Message Idempotence

This sample makes use of Shuttle.Esb.AzureMQ for the message queues. Local Azure Storage Queues should be provided by Azurite.

Once you have opened the Shuttle.Idempotence.sln solution in Visual Studio set the following projects as startup projects:

Shuttle.Idempotence.Client
Shuttle.Idempotence.Server

You will also need to create and configure a Sql Server database for this sample and remember to update the App.config connectionString settings to point to your database. Please reference the Database section below.

Implementation

When operations, or in our case messages, can be applied multiple times with the same result they are said to be idempotent. Idempotence is something you should strive to implement directly on your endpoint by keeping track of some unique property of each message and whether the operation has been completed for that unique property.

An IIdempotenceService implementation can assist with this from a technical point-of-view by allowing a particular message id to be handled only once. This works fine for our at-least-once delivery mechanism where, in some edge case, we may receive the same message again. However, it will not aid us when two messages are going to be sent, each with its own message id, but they contain the same data.

In this guide we'll create the following projects:

Shuttle.Idempotence.Client (Console Application)
Shuttle.Idempotence.Server (Console Application)
Shuttle.Idempotence.Messages (Class Library)

Messages

Create a new class library called Shuttle.Idempotence.Messages with a solution called Shuttle.Idempotence

Note: remember to change the Solution name.

RegisterMemberCommand

Rename the Class1 default file to RegisterMemberCommand and add a UserName property.

namespace Shuttle.Idempotence.Messages
{
	public class RegisterMemberCommand
	{
		public string UserName { get; set; }
	}
}

Client

Add a new Console Application to the solution called Shuttle.Idempotence.Client.

Install the Shuttle.Esb.AzureMQ nuget package.

This will provide access to the Azure Storage Queues IQueue implementation and also include the required dependencies.

Install the Shuttle.Core.SimpleInjector nuget package.

This will provide access to the SimpleInjector dependency container.

Add a reference to the Shuttle.Idempotence.Messages project.

Program

Implement the main client code as follows:

using System;
using Shuttle.Core.Container;
using Shuttle.Core.SimpleInjector;
using Shuttle.Esb;
using Shuttle.Esb.AzureMQ;
using Shuttle.Idempotence.Messages;
using SimpleInjector;

namespace Shuttle.Idempotence.Client
{
	internal class Program
	{
		private static void Main(string[] args)
		{
            var simpleInjectorContainer = new Container();

            simpleInjectorContainer.Options.EnableAutoVerification = false;
            
            var container = new SimpleInjectorComponentContainer(simpleInjectorContainer);

            container.Register<IAzureStorageConfiguration, DefaultAzureStorageConfiguration>();
			container.RegisterServiceBus();

			var transportMessageFactory = container.Resolve<ITransportMessageFactory>();

			using (var bus = container.Resolve<IServiceBus>().Start())
			{
				string userName;

				while (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(userName = Console.ReadLine()))
				{
					var command = new RegisterMemberCommand
					{
						UserName = userName
					};

					var transportMessage = transportMessageFactory.Create(command, c => { });

					for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++)
					{
						bus.Dispatch(transportMessage); // will be processed once since message id is the same
					}

					bus.Send(command); // will be processed since it has a new message id
					bus.Send(command); // will also be processed since it too has a new message id
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

Keep in mind that the when you Send a message a TransportMessage envelope is created with a unique message id (Guid). In the above code we first manually create a TransportMessage so that we can send technically identical messages (with the same message id).

The next two Send operations do not use the TransportMessage but rather send individual messages. These will each have a TransportMessage envelope and, therefore, each have its own unique message id.

App.config

Create the shuttle configuration as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<configuration>
	<configSections>
		<section name='serviceBus' type="Shuttle.Esb.ServiceBusSection, Shuttle.Esb" />
	</configSections>

	<appSettings>
		<add key="azure" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true;" />
	</appSettings>

	<serviceBus>
		<messageRoutes>
			<messageRoute uri="azuremq://azure/shuttle-server-work">
				<add specification="StartsWith" value="Shuttle.Idempotence.Messages" />
			</messageRoute>
		</messageRoutes>
	</serviceBus>
</configuration>

This tells the service bus that all messages sent having a type name starting with Shuttle.Idempotence.Messages should be sent to endpoint azuremq://azure/shuttle-server-work.

Server

Add a new Console Application to the solution called Shuttle.Idempotence.Server.

Install the Shuttle.Esb.AzureMQ nuget package.

This will provide access to the Azure Storage Queues IQueue implementation and also include the required dependencies.

