Understanding Akka WebSockets A Comprehensive Guide
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The document outlines a presentation on WebSocket by Ayush Pathak and Tushar Dhiman, detailing its significance in enabling real-time, bidirectional communication for applications such as live chat and online gaming. It highlights the comparison between WebSocket and HTTP, emphasizing the former's advantages in terms of persistent connections and low latency. The document also provides an overview of Akka frameworks, including Actor, Http, and Streams, which facilitate the integration and management of WebSocket communication in Scala-based applications.
Understanding Akka WebSockets A Comprehensive Guide
- 2. Lack of etiquette and manners is a huge turn off. KnolX Etiquettes ▪ Punctuality Join the session 5 minutes prior to the session start time. We start on time and conclude on time! ▪ Feedback Make sure to submit a constructive feedback for all sessions as it is very helpful for the presenter. ▪ Silent Mode Keep your mobile devices in silent mode, feel free to move out of session in case you need to attend an urgent call. ▪ Avoid Disturbance Avoid unwanted chit chat during the session.
- 3. Agenda 1. Introduction o What is WebSocket o WebSocket Communication o Use cases of WebSocket 2. WebSocket vs HTTP 3. Overview of Akka Actor 4. Akka HTTP and Its Features 5. Overview of Akka Stream 6. Akka support for WebSocket 7. Demo
- 5. What is WebSocket. ▪ WebSocket function as a communication protocol, offering full-duplex communication channels over a single, persistent TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) connection. ▪ They designed this to overcome some limitations inherent in traditional HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) communication, which primarily relies on a request-response model. ▪ WebSocket find frequent application in web-based functionalities, facilitating real-time features like live chat, notifications, collaborative editing, financial trading platforms, and online gaming.
- 6. WebSocket Communication ▪ Handshake Initiation: WebSocket starts with a handshake between the client and server, utilizing the HTTP protocol, setting the groundwork for the subsequent transition. ▪ HTTP Protocol Utilization: The handshake relies on the HTTP protocol, ensuring compatibility and smooth integration within existing web infrastructures. ▪ Transition to WebSocket: After a successful handshake, the connection seamlessly shifts from HTTP to the WebSocket protocol. ▪ Bidirectional Communication: WebSocket activation enables bidirectional communication between the client and server.
- 7. What are WebSocket used for? WebSocket enable real-time bidirectional communication between a client (typically a web browser) and a server through a single, persistent TCP connection. This technology proves especially effective in scenarios where low-latency, high-throughput, and real-time updates are essential. Consequently, here are some common use cases for WebSocket: Real-Time Web Applications: ▪ WebSocket find extensive use in developing real-time web applications, including chat applications, collaborative document editing and live streaming. The bidirectional nature of WebSocket allows instant communication between clients and servers. Online Gaming: ▪ Online gaming frequently relies on WebSocket to enable real-time communication between players and the game server. This is crucial for multiplayer games where quick responses and synchronization are essential for a seamless gaming experience.
- 8. What are WebSocket used for? Notifications and Alerts: ▪ WebSocket serve to deliver instant notifications and alerts to users. This can include push notifications for updates, system alerts, or any event-triggered communication that requires immediate attention. IOT(Internet of Things): ▪ In IoT applications, WebSocket serve for bidirectional communication between IoT devices and the server. This allows for real-time monitoring, control, and updates in scenarios like smart homes, industrial automation, and connected vehicles.
- 9. WebSocket vs HTTP. ▪ Encryption: WebSocket can be used over a secure connection (WSS - WebSocket Secure) to encrypt the data, providing a secure channel similar to HTTP. ▪ Real-Time Applications: WebSocket are ideal for real-time applications where low latency and bidirectional communication are essential, such as chat applications, online gaming, and live updates. ▪ Long-Lived Connections: WebSocket keep the connection open for an extended period, allowing for efficient communication without the need to repeatedly establish connections. WebSocket ▪ Encryption: HTTP encrypts the communication between the client and the server, providing a secure and private channel. It uses TLS (Transport Layer Security) or its predecessor, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), to encrypt the data. ▪ Web Pages: HTTP is used for loading secure web pages, where sensitive information such as login credentials or personal data is transmitted. ▪ Short-Lived Connections: In HTTP, each interaction typically involves a short- lived connection. The client establishes a connection for a request, and the connection is closed after the response is received. HTTP
- 10. WebSocket vs HTTP. WebSocket: • Full-Duplex: WebSocket provide full- duplex communication, allowing both the client and server to send messages independently over the same, long-lived connection. • Bidirectional: Either the client or the server can initiate communication at any time. HTTP: • Request-Response: HTTP is primarily based on the request-response model. A client sends a request to a server, and the server responds with the requested data. • Stateless: Each request from the client is independent, and the server does not maintain any state between requests.
