Drop support for Akka 2.5

[seglo]

Short description

Akka 2.6 has been out for some time now. In Alpakka Kafka 2.1.0 we should drop support for 2.5 and build with Akka 2.6 only. This will allow us to simplify the build and release process.

Details

• Integrate cluster-sharding module back into build
• Add some support for using Akka typed APIs. Internally we can still rely on a classic actor system.

[dhoepelman]

Just a chime in, my company is running largely on Play 2.7 because play(-json) 2.8 contains a major breaking change for us, so that also means akka 2.5. Play 2.8 also isn't out for that long (dec 2019)

[raboof]

my company is running largely on Play 2.7 because play(-json) 2.8 contains a major breaking change for us, so that also means akka 2.5

Thanks for bringing that up!

Because of Akka's binary compatibility, using Play 2.7 with Akka 2.6 should work just fine. Did you run into any problems with that update?