Akka Documentation

Synchronous behavior testing

You are viewing the documentation for the new actor APIs, to view the Akka Classic documentation, see Classic Testing.

The BehaviorTestKit provides a very nice way of unit testing a Behavior in a deterministic way, but it has some limitations to be aware of.

Certain BehaviorBehaviors will be hard to test synchronously and the BehaviorTestKit doesn’t support testing of all features. In those cases the asynchronous ActorTestKit is recommended. Example of limitations:

• Spawning of FutureCompletionStage or other asynchronous task and you rely on a callback to complete before observing the effect you want to test.
• Usage of scheduler is not supported.
• EventSourcedBehavior can’t be tested.
• Interactions with other actors must be stubbed.
• Blackbox testing style.
• Supervision is not supported.

The BehaviorTestKit will be improved and some of these problems will be removed but it will always have limitations.

The following demonstrates how to test:

• Spawning child actors
• Spawning child actors anonymously
• Sending a message either as a reply or to another actor
• Sending a message to a child actor

The examples below require the following imports:

Scala

copysourceimport akka.actor.testkit.typed.CapturedLogEvent
import akka.actor.testkit.typed.Effect._
import akka.actor.testkit.typed.scaladsl.BehaviorTestKit
import akka.actor.testkit.typed.scaladsl.TestInbox
import akka.actor.typed._
import akka.actor.typed.scaladsl._
import com.typesafe.config.ConfigFactory
import org.slf4j.event.Level

Java

copysourceimport akka.actor.testkit.typed.CapturedLogEvent;
import akka.actor.testkit.typed.Effect;
import akka.actor.testkit.typed.javadsl.BehaviorTestKit;
import akka.actor.testkit.typed.javadsl.TestInbox;
import akka.actor.typed.*;
import akka.actor.typed.javadsl.*;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;

import com.typesafe.config.Config;
import org.slf4j.event.Level;

Each of the tests are testing an actor that based on the message executes a different effect to be tested:

Scala

copysourceobject Hello {
  sealed trait Command
  case object CreateAnonymousChild extends Command
  case class CreateChild(childName: String) extends Command
  case class SayHelloToChild(childName: String) extends Command
  case object SayHelloToAnonymousChild extends Command
  case class SayHello(who: ActorRef[String]) extends Command
  case class LogAndSayHello(who: ActorRef[String]) extends Command

  def apply(): Behaviors.Receive[Command] = Behaviors.receivePartial {
    case (context, CreateChild(name)) =>
      context.spawn(childActor, name)
      Behaviors.same
    case (context, CreateAnonymousChild) =>
      context.spawnAnonymous(childActor)
      Behaviors.same
    case (context, SayHelloToChild(childName)) =>
      val child: ActorRef[String] = context.spawn(childActor, childName)
      child ! "hello"
      Behaviors.same
    case (context, SayHelloToAnonymousChild) =>
      val child: ActorRef[String] = context.spawnAnonymous(childActor)
      child ! "hello stranger"
      Behaviors.same
    case (_, SayHello(who)) =>
      who ! "hello"
      Behaviors.same
    case (context, LogAndSayHello(who)) =>
      context.log.info("Saying hello to {}", who.path.name)
      who ! "hello"
      Behaviors.same
  }

Java

copysourcepublic static class Hello extends AbstractBehavior<Hello.Command> {

  public interface Command {}

  public static class CreateAChild implements Command {
    public final String childName;

    public CreateAChild(String childName) {
      this.childName = childName;
    }
  }

  public enum CreateAnAnonymousChild implements Command {
    INSTANCE
  }

  public static class SayHelloToChild implements Command {
    public final String childName;

    public SayHelloToChild(String childName) {
      this.childName = childName;
    }
  }

  public enum SayHelloToAnonymousChild implements Command {
    INSTANCE
  }

  public static class SayHello implements Command {
    public final ActorRef<String> who;

    public SayHello(ActorRef<String> who) {
      this.who = who;
    }
  }

  public static class LogAndSayHello implements Command {
    public final ActorRef<String> who;

    public LogAndSayHello(ActorRef<String> who) {
      this.who = who;
    }
  }

  public static Behavior<Command> create() {
    return Behaviors.setup(Hello::new);
  }

  private Hello(ActorContext<Command> context) {
    super(context);
  }

  @Override
  public Receive<Command> createReceive() {
    return newReceiveBuilder()
        .onMessage(CreateAChild.class, this::onCreateAChild)
        .onMessage(CreateAnAnonymousChild.class, this::onCreateAnonymousChild)
        .onMessage(SayHelloToChild.class, this::onSayHelloToChild)
        .onMessage(SayHelloToAnonymousChild.class, this::onSayHelloToAnonymousChild)
        .onMessage(SayHello.class, this::onSayHello)
        .onMessage(LogAndSayHello.class, this::onLogAndSayHello)
        .build();
  }

  private Behavior<Command> onCreateAChild(CreateAChild message) {
    getContext().spawn(Child.create(), message.childName);
    return Behaviors.same();
  }

  private Behavior<Command> onCreateAnonymousChild(CreateAnAnonymousChild message) {
    getContext().spawnAnonymous(Child.create());
    return Behaviors.same();
  }

  private Behavior<Command> onSayHelloToChild(SayHelloToChild message) {
    ActorRef<String> child = getContext().spawn(Child.create(), message.childName);
    child.tell("hello");
    return Behaviors.same();
  }

  private Behavior<Command> onSayHelloToAnonymousChild(SayHelloToAnonymousChild message) {
    ActorRef<String> child = getContext().spawnAnonymous(Child.create());
    child.tell("hello stranger");
    return Behaviors.same();
  }

  private Behavior<Command> onSayHello(SayHello message) {
    message.who.tell("hello");
    return Behaviors.same();
  }

  private Behavior<Command> onLogAndSayHello(LogAndSayHello message) {
    getContext().getLog().info("Saying hello to {}", message.who.path().name());
    message.who.tell("hello");
    return Behaviors.same();
  }
}