- 11. Akka Actor
- 12. Akka Actor. ▪ An actor is an entity which communicates to other actor by message passing. Actor has it's own state and behaviour. ▪ As in object-oriented programming everything is an object same like everything is an actor in actor-based system. In other words, we can say that an actor is an object that encapsulates state and behaviour. ▪ Actors provide a higher level of abstraction to write concurrent and distributed programs. Roughly speaking, an Actor is a unit of concurrently manageable work and its associated state. ▪ An Actor’s state is strictly private to an actor. Only way to communicate with an Actor is by sending messages to it.
- 13. Actor Model. Mailboxes ▪ Actors have mailboxes attached to them. Mailboxes are nothing but a queue data structure, which can be concurrently accessed. Messages sent to an actor are queued in mailboxes. ▪ Messages in a mailbox are dispatched to an Actor one at a time in order. Dispatchers ▪ Dispatchers the execution engine for Actors. Dispatchers internally manage a thread pool on which Actors are scheduled and execute the message handling code.
- 14. Akka HTTP.
- 15. Akka HTTP: Introduction ▪ Akka HTTP is a powerful, open-source toolkit for building scalable, high-performance web applications in Scala. Developed on top of the Akka toolkit, it brings the actor-based concurrency model into the world of web development. ▪ Akka HTTP simplifies the integration of WebSocket communication into our applications. It offers a high-level API for handling WebSocket connections, allowing developers to focus on business logic rather than dealing with low-level details. ▪ With Akka HTTP, you can easily establish WebSocket connections, handle incoming messages, and broadcast updates to connected clients.
- 16. Key Features ▪ Actor-Based Concurrency: Akka HTTP leverages the Actor model, providing a scalable and efficient way to handle concurrent requests. Each HTTP request is processed by lightweight, isolated actors, ensuring optimal resource utilization. ▪ Streaming Capabilities: With Akka HTTP, streaming is a first-class citizen. It supports both client and server streaming, making it ideal for scenarios where handling large amounts of data in real-time is crucial. ▪ RESTful Routing: Akka HTTP simplifies the process of defining RESTful APIs through a concise and expressive routing DSL (Domain Specific Language). This allows developers to map HTTP requests to specific actions with ease.
- 17. Key Features ▪ Comprehensive WebSocket Support: Akka HTTP provides seamless integration for WebSocket communication. Its high-level API simplifies the establishment of WebSocket connections, allowing bidirectional communication for real-time applications. ▪ Actor-Based Concurrency Model: Akka HTTP leverages the Actor model, a paradigm for concurrent and distributed computing, to manage WebSocket connections efficiently. Actors in Akka provide a lightweight, isolated concurrency unit, making it easier to handle multiple WebSocket connections concurrently without compromising performance or introducing complex synchronization mechanisms.
- 18. Akka Streams
- 19. Akka Streams ▪ Akka-Stream is a module built on top of Akka Actors. It means there are underlying actors that are working in transferring data. ▪ It is a library to process and transfer a sequence of elements. ▪ Akka Streams is nonblocking that means a certain operation does not hinder the progress of the calling thread. ▪ It provides easy-to-use APIs to create streams that leverage the power of the Akka toolkit without explicitly defining actor behaviors and messages. That means, a relief from handling actors yourself. ▪ We can focus on logic rather than focusing on how to manage actors and that can be much productive.
- 20. Basic Terminology in Akka-Streams Akka streams consist of 3 major components in it – Source, Flow, Sink – and any non-cyclical stream consist of at least 2 components Source, Sink and any number of Flow element. Here we can say Source and Sink are the special cases of Flow. ▪ Source – this is the Source of data. It has exactly one output. We can think of Source as Publisher. ▪ Sink – this is the Receiver of data. It has exactly one input. We can think of Sink as Receiver. ▪ Flow – this is the Transformation that acts on the Source. It has exactly one input and one output. Here Flow sits in between the Source and Sink as they are the Transformations applied on the Source data.
- 21. Akka HTTP Support for WebSocket. ▪ Akka HTTP boasts robust support for WebSocket communication, providing developers with a powerful toolkit for implementing real-time, bidirectional data exchange in their Scala-based web applications. ▪ Leveraging the underlying actor-based concurrency model, Akka HTTP simplifies WebSocket integration, allowing for the creation of efficient and scalable solutions. ▪ With dedicated APIs for handling WebSocket connections, developers can seamlessly implement features such as message processing and connection management. ▪ Akka HTTP's support for WebSocket enhances the toolkit's versatility, making it a compelling choice for building responsive and dynamic web applications that require instant updates and interactive user experiences.
- 22. Demo
- 23. Thank you