akka-mock-scheduler

A mock Akka scheduler to simplify testing scheduler-dependent code.

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Table of Contents

• Motivation
• Usage
  • Build dependency
  • Examples
• Design and limitations
• Development
• Change log
• License
• Credits

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Motivation

Akka Scheduler is a convenient tool to make things happen in the future -- for example, "run this function in 5 seconds" or "run that function every 100 milliseconds".

Let's say you want to periodically run the function myFunction() in your code via Akka Scheduler:

def myFunction() = ???

val initialDelay = 0.millis
val interval = 100.millis
scheduler.schedule(initialDelay, interval)(myFunction())

Unfortunately, the current Akka implementation apparently does not provide a simple way to test-drive code that relies on Akka Scheduler (see e.g. Testing Actor Systems). This project closes this gap by providing a "mock scheduler" and an accompanying "virtual time" implementation so that your test suite does not degrade into Thread.sleep() hell.

Please note that the scope of this project is not to become a full-fledged testing kit for Akka Scheduler!

Usage

Build dependency

This project is published to Sonatype.

• Releases are available on Maven Central.
• Snapshots are available in the Sonatype Snapshot repository.

Latest release (works with Java 8+; you can also browse the release repository):

• Scala 2.13:
• Scala 2.12:
• Scala 2.11:

// Scala 2.13
libraryDependencies ++= Seq("com.miguno.akka" % "akka-mock-scheduler_2.13" % "0.5.5")

// Scala 2.12
libraryDependencies ++= Seq("com.miguno.akka" % "akka-mock-scheduler_2.12" % "0.5.5")

// Scala 2.11
libraryDependencies ++= Seq("com.miguno.akka" % "akka-mock-scheduler_2.11" % "0.5.5")

Scala 2.10 support is deprecated: the latest release for Scala 2.10 and Java 7 is 0.4.0.

// Scala 2.10
libraryDependencies ++= Seq("com.miguno.akka" % "akka-mock-scheduler_2.10" % "0.4.0")

Latest snapshot (works with Java 8+; you can also browse the snapshot repository):

resolvers ++= Seq("sonatype-snapshots" at "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots")

// Scala 2.13
libraryDependencies ++= Seq("com.miguno.akka" % "akka-mock-scheduler_2.13" % "0.5.6-SNAPSHOT")

// Scala 2.12
libraryDependencies ++= Seq("com.miguno.akka" % "akka-mock-scheduler_2.12" % "0.5.6-SNAPSHOT")

// Scala 2.11
libraryDependencies ++= Seq("com.miguno.akka" % "akka-mock-scheduler_2.11" % "0.5.6-SNAPSHOT")

Examples

First step: start sbt console

You can interactively test-drive the examples below via sbt console, which will automatically make the akka-mock-scheduler library (plus dependencies such as Akka) available in the console:

$ ./sbt console

Then you can copy-paste the example code below to play around.

Example 1

In this example we schedule a one-time task to run in 5 milliseconds from "now". We create an instance of VirtualTime, which contains its own MockScheduler instance.

Tip: In practice, you rarely create MockScheduler instances yourself and instead interact with the scheduler through its enclosing VirtualTime instance.

Here, think of time.advance() as the logical equivalent of Thread.sleep().

import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext.Implicits.global
import scala.concurrent.duration._
import com.miguno.akka.testing.VirtualTime

// A time instance has its own mock scheduler associated with it
val time = new VirtualTime

// Schedule a one-time task that increments a counter
val counter = new java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger(0)
time.scheduler.scheduleOnce(5.millis)(counter.getAndIncrement)

time.advance(4.millis)
assert(time.elapsed == 4.millis)
assert(counter.get == 0) // <<< not yet incremented, still too early

time.advance(1.millis)
assert(time.elapsed == 5.millis)
assert(counter.get == 1) // <<< now incremented, which means the task was run at the right time!

Example 2

In your code you may want to make the scheduler configurable. In the following example the class Foo has a field scheduler that defaults to Akka's system.scheduler (cf. akka.actor.ActorSystem#scheduler).

import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext.Implicits.global
import scala.concurrent.duration._

val system = akka.actor.ActorSystem("my-system")

class Foo(scheduler: akka.actor.Scheduler = system.scheduler) {

  scheduler.scheduleOnce(500.millis)(bar())

  def bar(): Unit = ???

