Introduction to Akka Streams

In this section, we will introduce you to data streaming, the Akka Streams API, its features and benefits and more concepts.

What is a stream?

A stream is a sequence of things that is flowing continuously from a source to a destination. Stream elements are processed sequentially. It is also known as a data stream, data streaming, or streaming data.

Here, things can refer to anything, for instance, data elements, components, entities, objects, bytes, elements, files, and so on. Take a look at the following diagram:

In the real world, a stream will form only when at least one source and at least one destination are connected and have data flowing between them. Remember these three terminologies as discussed in this section—source, destination, and flowing. These three are the key concepts that we should understand well in order to learn the Akka Stream's API.

In the Akka Streams API, this source is designed as a Source component, the destination is designed as a Sink...