springboot-activemq-rabbitmq-delayed-messages

The goal of this project is to create an application that produces and consumes delayed messages randomly. Those messages are sent to ActiveMQ or RabbitMQ. The delayed broker to which the message is sent depends on a feature toggle defined in Unleash.

Proof-of-Concepts & Articles

On ivangfr.github.io, I have compiled my Proof-of-Concepts (PoCs) and articles. You can easily search for the technology you are interested in by using the filter. Who knows, perhaps I have already implemented a PoC or written an article about what you are looking for.

Project diagram

Applications

delayed-message-producer-consumer is a Spring Boot Java application that produces and consumes messages with random delays.

These delayed messages are sent to ActiveMQ or RabbitMQ brokers.

However, both brokers are not ready to handle delayed messages by default. For it, we needed to enable the scheduler in ActiveMQ and, in RabbitMQ, we install the Delayed Message Plugin.

Furthermore, in order to easily switch the delayed message broker to where the messages are sent without restarting the application, we use a feature toggle called rabbitMQEnabled that is defined in Unleash.

Prerequisites

• Java 21 or higher;
• A containerization tool (e.g., Docker, Podman, etc.)

Initialize Environment

Open a terminal and inside the springboot-activemq-rabbitmq-delayed-messages root folder run:

./init-environment.sh

Note: This script not only starts ActiveMQ, RabbitMQ, Unleash, and Postgres but also creates a feature toggle called rabbitMQEnabled in Unleash.

Running application with Maven

• In a terminal, make sure you are inside the springboot-activemq-rabbitmq-delayed-messages folder.
• Run the following command:

  ./mvnw clean spring-boot:run --projects delayed-message-producer-consumer \
    -Dspring-boot.run.jvmArguments="-Dunleash.api.key='*:development.some-random-string'"

  Note: the UNLEASH_API_KEY was created during the step Initialize Environment

Running application as Docker container

• Build Docker image

  • In a terminal, make sure you are inside the springboot-activemq-rabbitmq-delayed-messages root folder.
  • Run the following script:

    ./build-docker-images.sh

• Environment variables

Environment Variable	Description
ACTIVEMQ_BROKER_URL	Specify URL of the ActiveMQ broker to use (default tcp://localhost:61616)
ACTIVEMQ_USER	Specify user of the ActiveMQ broker (default admin)
ACTIVEMQ_PASSWORD	Specify password of the ActiveMQ broker (default admin)
RABBITMQ_ADDRESSES	Specify addresses of the RabbitMQ broker to use (default localhost:5672)
RABBITMQ_USER	Specify user of the RabbitMQ broker (default admin)
RABBITMQ_PASSWORD	Specify password of the RabbitMQ broker (default admin)
UNLEASH_API_URL	Specify URL of the Unleash to use (default http://localhost:4242/api)
UNLEASH_API_KEY	Specify API key of the Unleash to use (default change-me)
MESSAGES_PER_SECOND	Specify the number of messages per second to be produced (default 1)
PRODUCER_RUNNER_ENABLED	Specify if producer runner is enabled to produce messages (default true)
PRODUCER_LOGGING_ENABLED	Specify if producer logging is enabled (default false)
CONSUMER_LOGGING_ENABLED	Specify if consumer logging is enabled (default true)

• Start Docker container

  • In a terminal, run the following command:

    docker run --rm --name delayed-message-producer-consumer \
      -e ACTIVEMQ_BROKER_URL=tcp://activemq:61616 \
      -e RABBITMQ_ADDRESSES=rabbitmq:5672 \
      -e UNLEASH_API_URL=http://unleash:4242/api \
      -e UNLEASH_API_KEY='*:development.some-random-string' \
      --network=springboot-activemq-rabbitmq-delayed-messages_default \
      ivanfranchin/delayed-message-producer-consumer:1.0.0

    Note: the UNLEASH_API_KEY was created during the step Initialize Environment

  • [Optional] To start a 2nd Docker container, in another terminal, run the command below:

    docker run --rm --name delayed-message-producer-consumer-2 \
      -e ACTIVEMQ_BROKER_URL=tcp://activemq:61616 \
      -e RABBITMQ_ADDRESSES=rabbitmq:5672 \
      -e UNLEASH_API_URL=http://unleash:4242/api \
      -e UNLEASH_API_KEY='*:development.some-random-string' \
      --network=springboot-activemq-rabbitmq-delayed-messages_default \
      ivanfranchin/delayed-message-producer-consumer:1.0.0

Switching Delayed Message Brokers

• Access the Unleash website at http://localhost:4242
• To log in, use admin as the username and unleash4all as the password.
• In Projects, select Default.
• You should see the rabbitMQEnabled feature toggle.
• The API token provided to delayed-messages-producer-consumer was created for the development environment. If the development checkbox is enabled, messages will be sent to RabbitMQ; otherwise, they will be sent to ActiveMQ.

Useful links

• ActiveMQ

  • Access http://localhost:8161
  • Click Manage ActiveMQ broker.
  • To log in, use admin for both username and password.

• RabbitMQ

  • Access http://localhost:15672
  • To log in, use admin for both username and password.

• Unleash

  • Access http://localhost:4242
  • To log in, use admin as the username and unleash4all as the password.

Shutdown

• To stop the delayed-message-producer-consumer application, go to the terminal where it is running and press Ctrl+C.
• To stop and remove Docker Compose containers, network and volumes, go to a terminal and, inside the springboot-activemq-rabbitmq-delayed-messages root folder, run the following command:

  ./shutdown-environment.sh

Cleanup

To remove the Docker image create by this project, go to a terminal and, inside the springboot-activemq-rabbitmq-delayed-messages root folder, run the following script:

./remove-docker-images.sh