}

During testing you can then plug in the mock scheduler:

import com.miguno.akka.testing.VirtualTime

val time = new VirtualTime
val foo = new Foo(time.scheduler)

// Actual tests follow, which will leverage `time.advance(...)`.

Further examples

See MockSchedulerSpec for further details and examples.

You can also run the include test suite, which includes MockSchedulerSpec, to improve your understanding of how the mock scheduler and virtual time work:

$ ./sbt clean test

Example output:

[info] TaskSpec:
[info] Task
[info] - a task is smaller than another task with a larger delay
[info]   + Given an instance
[info]   + When compared to a second instance that runs later
[info]   + Then the first instance is greater than the second
[info]   + And the second instance is smaller than the first
[info] - for two tasks with equal delays, the one with the smaller id is less than the other
[info]   + Given an instance
[info]   + When compared to second instance with a larger id
[info]   + Then the first instance is greater than the second
[info]   + And the second instance is smaller than the first
[info] - tasks with equal delays and equal ids are equal
[info]   + Given an instance
[info]   + When compared to another with the same delay and id
[info]   + Then it returns true
[info] VirtualTimeSpec:
[info] VirtualTime
[info] - should start at time zero
[info]   + Given no time
[info]   + When I create a time
[info]   + Then its elapsed time should be zero
[info] - should track elapsed time
[info]   + Given a time
[info]   + When I advance the time
[info]   + Then the elapsed time should be correct
[info] - should accept a step defined as a Long that represents the number of milliseconds
[info]   + Given a time
[info]   + When I advance the time by a Long value of 1234
[info]   + Then the elapsed time should be 1234 milliseconds
[info] - should have a meaningful string representation
[info]   + Given a time
[info]   + When I request its string representation
[info]   + Then the representation should include the elapsed time in milliseconds
[info] - should enforce a minimum advancement of 1 miliseconds
[info]   + Given a time
[info]   + Then it will throw an exception if time is advanced by less than 1 millisecond
[info] MockSchedulerSpec:
[info] MockScheduler
[info] - should run a one-time task once
[info]   + Given a time with a scheduler
[info]   + And an execution context
[info]   + When I schedule a one-time task
[info]   + Then the task should not run before its delay
[info]   + And the task should run at the time of its delay
[info]   + And the task should not run again
[info] - should run a recurring task multiple times
[info]   + Given a time with a scheduler
[info]   + And an execution context
[info]   + When I schedule a recurring task
[info]   + Then the task should not run before its initial delay
[info]   + And it should run at the time of its initial delay (run #1)
[info]   + And it should not run again before its next interval
[info]   + And it should run again at its next interval (run #2)
[info]   + And it should not run again before its next interval
[info]   + And it should run again at its next interval (run #3)
[info]   + And it should have run 103 times after the initial delay and 102 intervals
[info] - should run tasks with different delays in order
[info]   + Given a time with a scheduler
[info]   + And an execution context
[info]   + When I schedule a recurring task A
[info]   + And I schedule a one-time task B to run when A has already been run a couple of times
[info]   + Then A should run before B
[info]   + And A should continue to run after B finished
[info] - should run tasks that are scheduled for the same time in order of their registration with the scheduler
[info]   + Given a time with a scheduler
[info]   + And an execution context
[info]   + When I schedule a one-time task A
[info]   + And I then schedule a recurring task B whose initial run is scheduled at the same time as A
[info]   + And I then schedule a one-time task C to run at the same time as A
[info]   + Then A should run before B, and B should run before C
[info] - should support recursive scheduling
[info]   + Given a time with a scheduler
[info]   + And an execution context
[info]   + When I schedule a task A that schedules another task B
[info]   + And I advance the time so that A was already run (and thus B is now registered with the scheduler)
[info]   + Then B should be run with the configured delay (which will happen in one of the next ticks of the scheduler)
[info] - should not run a cancelled task
[info]   + Given a time with a scheduler
[info]   + And an execution context
[info]   + When I schedule a one-time task
[info]   + And I cancel the task before its execution time
[info]   + Then the task should not run
[info] - should not run a recurring task after it was cancelled
[info]   + Given a time with a scheduler
[info]   + And an execution context
[info]   + When I schedule a recurring task
[info]   + And I advance the time so that the task is executed once
[info]   + And I cancel the task and advance the time further
[info]   + Then the task should not run any more
[info] MockCancellableSpec:
[info] MockCancellable
[info] - should return true when cancelled the first time
[info]   + Given an instance
[info]   + When I cancel it the first time
[info]   + Then it returns true
[info] - should return false when cancelled the second time
[info]   + Given an instance
[info]   + When I cancel it the second time
[info]   + Then it returns false
[info] - isCancelled should return false when cancel was not called yet
[info]   + Given an instance
[info]   + When I ask whether it has been cancelled
[info]   + Then it returns false
[info] - isCancelled should return true when cancel was called already
[info]   + Given an instance
[info]   + And the instance was cancelled
[info]   + When I ask whether it has been cancelled
[info]   + Then it returns true
[info] Run completed in 360 milliseconds.
[info] Total number of tests run: 19
[info] Suites: completed 4, aborted 0
[info] Tests: succeeded 19, failed 0, canceled 0, ignored 0, pending 0
[info] All tests passed.

