Question

I am a bit confused and would like to an explanation.

I am using Java Play 2 with Akka actors. I start the system by using play run.

However, I just saw a video that used the command:

play akka start 

to start a Play framework that supports Akka. Is this required for the Play 2?

Thanks all!

Answer 1

Play 2.0 doesn’t use akka as a command line argument as far as I know (at least its not present in sbt’s help command, and I got an error trying to use it). The difference between play run and play start is the following:

play run – starts the application in debug mode, with automatic recompilation of classes (if they are changed and you’ll refresh the browser’s window, your app will be recompiled) This is for development.

play ~run – same as above, with that difference, the recompilation process starts as soon as changes in the files are detected (doesn’t wait for browser’s refresh)

play start – starts the application in production mode, no recompiling, much better performance, this is intended for everyday running of the application.

For final production version it’s best option to prepare standalone version of your application.