Akka.net asp.net 5 mvc 6 configuration for Hocon - configuration

Question

I am currently trying to use akka.net but the configuration they use HOCON is a different syntax from the json syntax normally used in app.json when configuring
our app.
Does anyone know how to use HOCON with the current app.json configuration?

Answer 1

I use ConfigurationFactory.FromObject and some classes that has the properties that I'm interested in to read the akka-config from appsettings.
var config = ConfigurationFactory.FromObject(new { akka = configuration.GetSection("Akka").Get<AkkaConfig>() });
actorSystem = ActorSystem.Create("Stimpy", config);
Notice that I haven't bothered to figure out how to parse kebab-case properties from appsettings. So I have just renamed the properties excluding the hyphens. Then set the JsonProperty-attribute to the correct name so that FromObject can deserialize it correctly.
public class AkkaConfig
{
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "log-config-on-start")]
public string logconfigonstart { get; set; }
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "stdout-loglevel")]
public string stdoutloglevel { get; set; }
public string loglevel { get; set; }
public string[] loggers { get; set; }
public ActorConfig actor { get; set; }
public class ActorConfig
{
public DebugConfig debug { get; set; }
public Dictionary<string, string> serializers { get; set; }
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "serialization-bindings")]
public Dictionary<string, string> serializationbindings { get; set; }
public class DebugConfig
{
public string receive { get; set; }
public string autoreceive { get; set; }
public string lifecycle { get; set; }
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "event-stream")]
public string eventstream { get; set; }
public string unhandled { get; set; }
}
}
}
appsettings.json:
{
"Logging": {
"IncludeScopes": false,
"LogLevel": {
"Default": "Trace"
}
},
"Hosting": {
"Url": "http://*:1890"
},
"Akka": {
"logconfigonstart":"on",
"stdoutloglevel":"INFO",
"loglevel": "DEBUG",
"loggers": [ "Akka.Logger.NLog.NLogLogger, Akka.Logger.NLog" ],
"actor": {
"debug": {
"receive": "on",
"autoreceive": "on",
"lifecycle": "on",
"eventstream": "on",
"unhandled": "on"
},
"serializers": {
"hyperion": "Akka.Serialization.HyperionSerializer, Akka.Serialization.Hyperion"
},
"serializationbindings": {
"System.Object": "hyperion"
}
}
}
}

Answer 2

What you can do is putting the HOCON in its own text file and then executing the following:
/// <summary>
/// Used to load HOCON definitions from a dedicated HOCON file
/// </summary>
public static class HoconLoader
{
/// <summary>
/// Parses a HOCON <see cref="Config" /> object from an underlying file
/// </summary>
/// <param name="path">The path to the HOCON file.</param>
/// <returns>A parsed <see cref="Config" /> object.</returns>
public static Config FromFile(string path)
{
return ConfigurationFactory.ParseString(File.ReadAllText(path));
}
}
Then pass that hocon object into the ActorSystem.Create(string name, Config config)
Dont forget tp make the file "Copy Always" or "Copy If Newer"