SPS.SBCompressor 0.8.0

Azure Service Bus “by design”

For many right reasons message has size limitation. For example, large message has network latency problem with performance impact, large message has impact on network traffic, message receiver could have problem to manage large message, small is faster than larger and so on.

Azure service bus has many reasons to limit message size and the size limit is 256Kb for “Standard tier” and 1MB for (Premium tier). Premium tier has other differences then Standard tier but the price is much higher.

You can read more details about quota limitations at this link

With this library you can send and read messages bigger than 1Mb without upgrade service bus's tier.

Issues with those limitation

Chatty messages

Frequently, to be sure to respect quota limit, the message contains only the identity of the object for which the event was raised and some information about the event.

In this situation who receive the message hasn’t sufficient information about the object and the only thing that can do is to recall a service that host the object and ask for information about the object using the identity contained in the event.

In this scenario when something happen to one object, this object send a message to service bus, and this message is consumed by event subscribers (subscribers can be many). At this point, every subscriber call the service’s object to ask information about it.

Therefore, for one message sent to service bus there are one message for each subscriber and one message from every subscriber to service‘s object.

It is a good practice to define a general purposed representation of the object represented by the message to reduce the “chatty” problem, for this, the message contains the most important information but not all the information or the complete object. In this way, only subscribers that needs information not contained in the message will recall the service’s object.

Quota exceeded

Even if you have a message object that usually is smaller than 256 Kb, this object could exceed the size limitation in unexpected manner.

The object can have string properties that together exceed the limit.

The object can have an array of properties or an array of objects and the array has not size limit. In this scenario growing the size of the array, increase the probability to exceed the limit.

In those scenarios, you cannot be sure that your message will never exceed the size limitation.

Expensive solution

You can adopt “Premium Tier” so you can exceed the 256Kb, anyway this tier has 1 Mb quota limitation.

“Premium Tier” has much performance than “Standard Tier” so is very expensive. I don't think this is the right solution for the message size problem and the message’s size limit also remain with the "Premium Tier".

.NET 5 and Azure Functions Breaking changes

Azure Function for .NET 5 is really different from .net core 3.1 or .net classic. If you don't use Azure function as messages consumer you can use the same way as .net core 3.1. For example in .net core 3.1 you can read message using Microsoft.Azure.ServiceBus.Message object also in Azure Functions. From Azure Functions for .NET 5 you can use Microsoft.Azure.ServiceBus.Message object to send and read message but not to read message when you are in Azure Functions.

You can read more details at this link

Bridge from .net core 3.1 to .NET5, .net6, .net7, .net8

With this library you can send e read messsage in the same way of .net core 3.1 or .NET5,.NET6,.NET7,.NET8 and by Azure Functions or other type of subscriber. Using this library you can easly migrate from .net core 3.1 to .NET5,.NET6,.NET7,.NET8 and you can use the same logic and code to read message from Azure Functions and any reader.

Instruction about how to read messages using Azure Functions in .NET 5 and .net core 3.1 are in the readme.md of Samples directory.

How to use this library

The Simple Way

Queue Extension

To send a string message Create your QueueClient object and use the extension method "SendCompressorAsync" to send the message.

  var queueClient = new QueueClient(ServiceBusConnectionString, QueueName);
  await queueClient.SendCompressorAsync("Hello Azure Service Bus");

Send an object in a message is very similar to the previous example. Suppose that you have your own object in a library named "DTOLibrary.MessageDTO". You can use the same method above to send it as a message.

  DTOLibrary.MessageDTO messageDTO = new DTOLibrary.MessageDTO();
  messageDTO.Subject = "Hello";
  messageDTO.Content = "I'm a object";
  await queueClient.SendCompressorAsync(messageDTO);

To Read the string message.

1. Create your QueueClient object
2. Subscribe to the queue
3. Read the message

  static IQueueClient queueClient
  static async Task MainAsync()
  {
     //1. Create your QueueClient object
     queueClient = new QueueClient(ServiceBusConnectionString, QueueName);
     //2. Subscribe to the queue
     queueClient.SubscribeCompressor(ProcessMessages);

     Console.ReadKey();
     await queueClient.CloseAsync();
  }
  private static void ProcessMessages(MessageReceivedEventArgs e)
  {
    //3. Read the message
    Console.WriteLine(e.ReceivedEventMessage.Body);
  }

