Install Send Messages to a Queue

Send messages to a queue is a integration to help you in messaging services and queues.

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Sending messages to a queue refers to the process of adding messages to a message queue, which is a data structure that stores messages in “first-in-first-out” (FIFO) order. Messages are added to the back of the queue and removed from the front. Messages can be sent asynchronously and processed by the receiving component later, allowing for easy communication between different parts of a system.

Getting the integration

To use the Send messages to a queue integration provided by Azion Marketplace:

  1. Access Azion Console > Marketplace.
  2. On the Marketplace homepage, select the integration’s card.
  3. Once the integration’s page opens, click the Install button.

A successful message appears to confirm your integration is installed.

You can search any integration by browsing through the cards, using the filters, or typing a keyword in the search bar.

Configuring the integration

Being an Application function, Send messages to a queue runs on the edge employing an existing application.

Go to the building section for more details on how to build an application.

Follow the next steps to instantiate the integration:

  1. On the upper-left corner, select Products menu > Application on the Build section.
  2. On the listing page of your applications, select the one you want to use with the integration.
  3. On the application page, open the Main Settings tab.
  4. Enable the Functions switch to activate this module.
  5. Click the Save button.

A successful message appears informing that the application has been updated.

Instantiating the integration

Still in the Application page, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Functions Instances tab.
  2. Click the + Function Instance button.
  3. On the Function’s name text box, type an easy-to-remember name.
  4. On the dropdown function menu, select the Send messages to a queue function.
  • This action will load the Arguments tab.

You can configure three messaging services for this integration: RabbitMQ, Amazon SQS, and Kafka-REST. You can configure it in advance beforehand. For each one of these integrations, you’ll have a different Arguments box and different credentials, as in the following examples:

AMQP:

{
"server_type": "amqp",
"connection_url": "https://my-service.azion.com/queue",
"connection_authorization": "Basic my_basic_auth",
"connection_args: {
"routing_key: "my_queue",
"payload: "my_custom_payload"
}
}

SQS

{
"server_type": "sqs",
"connection_url": "https://my-service.azion.com/sqs-queue",
"connection_authorization": "Basic my_basic_auth",
"connection_args: {
"auth_params: "my_aditional_auth_params",
"version": "2012-11-05",
"expires": "Wed, 21 Oct 2015 07:28:00 GMT"
}
}

Kafka-REST

{
"server_type": "kafka-rest",
"connection_url": "https://my-service.azion.com/topics/my-topic",
"connection_args: {
"payload": "my_custom_payload"
}
}

Where:

  • server_type: defines the connection type used (amqp, sqs, and kafka-rest are the three possible values).
  • connection_url: defines the server URL of the service you choose.
  • connection_authorization: defines the type of authorization needed for the connection. This is an optional field.

You can also set extra parameters to your queue, passing them in the connection_args section. Each supported service has different extra parameters to use. It’s optional to inform these to push your function to the edge.

It isn’t possible to integrate Kafka “as is” because the Kafka clients available for JavaScript (Kafka JS and Kafka Node) use Node.js features that are incompatible with Azion Cells. However, you have the option to integrate it using Kafka-REST, a module that provides an HTTP RESTful interface to a Kafka cluster.

  1. Click the Save button.

Configuring a rule on Rules Engine

Now you have to configure the rules you want (criteria and behavior) to apply to run your function.

Still in the Application page, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Rules Engine tab.
  2. Click on Default Rule.
    • You can’t change the criteria field for the Default Rule on Rules Engine.
  3. On the behavior field, select Run Function from the dropdown menu.
  4. Select the Send messages to a queue function, according to the name you gave it in the instantiation step.
  5. Click the Save button.

Done. Now you have your integration running on the edge.