akka/akka-core

Improve docs on error handling in Akka Streams

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#21,349 opened on Sep 2, 2016

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 (3 comments) (2 reactions) (0 assignees)Scala (3,547 forks)batch import
1 - triagedhelp wantedt:docs

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Description

Opening this ticket after some feedback at a meetup. We should discuss the various ways of error / failure handling, this is separate to actually making supervision a good one ( https://github.com/akka/akka/issues/19950 ). People seem to be confused about the various options, and what would be considered idiomatic. I don't think we explain failure vs. "domain error" as well in the docs there. They could use a revamp.

E.g. we should discuss pros and cons of passing around Either/Xor instead of failing stages etc. Some examples would be good.

Also, note to self, the reason users were passing around Xors were that they wanted to report metrics about that in a centralised place (in one stage). This would have not been needed if we could monitor a stream for count of failures etc.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Review existing Akka Streams error handling documentation. Identify gaps in explaining supervision vs. domain errors (e.g., using Either/Xor). Gather examples of idiomatic patterns and discuss trade offs. Consider writing a new documentation section with clear examples and comparisons.
Tech stack
scala
Domain
backend
Issue type
Documentation
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
ScalaAkka Streams
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
65