To read the object sent in the previous example you can use the property ObjectName of the object MessageReceivedEventArgs.ReceivedEventMessage to retrieve the object in the message in this way:

  private static void ProcessMessages(MessageReceivedEventArgs e)
  {
    if (e.ReceivedEventMessage.ObjectName == typeof(DTOLibrary.MessageDTO).AssemblyQualifiedName)
    {
      DTOLibrary.MessageDTO msgDTO = e.ReceivedEventMessage.BodyObject as DTOLibrary.MessageDTO;
      if (msgDTO != null)
      {
        Console.WriteLine(msgDTO.Subject + " " + msgDTO.Content);
      }
    }
  }

Topic Extension

To send a string message Create your QueueClient object and use the extension method "SendCompressorAsync" to send the message.

  topicClient = new TopicClient(ServiceBusConnectionString, TopicName);
  await topicClient.SendCompressorAsync("Hello Azure Service Bus");

Send an object in a message is very similar to the previous example. Suppose that you have your own object in a library named "DTOLibrary.MessageDTO". You can use the same method above to send it as a message.

  DTOLibrary.MessageDTO messageDTO = new DTOLibrary.MessageDTO();
  messageDTO.Subject = "Hello";
  messageDTO.Content = "I'm a object";
  await queueClient.SendCompressorAsync(messageDTO);

To Read the string message.

1. Create your TopicClient object
2. Subscribe to the Topi
3. Read the message

  static ISubscriptionClient subscriptionClient;
  static async Task MainAsync()
  {
     //1. Create your QueueClient object
     subscriptionClient = new SubscriptionClient(ServiceBusConnectionString, TopicName, SubscriptionName);
     //2. Subscribe to the queue
     subscriptionClient.SubscribeCompressor(ProcessMessages);

     Console.ReadKey();
     await subscriptionClient.CloseAsync();
  }
  private static void ProcessMessages(MessageReceivedEventArgs e)
  {
    //3. Read the message
    Console.WriteLine(e.ReceivedEventMessage.Body);
  }

To read the object sent in the previous example you can use the property ObjectName of the object MessageReceivedEventArgs.ReceivedEventMessage to retrieve the object in the message in this way:

  private static void ProcessMessages(MessageReceivedEventArgs e)
  {
    if (e.ReceivedEventMessage.ObjectName == typeof(DTOLibrary.MessageDTO).AssemblyQualifiedName)
    {
      DTOLibrary.MessageDTO msgDTO = e.ReceivedEventMessage.BodyObject as DTOLibrary.MessageDTO;
      if (msgDTO != null)
      {
        Console.WriteLine(msgDTO.Subject + " " + msgDTO.Content);
      }
    }
  }

All of above example are in the samples directory of this repository.

Extension

You can use this library as extension of QueueClient, TopicClient or SubscriptionClient in very easy way using the extension methods:

• SendCompressorAsync (in SBCompressor.Extensions.Sender namespace) instead of SendAsync
• SubscribeCompressorAsync (in SBCompressor.Extensions.Reader namespace) instead of RegisterMessageHandler

Library

You can use Library object's as explained in samples: ConsoleSenderAppSBC, ConsoleReceiverAppSBC, ConsoleTopicSenderAppSBC, ConsoleTopicReceicerAppSBC

Getting Started using the library

1. Source code
2. Nuget package. You can use this library building it following this document or you can download its package from nuget at this link. Please follow the samples below to learn how to use it.

Getting Started with source code

This project is a based on .Net Core and has dependencies on Microsoft.Azure.ServiceBus and Microsoft.Azure.Storage.Blob .nuget packages. Use AzSB solution to build the SBCompressor Library. In Samples directory there is a readme.md file to explain how to use and configure them.

Source Code

In this repository there are library, unit tests and saples source code. In the root directory there is the AzSB.sln file that include library and unit tests.

In the repository there are:

