akka.actor

ActorContext

trait ActorContext extends ActorRefFactory

The actor context - the view of the actor cell from the actor. Exposes contextual information for the actor and the current message.

There are several possibilities for creating actors (see akka.actor.Props for details on props):

// Java or Scala
context.actorOf(props, "name")
context.actorOf(props)

// Scala
context.actorOf(Props[MyActor]("name")
context.actorOf(Props[MyActor]
context.actorOf(Props(new MyActor(...))

// Java
context.actorOf(classOf[MyActor]);
context.actorOf(Props(new Creator<MyActor>() {
  public MyActor create() { ... }
});
context.actorOf(Props(new Creator<MyActor>() {
  public MyActor create() { ... }
}, "name");

Where no name is given explicitly, one will be automatically generated.

Linear Supertypes
ActorRefFactory, AnyRef, Any
Known Subclasses
UntypedActorContext
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  1. ActorContext
  2. ActorRefFactory
  3. AnyRef
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Abstract Value Members

  1. abstract def actorOf(props: Props, name: String): ActorRef

    Create new actor as child of this context with the given name, which must not be null, empty or start with “$”.

    Create new actor as child of this context with the given name, which must not be null, empty or start with “$”. If the given name is already in use, and InvalidActorNameException is thrown.

    See akka.actor.Props for details on how to obtain a Props object.

    When invoked on ActorSystem, this method sends a message to the guardian actor and blocks waiting for a reply, see akka.actor.creation-timeout in the reference.conf.

    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  2. abstract def actorOf(props: Props): ActorRef

    Create new actor as child of this context and give it an automatically generated name (currently similar to base64-encoded integer count, reversed and with “$” prepended, may change in the future).

    Create new actor as child of this context and give it an automatically generated name (currently similar to base64-encoded integer count, reversed and with “$” prepended, may change in the future).

    See akka.actor.Props for details on how to obtain a Props object.

    When invoked on ActorSystem, this method sends a message to the guardian actor and blocks waiting for a reply, see akka.actor.creation-timeout in the reference.conf.

    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  3. abstract def become(behavior: Receive, discardOld: Boolean = true): Unit

    Changes the Actor's behavior to become the new 'Receive' (PartialFunction[Any, Unit]) handler.

    Changes the Actor's behavior to become the new 'Receive' (PartialFunction[Any, Unit]) handler. This method acts upon the behavior stack as follows:

    • if discardOld = true it will replace the top element (i.e. the current behavior)
    • if discardOld = false it will keep the current behavior and push the given one atop

    The default of replacing the current behavior has been chosen to avoid memory leaks in case client code is written without consulting this documentation first (i.e. always pushing new closures and never issuing an unbecome())

  4. abstract def child(name: String): Option[ActorRef]

    Get the child with the given name if it exists.

  5. abstract def children: Iterable[ActorRef]

    Returns all supervised children; this method returns a view (i.

    Returns all supervised children; this method returns a view (i.e. a lazy collection) onto the internal collection of children. Targeted lookups should be using actorFor instead for performance reasons:

    val badLookup = context.children find (_.path.name == "kid")
// should better be expressed as:
val goodLookup = context.actorFor("kid")

  6. implicit abstract def dispatcher: MessageDispatcher

    Returns the dispatcher (MessageDispatcher) that is used for this Actor.

    Returns the dispatcher (MessageDispatcher) that is used for this Actor. Importing this member will place a implicit MessageDispatcher in scope.

    Definition Classes
    ActorContext → ActorRefFactory

  7. abstract def guardian: InternalActorRef

    Father of all children created by this interface.

    Father of all children created by this interface.

    INTERNAL USE ONLY

    Attributes
    protected
    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  8. abstract def lookupRoot: InternalActorRef

    INTERNAL USE ONLY

    INTERNAL USE ONLY

    Attributes
    protected
    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  9. abstract def parent: ActorRef

    Returns the supervising parent ActorRef.

  10. abstract def props: Props

    Retrieve the Props which were used to create this actor.

  11. abstract def provider: ActorRefProvider

    INTERNAL USE ONLY

    INTERNAL USE ONLY

    Attributes
    protected
    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  12. abstract def receiveTimeout: Duration

    Gets the current receive timeout.

    Gets the current receive timeout. When specified, the receive method should be able to handle a 'ReceiveTimeout' message.

  13. abstract def self: ActorRef

  14. abstract def sender: ActorRef

    Returns the sender 'ActorRef' of the current message.

  15. abstract def setReceiveTimeout(timeout: Duration): Unit

    Defines the inactivity timeout after which the sending of a ReceiveTimeout message is triggered.

    Defines the inactivity timeout after which the sending of a ReceiveTimeout message is triggered. When specified, the receive function should be able to handle a 'ReceiveTimeout' message. 1 millisecond is the minimum supported timeout.

    Please note that the receive timeout might fire and enqueue the ReceiveTimeout message right after another message was enqueued; hence it is not guaranteed that upon reception of the receive timeout there must have been an idle period beforehand as configured via this method.

    Once set, the receive timeout stays in effect (i.e. continues firing repeatedly after inactivity periods). Pass in Duration.Undefined to switch off this feature.

  16. abstract def stop(actor: ActorRef): Unit

    Stop the actor pointed to by the given akka.actor.ActorRef; this is an asynchronous operation, i.

