ActorFlow.ask

Use the “Ask Pattern” to send each stream element as an ask to the target actor (of the new actors API), and expect a reply that will be emitted downstream.

Actor interop operators

Dependency

The Akka dependencies are available from Akka’s library repository. To access them there, you need to configure the URL for this repository.

sbt

resolvers += "Akka library repository".at("https://repo.akka.io/maven")

Maven

<project>
  ...
  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>akka-repository</id>
      <name>Akka library repository</name>
      <url>https://repo.akka.io/maven</url>
    </repository>
  </repositories>
</project>

Gradle

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
    maven {
        url "https://repo.akka.io/maven"
    }
}

This operator is included in:

sbt

val AkkaVersion = "2.9.7"
libraryDependencies += "com.typesafe.akka" %% "akka-stream-typed" % AkkaVersion

Maven

<properties>
  <scala.binary.version>2.13</scala.binary.version>
</properties>
<dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.typesafe.akka</groupId>
      <artifactId>akka-bom_${scala.binary.version}</artifactId>
      <version>2.9.7</version>
      <type>pom</type>
      <scope>import</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>
<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.typesafe.akka</groupId>
    <artifactId>akka-stream-typed_${scala.binary.version}</artifactId>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

Gradle

def versions = [
  ScalaBinary: "2.13"
]
dependencies {
  implementation platform("com.typesafe.akka:akka-bom_${versions.ScalaBinary}:2.9.7")

  implementation "com.typesafe.akka:akka-stream-typed_${versions.ScalaBinary}"
}

Signature

ActorFlow.askActorFlow.ask

Description

Use the Ask pattern to send a request-reply message to the target ref actor. If any of the asks times out it will fail the stream with an AskTimeoutExceptionAskTimeoutException.

The ask operator requires

• the actor ref,
• a makeMessage function to create the message sent to the actor from the incoming element, and the actor ref accepting the actor’s reply message
• a timeout.

See also:

• Flow.ask for the classic actors variant

Examples

The ActorFlow.ask sends a message to the actor. The actor expects Asking messages which contain the actor ref for replies of type Reply. When the actor for replies receives a reply, the ActorFlow.ask stream stage emits the reply and the map extracts the message String.

Scala

copysourceimport akka.stream.scaladsl.{ Flow, Sink, Source }
import akka.stream.typed.scaladsl.ActorFlow
import akka.actor.typed.ActorRef
import akka.actor.typed.scaladsl.Behaviors
import akka.util.Timeout

final case class Asking(s: String, replyTo: ActorRef[Reply])
final case class Reply(msg: String)

final case class AskingWithStatus(s: String, replyTo: ActorRef[StatusReply[String]])

    val ref = spawn(Behaviors.receiveMessage[Asking] { asking =>
      asking.replyTo ! Reply(asking.s + "!!!")
      Behaviors.same
    })

implicit val timeout: Timeout = 1.second

val askFlow: Flow[String, Reply, NotUsed] =
  ActorFlow.ask(ref)(Asking.apply)

// explicit creation of the sent message
val askFlowExplicit: Flow[String, Reply, NotUsed] =
  ActorFlow.ask(ref)(makeMessage = (el, replyTo: ActorRef[Reply]) => Asking(el, replyTo))

val in: Future[immutable.Seq[String]] =
  Source(1 to 50).map(_.toString).via(askFlow).map(_.msg).runWith(Sink.seq)

Java

copysourceimport akka.actor.typed.ActorRef;
import akka.actor.typed.ActorSystem;
import akka.pattern.StatusReply;
import akka.stream.javadsl.Flow;
import akka.stream.javadsl.Sink;
import akka.stream.javadsl.Source;
import akka.stream.typed.javadsl.ActorFlow;

class Asking {
  final String payload;
  final ActorRef<Reply> replyTo;

  public Asking(String payload, ActorRef<Reply> replyTo) {
    this.payload = payload;
    this.replyTo = replyTo;
  }
}

static class AskingWithStatus {
  final String payload;
  final ActorRef<StatusReply<String>> replyTo;

  public AskingWithStatus(String payload, ActorRef<StatusReply<String>> replyTo) {
    this.payload = payload;
    this.replyTo = replyTo;
  }
}

class Reply {
  public final String msg;

  public Reply(String msg) {
    this.msg = msg;
  }
}

final ActorRef<Asking> actorRef = // ???
final ActorRef<AskingWithStatus> actorWithStatusRef = // ???
Duration timeout = Duration.ofSeconds(1);

// method reference notation
Flow<String, Reply, NotUsed> askFlow = ActorFlow.ask(actorRef, timeout, Asking::new);

// explicit creation of the sent message
Flow<String, Reply, NotUsed> askFlowExplicit =
    ActorFlow.ask(actorRef, timeout, (msg, replyTo) -> new Asking(msg, replyTo));

Flow<String, String, NotUsed> askFlowExplicitWithStatus =
    ActorFlow.askWithStatus(
        actorWithStatusRef, timeout, (msg, replyTo) -> new AskingWithStatus(msg, replyTo));

Source.repeat("hello").via(askFlow).map(reply -> reply.msg).runWith(Sink.seq(), system);

Reactive Streams semantics