Chapter 5. Using the API

This section describes the standard format of the Connection URI string used to connect to an AMQP remote peer.

 scheme = ( "amqp" | "amqps" )
 host = ( <fully qualified domain name> | <hostname> | <numeric IP address> )

 URI = scheme "://" [user ":" [password] "@"] host [":" port]

Connection URI Examples

amqp://127.0.0.1
amqp://amqpserver.example.com:5672
amqps://joe:somepassword@bigbank.com
amqps://sue:secret@test.example.com:21000

Some message servers support on-demand creation of queues and topics. When a sender or receiver is attached, the server uses the sender target address or the receiver source address to create a queue or topic with a name matching the address.

The message server typically defaults to creating either a queue (for one-to-one message delivery) or a topic (for one-to-many message delivery). The client can indicate which it prefers by setting the queue or topic capability on the source or target.

To select queue or topic semantics, follow these steps:

Target target = new Target() {
    Address = "jobs",
    Capabilities = new Symbol[] {"queue"},
};

SenderLink sender = new SenderLink(session, "s1", target, null);

Source source = new Source() {
    Address = "notifications",
    Capabilities = new Symbol[] {"topic"},
};

ReceiverLink receiver = new ReceiverLink(session, "r1", source, null);

For more information, see the following examples:

A durable subscription is a piece of state on the remote server representing a message receiver. Ordinarily, message receivers are discarded when a client closes. However, because durable subscriptions are persistent, clients can detach from them and then re-attach later. Any messages received while detached are available when the client re-attaches.

Durable subscriptions are uniquely identified by combining the client container ID and receiver name to form a subscription ID. These must have stable values so that the subscription can be recovered.

To create a durable subscription, follow these steps:

To detach from a subscription, close the connection without explicitly closing the receiver. To terminate the subscription, close the receiver directly.

For more information, see the DurableSubscribe.cs example.

A shared subscription is a piece of state on the remote server representing one or more message receivers. Because it is shared, multiple clients can consume from the same stream of messages.

The client configures a shared subscription by setting the shared capability on the receiver source.

Shared subscriptions are uniquely identified by combining the client container ID and receiver name to form a subscription ID. These must have stable values so that multiple client processes can locate the same subscription. If the global capability is set in addition to shared, the receiver name alone is used to identify the subscription.

To create a shared subscription, follow these steps:

For more information, see the SharedSubscribe.cs example.

To send a message, create a connection, session, and sender link. Then call the Sender.Send() method with a Message object.

Connection connection = new Connection(new Address("amqp://example.com"));
Session session = new Session(connection);
SenderLink sender = new SenderLink(session, "sender-1", "jobs");

Message message = new Message("job-content");
sender.Send(message);

For more information, see the Send.cs example.

To receive a message, create a connection, session, and receiver link. Then call the Receiver.Receive() method and use the returned Message object.

Connection connection = new Connection(new Address("amqp://example.com"));
Session session = new Session(connection);
ReceiverLink receiver = new ReceiverLink(session, "receiver-1", "jobs");

Message message = receiver.Receive();
receiver.Accept(message);

The Receiver.Accept() call tells the remote peer that the message was received and processed.

For more information, see the Receive.cs example.

AMQ .NET can authenticate connections with a user and password.

To specify the credentials used for authentication, set the user and password fields in the connection URL.

Address addr = new Address("amqp://<user>:<password>@example.com");
Connection conn = new Connection(addr);

Client connections to remote peers may exchange SASL user name and password credentials. The presence of the user field in the connection URI controls this exchange. If user is specified then SASL credentials are exchanged; if user is absent then the SASL credentials are not exchanged.

By default the client supports EXTERNAL, PLAIN, and ANONYMOUS SASL mechanisms.

Secure communication with servers is achieved using SSL/TLS. A client may be configured for SSL/TLS Handshake only or for SSL/TLS Handshake and client certificate authentication. See the Managing Certificates section for more information.

The library emits log traces at different levels:

The lowest log level, Error, will trace only error events and produce the fewest log messages. A higher log level includes all the log levels below it and generates a larger volume of log messages.

// Enable Error logs only.
Trace.TraceLevel = TraceLevel.Error

// Enable Verbose logs. This includes logs at all log levels.
Trace.TraceLevel = TraceLevel.Verbose

The Log level Frame is handled differently. Setting trace level Frame enables tracing outputs for AMQP protocol headers and frames.

Tracing at one of the other log levels must be ORed with Frame to get normal tracing output and AMQP frame tracing at the same time. For example

// Enable just AMQP frame tracing
Trace.TraceLevel = TraceLevel.Frame;

// Enable AMQP Frame logs, and Warning and Error logs
Trace.TraceLevel = TraceLevel.Frame | TraceLevel.Warning;

The following code writes AMQP frames to the console.

Trace.TraceLevel = TraceLevel.Frame;
Trace.TraceListener = (f, a) => Console.WriteLine(
        DateTime.Now.ToString("[hh:mm:ss.fff]") + " " + string.Format(f, a));