ConsoleTemplate.md

AkkaConsoleTemplate

This is a simple template designed to incorporate local Akka.NET into a console application.

Installation

To use this template, first you must install the Akka.Templates package from NuGet:

dotnet new -i "Akka.Templates::*"

From there, you can use this template via the following command:

dotnet new akkaconsole -n "your project name"

How It Works

This template uses Akka.Hosting, as a best practice for managing the lifecycle of Akka.NET applications and for integrating with the Microsoft.Extensions ecosystem.

hostBuilder.ConfigureServices((context, services) =>
{
    services.AddAkka("MyActorSystem", (builder, sp) =>
    {
        builder
            .WithActors((system, registry, resolver) =>
            {
                var helloActor = system.ActorOf(Props.Create(() => new HelloActor()), "hello-actor");
                registry.Register<HelloActor>(helloActor);
            })
            .WithActors((system, registry, resolver) =>
            {
                var timerActorProps =
                    resolver.Props<TimerActor>(); // uses Msft.Ext.DI to inject reference to helloActor
                var timerActor = system.ActorOf(timerActorProps, "timer-actor");
                registry.Register<TimerActor>(timerActor);
            });
    });
});

The TimerActor depends on the HelloActor, so we're going to use the DependencyResolver (the resolver parameter) to inject a IRequiredActor<HelloActor> into the TimerActor's constructor:

public TimerActor(IRequiredActor<HelloActor> helloActor)
{
    _helloActor = helloActor.ActorRef;
    Receive<string>(message =>
    {
        _helloActor.Tell(message);
    });
}

In a real-world scenario, you could just resolve the HelloActor's IActorRef via a registry.Get<HelloActor> call, which would technically be simpler and cleaner - but we wanted to demonstrate how to use Akka.DependencyInjection here.