The primary mechanism that I use to test my Akka systems is the Integration Testing style of Akka’s TestKit with ScalaTest. My approach is to send messages to my Actors and validate the result messages. Here is a basic example:

 "An Events Actor" should "respond to fire and forget messages" in {

      val eventActorRef = system.actorOf(Props[EventsActor])

      eventActorRef ! EventsListQuery("jboner","akka")
      expectMsgClass( 2 seconds, classOf[List[Event]])
    }

Everything was good until we needed to add blocking behaviour to support a legacy system. You would think that something like this would work:

ignore should "you would think send and receive eventually would send back a msg" in {

      val eventActorRef = system.actorOf(Props[EventsActor])

      implicit val timeout = Timeout(2 seconds)

      eventActorRef ? EventsListQuery("jboner", "akka")

      expectMsgClass( 2 seconds, classOf[List[Event]])
    }

But in this case expectMsgClass will never assert true. There are two reasons for this:

1. The Actor under test does in fact reply with a message but that message is received by an anonymous Actor under the covers of the ‘ask’ call
2. The result of the ‘ask’ call is actually a Future rather than a plain old response

The upshot is that you need something like this:

it should "respond indirectly to send and receive messages" in {

      val eventActorRef = system.actorOf(Props[EventsActor])

      implicit val timeout = Timeout(2 seconds)
      val events =
	Await.result(eventActorRef ? EventsListQuery("jboner","akka"),
		     timeout.duration).asInstanceOf[List[Event]]

      events should not be ('empty)
    }

Originally I ran into this with Akka 1.2 where the API was a little different and I ended up waiting for a message that was never coming until I had to CTRL-c. With 2.0 TestKit forces you to set a timeout for every operation and this works much better. Also the transition from the old !! call to the ? ‘ask’ call really clarifies what is going on under the covers and forces you to explicitly work with a Future.

There is a full example on github.

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Liking these Adidas hi tops.

These Nike Blazers are super bad custom jobs designed by the wearer.

Thanks for the positive feedback!

BTW: Check the slides and video.

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This is the Glastonbury of sneakers and the Reading of kicks. Where footwear goes to see and be seen. This is Crepe City.

Some amazing sneakers out today, both on feet and for sale. A few flavors of the LeBron 8 really caught my eye, there was this electric blue and yellow style (see above) as well as a totally psycedelic colorway (for sale). There were perhaps five pairs of Jordan Vs in red suede. I think I saw a pair of David Robinsons. Other notables include

• Air Trainer 91s
• Gel Lyte III in about 5 colorways (for sale)
• Adidas teddy bear sneakers
• Loads of Jordan 20s (for sale)

The Crepe City team was taking photos as well, so I am going to make sure and post a link when those are up.

Posted via email from No Bobos

This is the Glastonbury of sneakers and the Reading of kicks. Where footwear goes to see and be seen. This is Crepe City.

Some amazing sneakers out today, both on feet and for sale. A few flavors of the LeBron 8 really caught my eye, there was this electric blue and yellow style (see above) as well as a totally psycedelic colorway (for sale). There were perhaps five pairs of Jordan Vs in red suede. I think I saw a pair of David Robinsons. Other notables include

• Air Trainer 91s
• Gel Lyte III in about 5 colorways (for sale)
• Adidas teddy bear sneakers
• Loads of Jordan 20s (for sale)

The Crepe City team was taking photos as well, so I am going to make sure and post a link when those are up.

Spotted these about to spot Big Ben

Posted via email from No Bobos

Spotted these about to spot Big Ben

Have a feeling that these Superstars may be a BMX variant.

Posted via email from No Bobos

Have a feeling that these Superstars may be a BMX variant.

I get asked quite frequently about my “secrets” for time management because apparently I seem to look like I have it all together. This couldn’t be further from the truth and even I have moments of stress, panic and sheer exhaustion. But I have established some guidelines that I regard as my foundation for better time management that I’m more than happy to share. They’re not one-size fits all, but they fit perfectly into my life. [caption id=”att … Read More

via Bennis Inc

Question: What do you get when TDK and Mippin get together? Answer: All sorts of fireworks, nuclear, radioactive goodness that not even the merger of HTC and Beats by Dre or the acquisition of Motorola by Google could bring. That's right Mippin has allowed TDK to make its way into the Android market by designing a smooth and slick app with all the latest info on Android related news and applications you need. "If it's not here, you don't need it. … Read More

via the droid kingdom