Proto.Actor

Ultra-fast, distributed, cross-platform actors.

Installing

Using NuGet Package Manager Console: PM> Install-Package Proto.Actor

Source code

This is the .NET repository for Proto Actor.

Other implementations:

Go: https://github.com/AsynkronIT/protoactor-go
Python (unstable/WIP): https://github.com/AsynkronIT/protoactor-python
JavaScript (unstable/WIP): https://github.com/AsynkronIT/protoactor-js

How to build

Proto.Actor uses and requires the VS2017 build system in order to build. You can either use the dotnet CLI commands, or use Visual Studio 2017.

We also use Cake for orchestrating the CI builds. The CI build basically runs dotnet restore, dotnet build, dotnet test and dotnet pack. To run a full CI build execute either .\build.ps1 or ./build.sh, depending on your environment.

Design principles

Minimalistic API - The API should be small and easy to use. Avoid enterprisey containers and configurations.

Build on existing technologies - There are already a lot of great technologies for e.g. networking and clustering. Build on those instead of reinventing them. E.g. gRPC streams for networking, Consul for clustering.

Pass data, not objects - Serialization is an explicit concern - don't try to hide it. Protobuf all the way.

Be fast - Do not trade performance for magic API trickery.

Getting started

The best place currently for learning how to use Proto.Actor is the examples. Documentation and guidance is under way, but not yet complete, and can be found on the website.

Hello world

Define a message type:

internal class Hello
{
    public string Who;
}

Define an actor:

internal class HelloActor : IActor
{
    public Task ReceiveAsync(IContext context)
    {
        var msg = context.Message;
        if (msg is Hello r)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Hello {r.Who}");
        }
        return Actor.Done;
    }
}

Spawn it and send a message to it:

var props = Actor.FromProducer(() => new HelloActor());
var pid = Actor.Spawn(props);
pid.Tell(new Hello
{
    Who = "Alex"
});

You should see the output Hello Alex.