How can I have an Akka actor executed every 5 min?

Question

I\'d like to know if there are any mechanism in Akka that can have an actor executed periodically?

Answer 1

The approach using schedule is one good approach, although there is a potential for the messages to queue up if the work done on schedule is so great that it might take longer than the scheduled interval. If you want the interval to occur between the end of one iteration and the beginning of the next, then use scheduleOnce with the following pattern:

import akka.actor.Actor
import scala.concurrent.duration._

class SchedulingActor extends Actor {

  override def preStart(): Unit = {
    self ! "Do Some Work"
  }

  def receive = {
    case "Do Some Work" => 
      doWork
      context.system.scheduler.scheduleOnce(5 minutes, self, "Do Some Work")
  }

  def doWork = ???
}