Akka and Lagom

[Tal Beno]

Hi,

As a Scala/Akka novice, was wondering if the new Lagom Scala coding paradigm is going to reflect some of the Akka API. in other words, to what degree will we need to redesign Akka projects to start using Lagom Services. I have taken a look at some of the Lagom Java examples out there, and as a novice got the impression that Akka may be under the covers, but Actors are not showing up on the surface.

Hope my question makes sense.

Thanks.

Regards,

Tal Beno

[Patrik Nordwall]

Lagom is built on top of Akka and Play and adds a high level, opinionated, API. Some things of Akka are exposed directly in that API, such as Akka Streams. Actors are not exposed, since they are too low level (powerful) for Lagom. You can still use Akka when needed http://www.lagomframework.com/documentation/1.0.x/java/Akka.html

It will be the same for the Scala API of Lagom.

/Patrik

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[Tal Beno]

The example was very helpful thank you.

I totally get how Lagom can help Java user with no knowledge of the underlying technologies. What I am missing are the use-cases where Lagom can help Akka projects. I know that the example was not intending to answer that, but one may look at these examples and conclude that there is minimal added value.

Moreover, I may be mistaken but now I can implement a service call in Akka-HTTP, Play (which is different), and Lagom (services calls). This could be confusing for strategists who consider embedding Lightbend technologists into their stack. 

If I may, here is a second question please. If I have theoretically a young startup looking for focus and already concluded Akka is useful, what are the arguments to add Lagom into the mix?

Much appreciated!

Regards,

Tal Beno

[Christopher Hunt]

Akka is a low level toolkit. Lagom is a higher level framework. Frameworks are opinionated and tend to be strongly focused on developer productivity. This is a goal of Lagom.

[Tal Beno]

Thank you. I totally understand that. And I guess my question has been answered between lines as well. So I will stand down.

Just an/my opinion, but it may have been more beneficial for Akka developers to get that kind of "magic" (framework) as an extended layer of the agents model. E.g. having the Service construct as a special node in the actors system hierarchy. With a dedicated purposed interface/impl. Most projects I guess will not rely on "pure" microservice architecture and may have polyglot persistence as well. Injecting these ideas as an organic layer in Akka may have had its own benefit.

I stand down. I appreciate the help. And will likely adopt Akka on its own without the upcoming Lagom Scala APIs.

Thank you.

[Patrik Nordwall]

Using Akka without Lagom is not a bad decision in any way, many have successfully done that and more will continue to do so.

To make the answer to your question complete I would like to add that Lagom is not only adding a high level, opinionated, API. It's also providing:

• development environment which hot-reloads your services when code changes
• out-of-the-box (still optional) integration with Lightbend ConductR for production aspects
  

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Patrik Nordwall
Akka Tech Lead
Lightbend -  Reactive apps on the JVM
Twitter: @patriknw