For creating a child actor a noop actor is created:

Scala

copysourceval childActor = Behaviors.receiveMessage[String] { _ =>
  Behaviors.same[String]
}

Java

copysourcepublic static class Child {
  public static Behavior<String> create() {
    return Behaviors.receive((context, message) -> Behaviors.same());
  }
}

All of the tests make use of the BehaviorTestKitBehaviorTestKit to avoid the need for a real ActorContext. Some of the tests make use of the TestInboxTestInbox which allows the creation of an ActorRefActorRef that can be used for synchronous testing, similar to the TestProbe used for asynchronous testing.

Spawning children

With a name:

Scala

copysourceval testKit = BehaviorTestKit(Hello())
testKit.run(Hello.CreateChild("child"))
testKit.expectEffect(Spawned(childActor, "child"))

Java

copysourceBehaviorTestKit<Hello.Command> test = BehaviorTestKit.create(Hello.create());
test.run(new Hello.CreateAChild("child"));
assertEquals("child", test.expectEffectClass(Effect.Spawned.class).childName());

Anonymously:

Scala

copysourceval testKit = BehaviorTestKit(Hello())
testKit.run(Hello.CreateAnonymousChild)
testKit.expectEffect(SpawnedAnonymous(childActor))

Java

copysourceBehaviorTestKit<Hello.Command> test = BehaviorTestKit.create(Hello.create());
test.run(Hello.CreateAnAnonymousChild.INSTANCE);
test.expectEffectClass(Effect.SpawnedAnonymous.class);

Sending messages

For testing sending a message a TestInboxTestInbox is created that provides an ActorRefActorRef and methods to assert against the messages that have been sent to it.

Scala

copysourceval testKit = BehaviorTestKit(Hello())
val inbox = TestInbox[String]()
testKit.run(Hello.SayHello(inbox.ref))
inbox.expectMessage("hello")

Java

copysourceBehaviorTestKit<Hello.Command> test = BehaviorTestKit.create(Hello.create());
TestInbox<String> inbox = TestInbox.create();
test.run(new Hello.SayHello(inbox.getRef()));
inbox.expectMessage("hello");

Another use case is sending a message to a child actor you can do this by looking up the TestInboxTestInbox for a child actor from the BehaviorTestKitBehaviorTestKit:

Scala

copysourceval testKit = BehaviorTestKit(Hello())
testKit.run(Hello.SayHelloToChild("child"))
val childInbox = testKit.childInbox[String]("child")
childInbox.expectMessage("hello")

Java

copysourceBehaviorTestKit<Hello.Command> testKit = BehaviorTestKit.create(Hello.create());
testKit.run(new Hello.SayHelloToChild("child"));
TestInbox<String> childInbox = testKit.childInbox("child");
childInbox.expectMessage("hello");

For anonymous children the actor names are generated in a deterministic way:

Scala

copysourceval testKit = BehaviorTestKit(Hello())
testKit.run(Hello.SayHelloToAnonymousChild)
val child = testKit.expectEffectType[SpawnedAnonymous[String]]

val childInbox = testKit.childInbox(child.ref)
childInbox.expectMessage("hello stranger")

Java

copysourceBehaviorTestKit<Hello.Command> testKit = BehaviorTestKit.create(Hello.create());
testKit.run(Hello.SayHelloToAnonymousChild.INSTANCE);
// Anonymous actors are created as: $a $b etc
TestInbox<String> childInbox = testKit.childInbox("$a");
childInbox.expectMessage("hello stranger");

Testing other effects

The BehaviorTestKitBehaviorTestKit keeps track other effects you can verify, look at the sub-classes of EffectEffect

• SpawnedAdapter
• Stopped
• Watched
• WatchedWith
• Unwatched
• Scheduled
• TimerScheduled
• TimerCancelled

Checking for Log Messages

The BehaviorTestKitBehaviorTestKit also keeps track of everything that is being logged. Here, you can see an example on how to check if the behavior logged certain messages:

Scala

copysourceval testKit = BehaviorTestKit(Hello())
val inbox = TestInbox[String]("Inboxer")
testKit.run(Hello.LogAndSayHello(inbox.ref))
testKit.logEntries() shouldBe Seq(CapturedLogEvent(Level.INFO, "Saying hello to Inboxer"))

Java

copysourceBehaviorTestKit<Hello.Command> test = BehaviorTestKit.create(Hello.create());
TestInbox<String> inbox = TestInbox.create("Inboxer");
test.run(new Hello.LogAndSayHello(inbox.getRef()));

List<CapturedLogEvent> allLogEntries = test.getAllLogEntries();
assertEquals(1, allLogEntries.size());
CapturedLogEvent expectedLogEvent =
    new CapturedLogEvent(
        Level.INFO,
        "Saying hello to Inboxer",
        Optional.empty(),
        Optional.empty(),
        new HashMap<>());
assertEquals(expectedLogEvent, allLogEntries.get(0));

See the other public methods and API documentation on BehaviorTestKitBehaviorTestKit for other types of verification.