Looking up remote actors from different machines

It is useful to be able to check whether an actor is running on a remote machine. This can help make sure you don't create duplicate remote actors if they already exist. For this, we will use ActorSelection.

Getting ready

All the prerequisites are the same as before. We will reuse SimpleActor.scala, application-1.conf, and application-2.conf from the previous recipe.

How to do it...

1. Create a Scala file named LookingUpRemoteApplication.scala in the com.packt.chapter7 package.
2. Add the following two apps. One app will create an actor remotely; the other will look for the remote actor:

        package com.packt.chapter7
        import akka.actor.{ActorRef, ActorSystem, Props}
        import scala.concurrent.duration._

        object LookingUpActorSelection extends App {
          val actorSystem = ActorSystem("LookingUpActors")
          implicit val dispatcher = actorSystem.dispatcher
          val selection = actorSystem.actorSelection(
        ...