Glokka = Global + Akka

Glokka is a Scala library that allows you to register and lookup actors by names in an Akka cluster. See:

• Erlang's "global" module
• Akka's cluster feature

Glokka is used in Xitrum to implement its distributed SockJS feature.

See Glokka's Scaladoc.

SBT

libraryDependencies += "tv.cntt" %% "glokka" % "2.6.1"

Create registry

import akka.actor.ActorSystem
import glokka.Registry

val system    = ActorSystem("MyClusterSystem")
val proxyName = "my proxy name"
val registry  = Registry.start(system, proxyName)

• You can start multiple registry actors. They must have different proxyName.
• For convenience, proxyName can be any String, you don't have to URI-escape it.

Register actor by props

// For convenience, ``actorName`` can be any String, you don't have to URI-escape it.
val actorName = "my actor name"

// Props to create the actor you want to register.
val props = ...

registry ! Registry.Register(actorName, props)

If the named actor exists, the registry will just return it. You will receive:

Registry.Found(actorName, actorRef)

Otherwise props will be used to create the actor locally (when the actor dies, it will be unregistered automatically). You will receive:

Registry.Created(actorName, actorRef)

If you don't need to differentiate Found and Created:

registry ! Registry.Register(actorName, props)
context.become {
  case msg: Registry.FoundOrCreated =>
    val actorName = msg.name
    val actorRef  = msg.ref
}

Register actor by ref

registry ! Registry.Register(actorName, actorRefToRegister)

If the actor has not been registered, or has already been registered with the same name, you will receive:

Registry.Registered(actorName, actorRef)

Otherwise if there's another actor that has been registered with the name, you will receive:

Registry.Conflict(actorName, otherActorRef, actorRefToRegister)

In this case, you may need to stop actorRefToRegister, depending on your application logic.

Lookup actor by name

Send:

registry ! Registry.Lookup(actorName)

You will receive:

Registry.Found(actorName, actorRef)

Or:

Registry.NotFound(actorName)

Tell

If you don't want to lookup and keep the actor reference:

registry ! Registry.Tell(actorName, msg)

registry ! Registry.Tell(actorName, props, msg)

• If the named actor exists, msg will be sent to it.
• Otherwise, props will be used to create the named actor, and msg will be sent to it.

Cluster

Glokka can run in Akka non-cluster mode (local or remote). While developing, you can run Akka in local mode, then later config Akka to run in cluster mode.

In cluster mode, Glokka uses Akka's Cluster Singleton Pattern to maintain an actor that stores the name -> actorRef lookup table.

Akka config file for a node should look like config_example/application.conf (note MyClusterSystem in the source code example above and in the config file).