Overview
With the Message Queue Listener Input Block, you can configure connections to the following message queue types:
ActiveMQ
Amazon SQS
IBM MQ
RabbitMQ
To select the message queue type you want to use for a Message Queue Listener connection, click on its name in the Message Queue Type drop-down list at the top of the block’s settings.
If you would like to use a Message Queue Listener connection in a SaaS instance and your MQ service is not public, you should create a firewall pinhole for the connection. Contact your Hyperscience representative for more information.
Sample use cases
I send submission info from external systems to an Amazon SQS queue. I want to ingest this submission info into Hyperscience for processing.
My customers will post relevant documents and metadata to my ActiveMQ queue. I want to then ingest these documents and metadata for processing into Hyperscience.
Message format
A JSON object must be passed to the message queue in order for Hyperscience to read the appropriate input image files. It should have the same format as the request payload for the Submission Creation API endpoint, with one key difference: in the MQ message payload, the files element is an array of file URLs and does not contain individual file_url elements.
An example MQ message payload is shown below.
{
"flow_uuid": "a89d6440-a2c2-423b-8c95",
"machine_only": "true",
"files": [
"s3://s3-bucket/input/demo-file.pdf",
"https://example.com/files/demo-file.pdf",
"ocs://2021"
]
}For more information about the Submission Creation payload, see the Submission Creation section of our API documentation.
Block settings table
In addition to the settings outlined below, you can also configure the settings described in Universal Integration Block Settings.
ActiveMQ
Name | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|
Username | Yes | The username of a user that has access to the message queue. |
Password | Yes | The password of a user that has access to the message queue. To edit the password, click Edit value, modify the password, and then click Done. |
Queue Name | Yes | The name of the message queue in ActiveMQ. |
Host Name | Yes | The hostname of the system where the message queue is being run. |
Amazon SQS
Name | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|
AWS Region | Yes | The AWS region of the source data. |
Access Key ID | No | The access key ID allows access to the message queue. This setting is only available if Use AWS EC2 Instance IAM Role Credentials are not selected. |
Secret Access Key | No | The secret access key allows access to the message queue. To edit the key, click Edit value, modify the key, and then click Done. This setting is only available if Use AWS EC2 Instance IAM Role Credentials are not selected. |
Queue URL | Yes | The queue URL for sending messages. |
Use AWS EC2 Instance IAM Role Credentials | Yes | If selected, credentials are obtained from the EC2 instance directly, and Access Key ID and Secret Access Key are not present. Selected by default. |
Additional configurations
The following permissions should be granted via the AWS interface:
sqs:ReceiveMessage
sqs:GetQueueUrl
sqs:DeleteMessage
sqs:ChangeMessageVisibility
Message size
Note that Amazon imposes certain limitations on the size of messages sent to Amazon SQS message queues as documented in their Developer Guide. At the time of writing this article, the maximum message size allowed is 256KB. Depending on the specifics of your use case, this limit may prevent you from using the Amazon SQS connection effectively.
IBM MQ
Name | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|
No Auth Credentials Required | Yes | Indicates whether the connection requires a username and password. If selected, Username and Password are not present. |
Username | Yes, if available | The username of a user that has access to the queue manager. This field is only available if No Auth Credentials Required is not selected. |
Password | Yes, if available | The password of a user that has access to the queue manager. To edit the password, click Edit value, modify the password, and then click Done. This field is only available if No Auth Credentials Required is not selected. |
Queue Name | Yes | The name of the message queue in IBM MQ. |
Host Name | Yes | The hostname of the system where the message queue is being run. |
Port Number | Yes | The port number the connection should use to access the queue manager. Defaults to 1414. |
Queue Manager | Yes | The name of the message queue's queue manager in IBM MQ. |
Channel | Yes | The queue manager's channel in IBM MQ. |
SSL Cipher Suite | Yes, if you want to use an SSL connection | The CipherSuite connection should use to communicate with the queue manager. If you are not using an SSL connection to connect to the queue manager, select None in this field. |
RabbitMQ
Name | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|
Username | Yes | The username of a user that has access to the message queue. |
Password | Yes | The password of a user that has access to the message queue. To edit the password, click Edit value, modify the password, and then click Done. |
Queue Name | Yes | The name of the message queue in RabbitMQ. |
Host Name | Yes | The hostname of the system where the message queue is being run. |
Port Number | Yes | The port number the connection should use to access the message queue. Defaults to 5672. |
Virtual Host | No | The name of the virtual host where the message queue is being run. |
Connection Type | Yes | Specify whether the connection is a TCP or SSL connection. |
Setting up Message Queue Listener
All Message Queue Listener connections can be set up in Hyperscience, but Amazon SQS connections require additional configuration steps in AWS.
Setting up a Message Queue Listener in Hyperscience
To set up any of the Message Queue Listener Input Blocks, follow these steps.
Log in to your Hyperscience instance.
Go to Flows and choose any flow.
Scroll to the start of the flow in the Flow Studio and click Inputs.
Click Add and select Message Queue Listener from the list.
Click the Add Connection button.
From the Message Queue Type drop-down menu, select your Message Queue Type and enter the Block settings described above.
If you are setting up an ActiveMQ, IBM MQ, or RabbitMQ connection, you do not need to complete any additional steps.
If you are setting up an Amazon SQS connection, you also need to complete the steps outlined in Setting up an Amazon SQS connection in AWS.
Setting up an Amazon SQS connection in AWS
Navigate to your Amazon Simple Queue Service.
Choose or create the relevant input queue. The Amazon SQS connection supports Standard and FIFO Queues.
Grant the following permissions via the AWS Interface:
sqs:ReceiveMessage
sqs:GetQueueUrl
sqs:DeleteMessage
sqs:ChangeMessageVisibility
Message size
Note that Amazon imposes certain limitations on the size of messages sent to Amazon SQS message queues as documented in Amazon’s Amazon SQS quotas. Depending on the specifics of your use case, this limit may prevent you from using the Amazon SQS connection effectively.
Dead-letter queues
A dead-letter queue (DLQ) is a specialized message queue designed to temporarily hold messages that encounter processing errors within a software system. DLQs allow producer-consumer systems to operate without interruptions in cases when a malformed message can’t be consumed. The message is isolated into a different queue and is processed by a different system, reviewed manually, or both. In this way, setting up a DLQ prevents issues with blocked submission pipelines.
Hyperscience recommends setting the maximum number of retry attempts for a message to be between 3 and 5. When a message goes above this number of retry attempts, it should be redirected to the DLQ.
Use automated monitoring and altering on new items that enter the DLQ. If you’re not alerted, you won’t be aware of the issues related to messages that cannot be consumed, which may prevent submissions from entering the pipeline.
Setting up DLQs
To set up a DLQ, see the instructions for the MQ listener you’re currently using:
SQS — Amazon's Configuring a dead-letter queue redrive
IBM MQ — IBM's Dead-letter queues
ActiveMQ — ActiveMQ's Message Redelivery and DLQ Handling
RabbitMQ — RabbitMQ's Dead Letter Exchanges
If you’re setting up a DLQ, make sure to set the DISCARD_MALFORMED_RESOURCES “.env” file variable to false.