Using Actor Supervised , how to retry the same message for defined number of times with defined interval if failure occur

Question

I am following code from akka.io fault tolerance http://doc.akka.io/docs/akka/current/java/fault-tolerance.html .I have taken this code as reference.My requirement is as follow : Let's assume the actor crashes on a message and is restarted by his supervisor. Then he starts to process the next message in his mailbox. The message which caused the crash is 'dropped'.But I want to process the same action for a particular number of time(suppose 3 times) with a defined interval between them(suppose 1 second).How to do this using akka supervision. Actually through actor I am trying to check whether a particular service api is working or not(ie giving some exception).So if there is any exception on a particular try,(suppose 404 not found),resend the message to the failed worker until maxNrOfRetries is reached as specified by supervisorStrategy. If the worker has failed "maxNrOfRetries" times then just logged like"max number of tries reached for this xx message".How will I do it in java.

my supervisor class :

public class Supervisor extends UntypedActor {


 private static SupervisorStrategy strategy =

 new OneForOneStrategy(3, Duration.create("1 minute"),
  new Function<Throwable, Directive>() {
    @Override
    public Directive apply(Throwable t) {
      if (t instanceof Exception) {
        return restart();
      }else if (t instanceof IllegalArgumentException) {
        return stop();
      } else {
        return escalate();
      }
    }
  });

 @Override
 public SupervisorStrategy supervisorStrategy() {
 return strategy;


}
public void onReceive(Object o) {
if (o instanceof Props) {
  getSender().tell(getContext().actorOf((Props) o), getSelf());
} else {
  unhandled(o);
}


 }
}

Child Class :

public class Child extends UntypedActor {


  public void onReceive(Object o) throws Exception {
if (o instanceof String) {
Object response = someFunction( (String) message);//this function returns either successfull messgae as string or exception
if(response instanceOf Exception) {
     throw (Exception) response;
   } 
   else
     getSender().tell(response, getSelf())
}else {
  unhandled(o);
}


}

}

Creating actor :

Props superprops = Props.create(Supervisor.class);
ActorRef supervisor = system.actorOf(superprops, "supervisor");
ActorRef child = (ActorRef) Await.result(ask(supervisor,
Props.create(Child.class), 5000), timeout);
child.tell("serVice_url", ActorRef.noSender());

For the service_url I want to repeat the process if failure occurs.But it's not happening. if write the next line in creatng actor as child.tell("serVice_url_2", ActorRef.noSender()); then this line is exucted but I want to process the same action (for which failure occurs) for a particular number of time(suppose 3 times) with a defined interval between them. Please guide me to achieve this.

Answer 1

I think I have developed a way.Though I will still have to do a test on production level.I am writing the answer below as it might be helpful to someone trying to achieve the same thing.If someone finds a better approach then he/she is welcomed. Want to mention here that through this approach Supervisor process the same action (with the message for which failure occurs) for a particular number of times(suppose 3 times) within a time range.I was not been able to defined an interval between them. here is the code. The Supervisor class.

public class MyUntypedActor extends UntypedActor {
//here I have given Max no retrilas as 10.I will controll this number from logic as per my own requirements.But user given number of retrials can not exceed 10.
private static SupervisorStrategy strategy = new AllForOneStrategy(10, Duration.create(5, TimeUnit.MINUTES),
        new Function<Throwable, SupervisorStrategy.Directive>() {
            @Override
            public SupervisorStrategy.Directive apply(Throwable t) {
                if (t instanceof Exception) {
                    //System.out.println("exception" + "*****" + t.getMessage() + "***" + t.getLocalizedMessage());
                    return restart();
                } else if (t instanceof NullPointerException) {
                    return restart();
                } else if (t instanceof IllegalArgumentException) {
                    return stop();
                } else {
                    return escalate();
                }
            }
        });

@Override
public SupervisorStrategy supervisorStrategy() {
    return strategy;
}

public void onReceive(Object o) {
    if (o instanceof Props) {
        getSender().tell(getContext().actorOf((Props) o), getSelf());
    } else {
        unhandled(o);
    }
}
}

The child class where we will write our logic.

public class Child extends UntypedActor {
//Through preRestart it will push the message for which exception occured before the restart of the child
@Override
public void preRestart(final Throwable reason, final scala.Option<Object> message) throws Exception {
    System.out.println("reStarting :::" + message.get());
    SetRules.setRemainingTrials(SetRules.remainingTrials + 1);
    getSelf().tell(message.get(), getSender());
};

public void onReceive(Object o) throws Exception {

    if (o instanceof Exception) {
        throw (Exception) o;
    } else if (o instanceof Integer) {
    } else if (o.equals("get")) {
        getSender().tell("get", getSelf());
    } else if (o instanceof String) {

        try {
            // here either we can write our logic directly or for a better
            // approach can call a function where the logic will be excuted.
            getSender().tell("{\"meggase\":\"Succesfull after " + SetRules.remainingTrials + " retrials\"}",
                    getSelf());
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            if (SetRules.remainingTrials == SetRules.noOfRetries) {
                getSender().tell("{\"meggase\":\"Failed to connect after " + SetRules.noOfRetries + " retrials\"}",
                        getSelf());
            } else {
                Exception value1 = ex;
                throw (Exception) value1;
            }
        }
    } else {
        unhandled(o);
    }
}
}

The SetRules class which have the information about user provide noOfRetrials and also store the information about the number of retrials at each sate of retrying through remainingTrials

public class SetRules {

public static int noOfRetries;
public static int remainingTrials;

public SetRules(int noOfRetries, int remainingTrials) {
    super();
    SetRules.noOfRetries = noOfRetries;
    SetRules.remainingTrials = remainingTrials;
}

public int getRemainingTrials() {
    return remainingTrials;
}

public static void setRemainingTrials(int remainingTrials) {
    SetRules.remainingTrials = remainingTrials;
}
}

Now lets create the actor.

Props superprops = Props.create(MyUntypedActor.class);
SetRules setRules=new SetRules(3,0);
ActorSystem system = ActorSystem.create("helloakka");
ActorRef supervisor = system.actorOf(superprops, "supervisor");
ActorRef child = (ActorRef) Await.result(ask(supervisor, Props.create(Child.class), 5000), Duration.create(5, "minutes"));
Future<Object> future = Patterns.ask(child, service_Url, new Timeout(Duration.create(5, "minutes")));
Object result =  Await.result(future, Duration.create(5, "minutes"));
System.out.println(result);