#!!!!!!!!!! Work in Progress !!!!!!!!!#

Troupe

Troupe is a toolkit for building concurrent and distributed, message-driven applications. You can use basic child-process approach or connect with an AMQP server like RabbitMQ or ØMQ for a better message distribution.

Inspired by akka.

Quick start

$ npm install --save troupe

Main differences running using child-process and a AMQP server

When using the child-process implementation, all actors must be loaded before a message is sent to the Troupe, otherwise the message will be lost.

With a AMQP server, all messages are sent to server, and when there is a Actor available to receive the message it is sent. If the message is successfully processed it leaves the queue, otherwise you can specify some actions to handle the error, like send the message to another queue or ignore the error.

Properties, Methods and Events

Troupe

Troupe.instance

Returns
- troupe (Troupe): Returns the current instance of the singleton

Troupe.leader

Getter and setter for the Leader of Troupe

Getter returns
- leader (Leader): The Leader of the Troupe

Setter accepts
- leader (Leader): An object instance of Leader

Troupe.getActor({actorName: String})

Returns a actor by it's name

Arguments
- actorName (String): The name of the actor you want to fetch

Returns
- actor (Actor): Returns the requested Actor, if not found returns undefined

Troupe.ready({troupe: Troupe})

A function that is called whenever a Leader is set and connected to it agent

Received parameters
- troupe (Troupe): The current instance of Troupe

Message

new Message({headers: Object, content: Object, sender: Actor})

Creates a new instance of a Message

Arguments
- headers (Object): An object containing the headers of Message
- content (Object): The content of Message, regardless of the type passed, it will be converted to String upon send - sender (Actor): A instance of an Actor

Returns
- message (Message): A Message instance

Message.headers

Getter and setter for the header of Message

Getter returns
- headers (Object): The headers of Message

Setter accepts
- headers (Object): An object containing the headers of Message

Message.content

Getter and setter for the content of Message

Getter returns
- content (Object): The content of Message

Setter accepts
- content (Object): The content of Message

Message.sender

Getter and setter for the sender of Message

Getter returns
- sender (Actor): The Actor that sent the Message

Setter accepts
- sender (Actor): An object instance of an Actor

Message.accept()

Accept the message and remove it from queue

Message.reject()

Reject the message and remove it from queue

Message.rehear()

Reject the message and add it back to the queue

Leader

new Leader({agent: String})

Creates a new instance of Leader

Arguments
- agent (string): The agent that will manage the queue (ie: RabbitMQ)

Returns
- leader (Leader): A Leader instance

Leader.tell({actor: Actor, message: Message, sender: Actor})

Tell a Message to an Actor

Arguments
- actor (Actor): The Actor that will receive the Message
- message (Message): The Message you want to tell to Actor
- sender (Actor)[optional]: The Actor that sent the Message

Returns
- Nothing

Leader.ask({actor: Actor, message: Message, sender: actor})

Tell a Message to an Actor and receive a promise that will be resolved with the response of Actor

Arguments
- actor (Actor): The Actor that will receive the Message
- message (Message): The Message you want to tell to Actor
- sender (Actor)[optional]: The Actor that sent the Message

Returns
- promise (Promise): A Promise that will be resolved with an Message response from Actor

Leader.forward({message: Message, actor: Actor})

Forward a Message to another Actor without modifying its headers

Arguments
- actor (Actor): The Actor that will receive the Message
- message (Message): The Message you want to tell to Actor

Returns
- Nothing

Actor

new Actor({name: String})

Creates a new instance of Actor.
When a Actor is instantiated it is automatically added to the current Troupe

Arguments
- name (String): The Actor name

Returns
- actor (Actor): An Actor instance

Actor.messageReceived({message: Message})

A function that is called whenever the Actor receives a new Message

Received parameters
- message (Message): A Message