A node that can communicate with the cluster but is not a member of the cluster

[civilizeddev]

I want to know if this is possible in Goakt.

To explain, it is as follows: Members of a goakt cluster are hosting actors on it. The question is whether there is a way for an external client, who is not a member of this cluster but can communicate with this actor system, to send messages to the actors.

For reference, in the case of protoactor, the clusterprovier offers StartMember() to start as a member of the cluster and StartClient() to start merely as a client, separately.

https://github.com/asynkron/protoactor-go/blob/2ecba7517929a27dc1ac0c44734b9c538b9044cb/cluster/clusterproviders/k8s/k8s_provider.go#L101-L129

I would like to know if this is also possible in Goakt. If there is no direct method, I wonder if there might be an indirect way.

[civilizeddev]

This seems to be related to the PR. I need a usage example regarding eventstream.

#18

[Tochemey]

@civilizeddev I have some examples in the actor-cluster folder that show how to communicate with actors in the cluster. Using the api one can communicate to an actor from an external system. I hope this answers your questions

[Tochemey]

You can see the examples here:

• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/examples/actor-cluster/k8s/service/service.go#L76
• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/examples/actor-cluster/k8s/service/service.go

[Tochemey]

Regarding the event stream, only deadletter are emitted because events are occurrences happened in the actor system that can be propagated via a pubsub mechanism. So far only deadletter are propagated. In a nutshell it is internal to Go-Akt at the moment.

[Tochemey]

I will be enhancing the internal events in this issue #171

[civilizeddev]

You can see the examples here:

• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/examples/actor-cluster/k8s/service/service.go#L76
• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/examples/actor-cluster/k8s/service/service.go

In this example, the service is running on the same node as the actor system. Does this mean that in this example, I can create an ActorSystem without starting and use it in the service? Is that really possible?

[Tochemey]

@civilizeddev From what you are asking the only apis you can use are:

• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/actors/api.go#L191
• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/actors/api.go#L228
• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/actors/api.go#L268
• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/actors/api.go#L306
• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/actors/api.go#L350

Those one do not require an actor system running on your system. However you need an actor system running on the remote node you are making the requests to. I hope this answers your question.

[Tochemey]

You can see the examples here:

• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/examples/actor-cluster/k8s/service/service.go#L76

• https://github.com/Tochemey/goakt/blob/main/examples/actor-cluster/k8s/service/service.go

In this example, the service is running on the same node as the actor system. Does this mean that in this example, I can create an ActorSystem without starting and use it in the service? Is that really possible?

No that is possible 😉

[civilizeddev]

So, you're saying that the ActorSystem is referenced only as a source of information for remote calls? I understand.

Then, can the client immediately decide which pod to make a remote call to?

[Tochemey]

The actor system in those examples help create and locate actors locally and remotely.
@civilizeddev please what do you mean by the client?