SQueaSy

This package provides a wrapper around the AWS SDK's SQS service object primarily to enable asynchronously iterating over messages in a queue like this:

const queue = new Queue({ QueueUrl: process.env.MY_QUEUE_URL });

for await (const message of queue.receiveMessages()) {
  // process `message` here

  await queue.deleteMessage(message);
}

It also provides other helpers for working with SQS to help reduce some of the boilerplate I find myself repeatedly writing (copy/pasting) in my projects.

Installation

This package requires the aws-sdk package as a peer dependency so install that, too:

npm i squeasy aws-sdk

API

Note about property names: The AWS SDK uses camelCased property names in options passed in to the SQS constructor and PascalCased property names in parameters passed in to methods. To keep the code simple, this library does not try to hide that so be sure to use QueueUrl and not queueUrl. 😢

Queue

The Queue constructor accepts the following options:

• QueueUrl: URL of queue (recommended, please notice the capital Q)
• sqs: AWS.SQS service object to use, otherwise following options are used to construct a new one:
• region: AWS region (default: process.env.AWS_REGION || process.env.AWS_DEFAULT_REGION)
• credentials: AWS credentials to use
• profile: AWS profile to use, only used if no credentials
• endpoint: URL of SQS service
• httpOptions: custom HTTP options
• keepAlive: use HTTP keep alive connections (default: true), only used if no httpOptions

In addition to those options, the parameters for other methods can be passed in to the constructor as options (like QueueUrl, MaxNumberOfMessages, VisibilityTimeout, etc) so they can be configured in one place and don't have to be repeatedly passed in to the other methods.

const { Queue } = require('squeasy');

const queue = new Queue({
  QueueUrl: process.env.MY_QUEUE_URL,
});

receiveBatches

Asynchronously iterates over batches of messages in a queue. Accepts the same parameters as receiveMessage in the AWS SDK except QueueUrl can be omitted if passed in to the constructor.

Note: The default value for MaxNumberOfMessages is 10 when calling this function which is different from the default value the AWS SDK uses for its receiveMessage method (1). The default value for WaitTimeSeconds is 20 which is also different from the AWS SDK (default is 0 when queue gets created).

for await (const batch of queue.receiveBatches()) {
  for (const message of batch.Messages) {
    console.log(message);
  }

  await queue.deleteBatch(batch);
}

receiveMessages

Asynchronously iterates over individual messages in a queue. Uses the same parameters as receiveBatches except the default for MaxNumberOfMessages is 1. If this is set to a number greater than 1, messages will be retrieved in batches from AWS but this function only yields one message at a time so be sure your VisibilityTimeout isn't too low (default is 30 when queue gets created).

for await (const message of queue.receiveMessages()) {
  console.log(message);

  await queue.deleteMessage(message);
}

deleteBatch

Deletes a batch of messages as yielded from receiveBatches. The parameter can be an array or an object with a Messages property set to an array of objects with MessageId and ReceiptHandle properties.

const result = await queue.deleteBatch(batch);

deleteMessage

Deletes a single message. The message expected to be an object with a ReceiptHandle property.

const result = await queue.deleteMessage(message);

sendBatch

Accepts all the same parameters as sendMessageBatch in the AWS SDK except QueueUrl can be omitted if passed in to the constructor. Also accepts an array of objects instead of an object with an Entries property.

const result = await queue.sendBatch([
  { Id: 'messageId1', MessageBody: 'messageBody1' },
  { Id: 'messageId2', MessageBody: 'messageBody2' },
]);

sendMessage

Accepts all the same parameters as sendMessage in the AWS SDK except QueueUrl can be omitted if passed in to the constructor.

const result = await queue.sendMessage({
  MessageBody: 'messageBody',
});

Testing

For testing against a local SQS queue, put this in ~/.aws/credentials:

[local]
region = local
aws_access_key_id = xxx
aws_secret_access_key = xxx

Those xxx values are meant to be literal. There is no need to put real credentials here.

Run a local SQS server (requires Docker):

docker run --rm -p 9324:9324 softwaremill/elasticmq

Create a queue:

aws sqs create-queue \
    --profile local \
    --endpoint http://localhost:9324 \
    --queue-name local-queue

# or

SQS_REGION=local \
SQS_PROFILE=local \
SQS_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:9324 \
SQS_QUEUE_NAME=local-queue \
node example-create.js

Run the example producer:

SQS_REGION=local \
SQS_PROFILE=local \
SQS_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:9324 \
SQS_QUEUE_URL=http://localhost:9324/queue/local-queue \
node example-producer.js

Run the example consumer:

SQS_REGION=local \
SQS_PROFILE=local \
SQS_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:9324 \
SQS_QUEUE_URL=http://localhost:9324/queue/local-queue \
node example-consumer.js