Scala Vienna User Group

Name: Scala Akka Workshop Reloaded - Actor Cluster
Start: 2014-02-12T17:30:00Z
Location: Sektor5

Scala Akka Workshop Reloaded - Actor Cluster

Feb 12, 2014 · 6:30 PM
Sektor5

Because there was so much interest and positive feedback last time, it's time for a second Akka Workshop - complete with live feedback, connected actors and awesomeness.

UPDATE: Please prepare for the workshop (see TODOs below)

UPDATE: Free drinks thanks to our sponsor xTradesoft. More details see below.

UPDATE: At the end we'll do a raffle for a ticket to the CRAFT conference.

So what's the idea?
This time we want to learn about Akka Clusters and Scaling Out. Everyone will implement Actors that together will form a connected Akka Cluster. Using the combined power of all our machines, we will try to come up with a solution for a tricky problem.

• Step 1: Introduction about Akka and Akka Clusters. (20 min)

• Step 2: Getting everyone connected to the cluster, and handling basic messaging between Actors. (30 min)

• Step 3: With a few simple steps which Wolfgang and I will carefully explain, the cluster as a whole will implement a distributed evolutionary algorithm. This algorithm will then solve a tricky robot decision making problem.

• Step 4 (profit): Watch as the robot "evolves", and makes better and better decisions. We will visualize the robots decisions by taking solutions from the cluster in real-time.

What's an Evolutionary Algorithm?
It's not important to know about them, but Wolfgang and I will explain the basics in the workshop. Evolutionary algorithms are a good use case for Akka Clusters and showing fault tolerance.

Who can participate?

We're putting in effort to keep everything as simple as possible and accidental complexity down, so that Scala newcomers will have no problem to participate.

TODO before the Workshop:

• You need to have a working setup of Scala development tools (Git, IDE of your choice, SBT 13.0.x)

• Clone the GitHub repository: https://github.com/papauschek/akka-workshop-cluster

• Make sure you can compile it and use it in your IDE.

• Check out the Cheat Sheet during the workshop: http://blog.papauschek.com/2014/02/akka/

Sponsors:
This workshop is sponsored by xTradesoft!

Drinks are free, we're also planning to bring in some food after the event.

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wolfgang w.

I have ported my swing visualisation to scala-js. http://entelijan.net/canrob/

4 · February 25, 2014
- Christian P.
  
  nice, thats a good use case for ScalaJS :)
  
  0 · February 25, 2014
Christian P.

Impressions from the workshop, videos, behind the scenes and more on http://blog.papauschek.com/2014/02/scala-akka-workshop-evolving-robot-actor-cluster/

0 · February 25, 2014
wolfgang w.

Created videos for some of the robots we created. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQAQ-Zd6OTXFlHIF9zI3gRiaDptS4FP_8

The complete result list can be found at https://github.com/wwagner4/akka-workshop-cluster/blob/master/result-list.txt

If you want to visualize more results use VideoMain in https://github.com/wwagner4/akka-workshop-cluster

4 · February 16, 2014
Robert G.

Great workshop, thanks a lot! Although being a complete scala beginner, i could jump right in using the github repo and the cheatsheet.

2 · February 13, 2014
- Sebastian N.
  
  Hey cool pixel-art avatar!
  
  0 · February 14, 2014
A former member

Great workshop! The organisers really put a lot of effort in preparing the application we worked on and were super helpful in debugging obscure bugs, such as weird linux wifi band selection. Also, the food and drinks were great :)

4 · February 14, 2014
A former member

Well done guys!!

2 · February 13, 2014
A former member

Thanks to the organizers, I had a really fun time!

Rafa asked me to share my solution, so here it is: https://github.com/acanda/akka-workshop-cluster (read the README). Even though this solution works quite well, it does not reach the almost perfect score we achieved at the workshop by its own. It really was a group effort.

3 · February 13, 2014
Manfred

Thanks to the organizers for the awesome Akka Actor Cluster workshop! It really got me stoked for more Scala and Akka!

3 · February 13, 2014
Andreas E.

Great event. Thanks for all your effort, Wolfgang and Christian! All thumbs up!

2 · February 13, 2014
Jürgen S.

That was fun and very interesting. Thanks to the quickstart repository and cheatsheet we got to the exciting experiment quickly and didn't have to waste time on boring setup and boilerplate. Thanks!

1 · February 13, 2014
Sebastian N.

Most fun Scala workshop ever :-) Thanks Christian and Wolfgang! Also learned a lot!

3 · February 12, 2014
- Peter N.
  
  Seconded. Thanks a lot you guys.
  
  2 · February 13, 2014
Roman K.

the love for the details is/was really great in every aspect (preparation, instructions, ideas, graphics, slides, etc.)

6 · February 13, 2014
Christian P.

You can already clone the quickstart repository for this workshop - please make sure you can compile it and your development tools are ready to go.
https://github.com/papauschek/akka-workshop-cluster

4 · February 9, 2014
- View all 4 replies
- Sebastian N.
  
  I guess you'll guide us in setting up the right configuration parameters...
  
  1 · February 12, 2014
- Christian P.
  
  Yes :) Fortunately, there is very little to configure - we just have to fill in our ip addresses.
  
  1 · February 12, 2014
- Sebastian N.
  
  Kudos to you. I've been "git pull"ing the whole day, and no last-minute changes on your part! ;-)
  
  0 · February 12, 2014
- Christian P.
  
  simple: participants have to fix all the bugs ;-)
  
  1 · February 12, 2014
Ferdinand S.

Unfortunately I can’t come after all

0 · February 12, 2014
Axel G.

Ah damn it! I'm gonna miss that one too . . .

0 · January 29, 2014
- Christian P.
  
  sorry to hear that
  
  0 · January 29, 2014