AKKA.NET - Very Basic Example with Tell and Ask

actors-and-classes.cs

using Akka.Actor;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace AkkaHelloWorld
{
    public class SimpleMessageActor : ReceiveActor
    {
        public string LastMessage { get; set; }

        public SimpleMessageActor()
        {
            Receive<SimpleMessage>(greet =>
            {
                Console.WriteLine("[Thread {0}] Actor {1}", Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId, greet.Message);
                LastMessage = greet.Message;
            });

            Receive<AskRequest>(greet =>
            {
                Sender.Tell(new AskMessageResponse("Actor says:" + LastMessage ?? "notset"), Self);
            });
        }
    }


    public class SimpleMessage
    {
        public SimpleMessage(string msg)
        {
            Message = msg;
        }
        public string Message { get; private set; }
    }

    public class AskRequest
    {
    }


    public class AskMessageResponse
    {
        public AskMessageResponse(string msg)
        {
            AskMessageProp = msg;
        }
        public string AskMessageProp { get; private set; }
    }



}

Akka-Net-Programs.cs

using Akka.Actor;
using AkkaHelloWorld;

Console.WriteLine("Enter a string to update the actor, or 'ask' to get its value");


var system = ActorSystem.Create("MySystem");
var greeter = system.ActorOf<SimpleMessageActor>("simplemsg");

greeter.Tell(new SimpleMessage("Starting"));

string msg = "";
int counter= 0;

while(msg != "exit")
{
    var input = Console.ReadLine();
    if(!input.ToLower().Contains("ask"))
    {
        greeter.Tell(new SimpleMessage(input));
    }
    else
    {
        // NOTE: We should avoid ask as much as possible.
        var response = await greeter.Ask<AskMessageResponse>(new AskRequest(), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30));
        Console.WriteLine(response.AskMessageProp);
    }
    counter++;
}


Console.Read();