• AzSB.sln (solution with the main library and unit tests)
• Samples\Extension\ConsoleSenderExtensionAppSBC\ConsoleSenderExtensionAppSBC.sln (Microsoft Queue sample modified to use this library as extension)
• Samples\Extension\ConsoleReceiverExtensionAppSBC\ConsoleReceiverExtensionAppSBC.sln (Microsoft Queue sample modified to use this library as extension) In this solution there are Azure Functions examples that read messages using service bus trigger (there is an examples for .net core 3.1 and one example for .net 5 too)
• Samples\Extension\ConsoleTopicSenderExtensionAppSBC\ConsoleTopicSenderExtensionAppSBC.sln (Microsoft Topic sample modified to use this library as extension)
• Samples\Extension\ConsoleTopicReceicerExtensionAppSBC\ConsoleTopicReceicerExtensionAppSBC.sln (Microsoft Topic sample modified to use this library as extension)
• Samples\FullLibrary\ConsoleSenderAppSBC\ConsoleSenderAppSBC.sln (example that sends messages to Queue)
• Samples\FullLibrary\ConsoleReceiverAppSBC\ConsoleReceiverAppSBC.sln (example that reads messages from Queue)
• Samples\FullLibrary\ConsoleTopicSenderAppSBC\ConsoleTopicSenderAppSBC.sln (example that sends messages for Topic)
• Samples\FullLibrary\ConsoleTopicReceicerAppSBC\ConsoleTopicReceicerAppSBC.sln (example that reads messages from Topic)

The proposed solution

The proposed solution is applicable to all tier from “Basic” to “Standard” and “Premium”.

The library act as a wrapper of .net object used to send and receive message with Azure Service Bus.

The library expose a simplified façade to send and receive messages that exceeded the 256kb (or 1 Mb) size limit.

The library implement many strategies to send and receive large message. The strategy will be dynamically selected and will be used transparently.

"Simple" Strategy

The message is analyzed and if the size is lower than limitation is sent as is. The receiver accept the message without any rework on it.

• The sender (at step 1) send the message.
• The library (green block) check the message size and if is lower than 256Kb sent it to Azure Service Bus.
• Any receiver get the message form Azure Service Bus (step 2) using the library.
• The library analyze the message (step 3) and understands that do not need any work on it and passes it to the receiver.

"Compress" Strategy

The message is analyzed and if the size is greater than limit, it will be compressed. The receiver understands that the message is compressed and decompress it before pass it to the receiver.

• The sender (at step 1) send the message.
• The library (red block) check the message’s size and if it is greater than 256 Kb, compress the message. After compression if the size is lower than 256Kb (or 1Mb) send the compressed message to Azure Service Bus.
• Any receiver get the message form Azure Service Bus (step 2) using the library.
• The library analyze the message (step 3) and understands that is compressed so decompress it before passes it to the receiver.

If compression is not enough because the size is always greater than 256Kb after compression the library can use other strategies as “chunks” or “storage”.

"Split" strategy

When compression is not enough, the library can split the compressed message in many message where every message has size lower then 256Kb. The library send all chunks in batch mode to Azure Service Bus.

• The sender (at step 1) send the message.
• The library (red block) check the message size and if it is greater than 256 Kb, compress the message.
• If the size after compression is greater than 256Kb, the library split the message in many chunk with size lower than 256Kb and send them to Azure Service Bus in batch mode.
• Any receiver get the message form Azure Service Bus (step 2) using the library.
• The library analyze the message (step 3) and understands that is a part of compressed and splitted message. The library recompose message, decompress it and pass it to the receiver.

Problem with this strategy

If a problem occurs while receiving a message with a chunk and the problem is not notified to Azure Service Bus, the latter does not retry to resend the message so the entire message will be corrupted and impossible to recover. This is a poor solution but require less Azure configurations.

"Store" strategy

Storage strategy is a good alternative to "Split" strategy.

The library can be configured to use "Storage" strategy instead of "Split" strategy. Storage is the default strategy when the messsage exceed the size limit.

If compressed message size is greater than 256Kb library can put the message in a blob storage. At this time, the storage can be only a blob storage (today other ways like DocumentDB or MongoDB are not implemented).

• The sender (at step 1) send the message.
• The library (red block) check the message size and if it is greater than 256 Kb, compress the message.
• If the size after compression is greater than 256Kb the library put the message into blob storage and send a “stub” message to Azure Service Bus.
• Any receiver get the message form Azure Service Bus (step 2) using the library.
• The library analyze the message (step 3) and understands that is only a stub with information about original message. Then the library get the message from the storage, decompress it and pass it to the receiver.

Work in Progress

"Store" implementation is not fully completed because nobody remove the message from the storage after every subscriber has successfully reads the message.

Today a solution could be to configure the lifetime of the blob storage. You can configure a rule that delete blobs at the end of their lifecycles to simulate something like a “time to live” option for the messages. At this link, you can read how to configure the lifetime rules.

This is a good solution but there is no guarantee that every subscriber has read his message before the deletion of the message. You can configure the blob’s lifetime with a “time to live” greater than “Message time to live” so you will have a great and cheap solution.