Install the Shuttle.Core.WorkerService nuget package.

This allows a console application to be hosted as a Windows Service or Systemd Unit while running as a normal console application when debugging.

Install the Shuttle.Core.SimpleInjector nuget package.

This will provide access to the SimpleInjector dependency container.

Install the Shuttle.Esb.Sql.Idempotence package.

We will also have access to the Sql implementation of the IIdempotenceService.

Install the Microsoft.Data.SqlClient nuget package.

This will provide a connection to our Sql Server.

Add a reference to the Shuttle.Idempotence.Messages project.

Program

Implement the Program class as follows:

using System.Data.Common;
using Microsoft.Data.SqlClient;
using Shuttle.Core.WorkerService;

namespace Shuttle.Idempotence.Server
{
    public class Program
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            DbProviderFactories.RegisterFactory("Microsoft.Data.SqlClient", SqlClientFactory.Instance);

            ServiceHost.Run<Host>();
        }
    }
}

This will simply run the Host implementation.

Host

Add a Host class and implement the IServiceHost interface as follows:

using Shuttle.Core.Container;
using Shuttle.Core.Data;
using Shuttle.Core.SimpleInjector;
using Shuttle.Core.WorkerService;
using Shuttle.Esb;
using Shuttle.Esb.AzureMQ;
using Shuttle.Esb.Sql.Idempotence;
using SimpleInjector;

namespace Shuttle.Idempotence.Server
{
    public class Host : IServiceHost
    {
        private IServiceBus _bus;

        public void Start()
        {
            var container = new SimpleInjectorComponentContainer(new Container());

            container.Register<IAzureStorageConfiguration, DefaultAzureStorageConfiguration>();
            container.RegisterDataAccess();
            container.RegisterIdempotence();
            container.RegisterServiceBus();

            _bus = container.Resolve<IServiceBus>().Start();
        }

        public void Stop()
        {
            _bus?.Dispose();
        }
    }
}

Database

We need a store for our idempotence tracking. In this example we will be using Sql Server. If you use the express version remember to change the data source value to .\sqlexpress from the standard ..

When you reference the Shuttle.Esb.Sql.Idempotence package a scripts folder is included in the relevant package folder. Click on the Nuget referenced assembly in the References or Dependencies (depending on your project type) and navigate to the package folder to find the scripts folder.

The {version} bit will be in a semver format.

Create a new database called Shuttle and execute the script {provider}\IdempotenceServiceCreate.sql in the newly created database.

App.config

Add an Application Configuration File item to create the App.config and populate as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<configuration>
	<configSections>
		<section name='serviceBus' type="Shuttle.Esb.ServiceBusSection, Shuttle.Esb" />
	</configSections>

	<appSettings>
		<add key="azure" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true;" />
	</appSettings>

	<connectionStrings>
		<add name="Idempotence"
		     connectionString="server=.;database=shuttle;user id=sa;password=Pass!000;TrustServerCertificate=True"
		     providerName="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" />
	</connectionStrings>

	<serviceBus>
		<inbox
			workQueueUri="azuremq://azure/shuttle-server-work"
			errorQueueUri="azuremq://azure/shuttle-error" />
	</serviceBus>
</configuration>

RegisterMemberHandler

Add a new class called RegisterMemberHandler that implements the IMessageHandler<RegisterMemberCommand> interface as follows:

using System;
using Shuttle.Esb;
using Shuttle.Idempotence.Messages;

namespace Shuttle.Idempotence.Server
{
	public class RegisterMemberHandler : IMessageHandler<RegisterMemberCommand>
	{
		public void ProcessMessage(IHandlerContext<RegisterMemberCommand> context)
		{
			Console.WriteLine();
			Console.WriteLine("[MEMBER REGISTERED] : user name = '{0}' / message id = '{1}'",
				context.Message.UserName,
				context.TransportMessage.MessageId);
			Console.WriteLine();
		}
	}
}

This will write out some information to the console window.

Run

Set both the client and server projects as startup projects.

Execute

Execute the application.

The client application will wait for you to input a user name. For this example enter my user name and press enter:

INFO

You will need to scroll through the messages but you will observe that the server application has processed all three messages.

You have now implemented message idempotence.

Message Idempotence #

Implementation #

Messages #

RegisterMemberCommand #

Client #

Program #

App.config #

Server #

Program #

Host #

Database #

App.config #

RegisterMemberHandler #

Run #

Execute #

Message Idempotence

Implementation

Messages

RegisterMemberCommand

Client

Program

App.config

Server

Program

Host

Database

App.config

RegisterMemberHandler

Run

Execute