How does Akka handle message versions?

Question

How does Akka handle the serialization of different versions of messages of the same type, but different versions? For example, can an Actor X that expects version 1 of message A receive and process version 2 of message A from Actor Y that has an extra field? How does it handle the case where version 3 of message A might have removed or renamed a field?

Answer 1

It depends on the serializer used. Akka has configurable serialization, so you have many options (see docs: http://doc.akka.io/docs/akka/2.1.0/scala/serialization.html).

In general, it is recommended to use a serializer that enables you to design for backward and forward compatibility, for example Protobuf.