor.ActorSystem;
import akka.http.javadsl.Http;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.HttpRequest;
import akka.http.javadsl.model.HttpResponse;
import akka.stream.ActorMaterializer;
import akka.stream.Materializer;

import java.util.concurrent.CompletionStage;

public class ClientSingleRequestExample {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    final ActorSystem system = ActorSystem.create();
    final Materializer materializer = ActorMaterializer.create(system);

    final CompletionStage<HttpResponse> responseFuture =
      Http.get(system)
        .singleRequest(HttpRequest.create("https://akka.io"), materializer);
  }
}

Read more about the details of the client APIs in the section Consuming HTTP-based Services (Client-Side).

The modules that make up Akka HTTP

Akka HTTP is structured into several modules:

akka-http

Higher-level functionality, like (un)marshalling, (de)compression as well as a powerful DSL for defining HTTP-based APIs on the server-side, this is the recommended way to write HTTP servers with Akka HTTP. Details can be found in the section High-level Server-Side API

akka-http-core

A complete, mostly low-level, server- and client-side implementation of HTTP (incl. WebSockets) Details can be found in sections Core Server API and Consuming HTTP-based Services (Client-Side)

akka-http-testkit

A test harness and set of utilities for verifying server-side service implementations