    Stop the actor pointed to by the given akka.actor.ActorRef; this is an asynchronous operation, i.e. involves a message send. When invoked on akka.actor.ActorSystem for a top-level actor, this method sends a message to the guardian actor and blocks waiting for a reply, see akka.actor.creation-timeout in the reference.conf.

    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  17. implicit abstract def system: ActorSystem

    The system that the actor belongs to.

    The system that the actor belongs to. Importing this member will place a implicit MessageDispatcher in scope.

  18. abstract def systemImpl: ActorSystemImpl

    INTERNAL USE ONLY

    INTERNAL USE ONLY

    Attributes
    protected
    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  19. abstract def unbecome(): Unit

    Reverts the Actor behavior to the previous one in the hotswap stack.

  20. abstract def unwatch(subject: ActorRef): ActorRef

    Unregisters this actor as Monitor for the provided ActorRef.

    Unregisters this actor as Monitor for the provided ActorRef.

    returns

    the provided ActorRef

  21. abstract def watch(subject: ActorRef): ActorRef

    Registers this actor as a Monitor for the provided ActorRef.

    Registers this actor as a Monitor for the provided ActorRef. This actor will receive a Terminated(watched) message when watched is terminated.

    returns

    the provided ActorRef

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

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef

  5. final def ==(arg0: Any): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    Any

  6. def actorFor(path: Iterable[String]): ActorRef

    Java API: Look-up an actor by applying the given path elements, starting from the current context, where ".." signifies the parent of an actor.

    Java API: Look-up an actor by applying the given path elements, starting from the current context, where ".." signifies the parent of an actor.

    Example:

    public class MyActor extends UntypedActor {
  public void onReceive(Object msg) throws Exception {
    ...
    final List<String> path = new ArrayList<String>();
    path.add("..");
    path.add("myBrother");
    path.add("myNephew");
    final ActorRef target = context().actorFor(path);
    ...
}
}

    For maximum performance use a collection with efficient head & tail operations.

    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  7. def actorFor(path: Iterable[String]): ActorRef

    Look-up an actor by applying the given path elements, starting from the current context, where ".." signifies the parent of an actor.

    Look-up an actor by applying the given path elements, starting from the current context, where ".." signifies the parent of an actor.

    Example:

    class MyActor extends Actor {
  def receive = {
    case msg =>
      ...
      val target = context.actorFor(Seq("..", "myBrother", "myNephew"))
      ...
}
}

    For maximum performance use a collection with efficient head & tail operations.

    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  8. def actorFor(path: String): ActorRef

    Look-up an actor by path represented as string.

    Look-up an actor by path represented as string.

    Absolute URIs like akka://appname/user/actorA are looked up as described for look-ups by actorOf(ActorPath).

    Relative URIs like /service/actorA/childB are looked up relative to the root path of the akka.actor.ActorSystem containing this factory and as described for look-ups by actorOf(Iterable[String]).

    Relative URIs like myChild/grandChild or ../myBrother are looked up relative to the current context as described for look-ups by actorOf(Iterable[String])

    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  9. def actorFor(path: ActorPath): ActorRef

    Look-up an actor by path; if it does not exist, returns a reference to the dead-letter mailbox of the akka.actor.ActorSystem.

    Look-up an actor by path; if it does not exist, returns a reference to the dead-letter mailbox of the akka.actor.ActorSystem. If the path point to an actor which is not local, no attempt is made during this call to verify that the actor it represents does exist or is alive; use watch(ref) to be notified of the target’s termination, which is also signaled if the queried path cannot be resolved.

    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  10. def actorSelection(path: String): ActorSelection

    Construct an akka.actor.ActorSelection from the given path, which is parsed for wildcards (these are replaced by regular expressions internally).

    Construct an akka.actor.ActorSelection from the given path, which is parsed for wildcards (these are replaced by regular expressions internally). No attempt is made to verify the existence of any part of the supplied path, it is recommended to send a message and gather the replies in order to resolve the matching set of actors.

    Definition Classes
    ActorRefFactory

  11. final def asInstanceOf[T0]: T0

    Definition Classes
    Any

  12. def clone(): AnyRef

    Attributes
    protected[java.lang]
    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
    Annotations
    @throws()

  13. final def eq(arg0: AnyRef): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef

  14. def equals(arg0: Any): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef → Any

  15. def finalize(): Unit

    Attributes
    protected[java.lang]
    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
    Annotations
    @throws()

  16. final def getClass(): Class[_]

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef → Any

  17. def hashCode(): Int

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef → Any

  18. final def isInstanceOf[T0]: Boolean

    Definition Classes
    Any

  19. final def ne(arg0: AnyRef): Boolean

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef

  20. final def notify(): Unit

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef

  21. final def notifyAll(): Unit

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef

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

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef

  23. def toString(): String

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef → Any

  24. final def wait(): Unit

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
    Annotations
    @throws()

  25. final def wait(arg0: Long, arg1: Int): Unit

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
    Annotations
    @throws()

  26. final def wait(arg0: Long): Unit

    Definition Classes
    AnyRef
    Annotations
    @throws()

  27. final def writeObject(o: ObjectOutputStream): Unit

    ActorContexts shouldn't be Serializable

    ActorContexts shouldn't be Serializable

    Attributes
    protected

Inherited from ActorRefFactory

Inherited from AnyRef

Inherited from Any

Ungrouped