Design and limitations

• If you call time.advance(), then the scheduler will run any tasks that need to be executed in "one big swing": there will be no delay in-between tasks runs, however the execution order of the tasks is honored. Note: If tasks are scheduled to run at the same time, then they will be run in the order of their registration with the scheduler.
  • Example 1: time.elapsed is 0 millis. Tasks A and B are scheduled to run with a delay of 10 millis and 20 millis, respectively. If you now advance() the time straight to 50 millis, then A will be executed first and, once A has finished and without any further delay, B will be executed immediately.
  • Example 2: time.elapsed is 0 millis. First, task C is scheduled to run with a delay of 300 millis, then task D is scheduled to run with a delay of 300 millis, too. If you now advance() the time to 300 millis or more, then task C will always be run before task D (because C was registered first).
• Tasks are executed synchronously when the scheduler's tick() method is called.

Development

Running the test spec

# Runs the tests for the main Scala version only (currently: 2.13.x)
$ ./sbt test

# Runs the tests for all supported Scala versions
$ ./sbt "+ test"

Publishing to Sonatype

Preparation

Step 1: Ensure that your Sonatype credentials are available to sbt.

For sbt 1.x:

$ cat ~/.sbt/1.0/sonatype.sbt
credentials += Credentials("Sonatype Nexus Repository Manager",
        "oss.sonatype.org",
        "<sonatype-jira-username>",
        "<sonatype-jira-password>")

Step 2: Ensure that your shell environment has set export GPG_TTY=$(tty) (e.g. in ~/.bashrc), otherwise you might run into the error "gpg: signing failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device".

Publishing a snaphost

1. Make sure that the version identifier in version.sbt has a -SNAPSHOT suffix.

2. Sign and publish the snapshot (note: sonatypeRelease is not needed for snapshots):

   $ ./sbt "+ test" && ./sbt "+ publish"

Publishing a release

1. Make sure that the version identifier in version.sbt DOES NOT have a -SNAPSHOT suffix.

2. Sign and publish the release artifacts. The commands below will stage, close, and release the artifacts using the sbt-sonatype plugin. See also the Sonatype documentation on how to release a deployment.

   # Publish release for all supported Scala versions
   $ ./sbt "+ test" && ./sbt "+ publish" && ./sbt "+ sonatypeRelease"
   
   # Publish release for a specific Scala version only (here: 2.11.12)
   $ ./sbt "++ 2.11.12 test" && ./sbt "++ 2.11.12 publish" && ./sbt sonatypeRelease

3. git tag the release.

Change log

See CHANGELOG.

License

Copyright © 2014-2018 Michael G. Noll

See LICENSE for licensing information.

Credits

The code in this project was inspired by MockScheduler and MockTime in the Apache Kafka project.

See also NOTICE.