Question

Here’s the bit of code I have now, I am referencing any subclass of an Akka Actor called Processor:

def newProcessorProps(processorClass: Class[_ <: Processor]): Props = {
  Props(new processorClass).withDispatcher("dispatcher")
}

I just can’t figure out how to instantiate a new class using that parameter. I don’t think reflection isn’t required here since I already have the class. Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

If you have the class object as a value you can instantiate by calling the newInstance() method on it. So you’d do:

def newProcessorProps(processorClass: Class[_ <: Processor]): Props = {
  Props(processorClass.newInstance()).withDispatcher("dispatcher")
}

You can also use the Manifest of a type to instantiate an object of that type

def newProcessorProps[T <: Processor](implicit m: Manifest[T]): Props = {
  Props(m.erasure.newInstance().asInstanceOf[T]).withDispatcher("dispatcher")
}

And then call it for a specific processor like this:

newProcessorProps[SpecificProcessor]

This only works as long as T has a parameterless constructor I think.