Amazon SQS

Last modified: November 19, 2024

Introduction

The Amazon SQS connector enables your app to connect to other microservices by implementing Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS). Amazon SQS lets you send, store, and receive messages between software components at any volume, without losing messages or requiring other services to be available.

Typical Use Cases

Amazon SQS helps improve your app by providing a queue service to send messages to other components or microservices in your infrastructure. Implement the Amazon SQS connector if you want your app to have the ability to communicate with other components at scale, for example, to send queue items to a work queue.

Prerequisites

The Amazon SQS connector requires Mendix Studio Pro 9.18.0 or above.

To authenticate with Amazon Web Service (AWS), you must also install and configure the AWS authentication connector. If you are using the Amazon SQS connector version 2.0 or higher, it requires the AWS Authentication connector version 3.0 or higher. For more information about installing and configuring the AWS Authentication connector, see AWS Authentication.

Installation

Follow the instructions in How to Use Marketplace Content to import the Amazon SQS connector into your app.

Configuration

After you install the connector, you can find it in the App Explorer, in the AmazonSQSConnector section. The connector provides a domain model and several activities that you can use to connect your app to Amazon SQS. Each activity can be implemented by using it in a microflow. To ensure that your app can connect to the AWS service, you must also configure AWS authentication for the connector.

Configuring AWS Authentication

In order to use the Amazon SQS service, you must authenticate with AWS. To do so, you must set up a configuration profile in your Mendix app. After you set up the configuration profile, the connector module handles the authentication internally.

As of version 3.0.0 of the AWS Authentication Connector, all the resources and logic required to set up authentication are centralized inside the AWS Authentication Connector module.

The AWS Authentication Connector supports both static credentials and temporary credentials. For more information and detailed instructions please refer to the AWS Authentication Connector documentation page.

Configuring a Microflow for an AWS Service

After you configure the authentication profile for Amazon SQS, you can implement the functions of the connector by using the provided activities in microflows. For example, to list all existing Amazon SQS subscriptions, implement the List Queues activity by doing the following steps:

  1. In the App Explorer, right-click on the name of your module, and then click Add microflow.
  2. Enter a name for your microflow, for example, ACT_ListQueues, and then click OK.
  3. In the new microflow, configure AWS Authentication with either temporary or static credentials. For more information, see AWS Authentication.
  4. In the App Explorer, in the AmazonSQSConnector > Operations section, find the List Queues activity.
  5. Drag the List Queues activity onto the work area of your microflow.
  6. In the App Explorer, in the AWSAuthentication > Operations section, find either the GetStaticCredentials or the GetTemporaryCredentials action and place it at the beginning of your Microflow.
  7. In the Toolbox pane, search for the Create object activity and place it before the List Queues activity in the microflow.
  8. Double-click the Create object activity and select the ListQueuesRequest entity.
  9. Double-click the List Queues activity to configure the required parameter.
  10. Click Edit parameter value, edit the AWS_Region parameter, and change Type to Expression.
  11. In the expression builder, type ENUM_Region, and then press Ctrl + Space.
  12. In the autocomplete dialog, select AWSAuthentication.ENUM_Region, then type . and select your AWS region from the list and click OK.
  13. Double-click the List Queues activity to configure the required parameters.
  14. Set the value of the Region parameter in the same way as for the GetStaticCredentials or GetTemporaryCredentials activity.
  15. Click Edit parameter value, edit the ListQueuesRequest parameter, and let it auto-fill.
  16. Click Edit parameter value, edit the Credentials parameter, and let it auto-fill.
  17. In the Toolbox pane, search for the Retrieve activity and drag it onto the microflow area.
  18. Position the Retrieve activity between the ListQueue activity and the microflow end event.
  19. Double-click the Retrieve activity.
  20. In the Select Association dialog box, in the Association section, click Select, and then under ListQueueResponse select ListQueue_ListQueuesResponse as the association.
  21. Click OK.
  22. Configure a method for triggering the ACT_ListQueues microflow. For example, you can trigger a microflow by associating it with a custom button on a page in your app. For an example of how this can be implemented, see Create a Custom Save Button.

Technical Reference

The module includes technical reference documentation for the available entities, enumerations, activities, and other items that you can use in your application. You can view the information about each object in context by using the Documentation pane in Studio Pro.

The Documentation pane displays the documentation for the currently selected element. To view it, perform the following steps:

  1. In the View menu of Studio Pro, select Documentation.

  2. Click on the element for which you want to view the documentation.