SQSConnector

Connects to the Amazon Simple Queue Service to send and receive messages.

Typical Uses

Sending and receiving messages.

How does it work?

The SQSConnector uses your Amazon AWS account credentials to perform various tasks:

Action	Task
Count Messages	Count waiting messages in a queue.
Delete	Delete messages from a queue.
Receive	Receive messages from queues.
Send	Send messages to queues.

Optional Input Port

This transformer has two modes, depending on whether a connector is attached to the Input port or not:

Input-driven: When input features are connected, the transformer runs once for each feature it receives in the Input port.
Run Once: When no input features are connected, the transformer runs one time.

When the Input port is in use, the Initiator output port is also enabled.

Heartbeat

When Action is Receive and the connection is still alive (Receive Mode is Stream or a batch is not yet complete), heartbeat features are output at a specified interval after a period of non-activity.

Heartbeat features have two attributes:

_heartbeat_id: Integer starting at 0. This is a unique identifier for each heartbeat feature output from this port.
_heartbeat_counter: Integer starting at 0 that resets whenever the connector receives a new message and a new period of inactivity begins. This counter represents the number of consecutive heartbeat features.

Configuration

Input Ports

Output Ports

Output

Features with added attributes, as specified in parameters and according to Action:

Action	Output - Input-Driven	Output - Run Once
Count Messages	Input feature with message count.	New feature with message count.
Delete	Input feature.	New feature.
Receive	Multiple features, one for each message received, with details about the message.	Multiple features, one for each message received, with details about the message.
Send	Input feature with details about the sent message.	New feature with details about the sent message.

Parameters

Authentication

Credential Source

Select the type of credentials to use:

Anonymous: Access public S3 buckets without authenticating.
Web Connection (Recommended): Use an Amazon Web Services web connection.
Embedded: Embed an access key ID and secret access key as parameters in the transformer.
System: Use credentials already configured on the system, in the environment variables AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY. See Getting started with the AWS CLI.

Account

When Credential Source is Web Connection, select or create a Web Connection connecting to an Amazon Web Services Web Service.

See Using Web Connections.

Region

Specify the AWS Region in which the Queue resides.

Overrides the region set in the web connection if specified.

Alternate Endpoint

(Optional) When Credential Source is Anonymous, Embedded, or System, specify an alternate SQS-compatible API.

These are typically queue services from providers other than AWS, or on-premises solutions.

Verify HTTPS Certificates

When Credential Source is Web Connection, select a verification option:

Yes (default): Ensure that HTTPS certificates are signed by a trusted authority.
No: Do not check the authenticity of HTTPS certificates. Note that the connection is still encrypted, but another party can more easily intercept the transmitted data.

Embedded Credentials

When Credential Source is Embedded:

Access Key ID	Provide S3 account credentials.
Secret Access Key	Provide S3 account credentials.

Action > Count Messages

This Action has no additional parameters.

Output Attributes

Attributes to Add

Select any available attributes to be included on the output features:

sqs_count	The estimated total amount of messages.
sqs_count_visible	The estimated total amount of visible messages.

Action > Delete

Delete Options

Message Receipt Handle

Set to the value of the sqs_receipt_handle attribute produced by an upstream receiving SQSConnector.

Output Attributes

Attributes to Add

Select any available attributes to be included on the output features:

_queue

The queue URL of the message.

Action > Receive

Receive Options

Mode

Select a receiving method:

Stream: The connector continues to receive messages indefinitely. The translation needs to be terminated in order to stop reception.
When Queue is Empty: Receive messages until the queue is empty.
After a Fixed Number of Messages: Receive a specified number of messages.

Maximum Messages to Read

When Mode is After a Fixed Number of Messages, specify the number of messages to read.

Delete on Receive

Select a deletion option:

Yes (default): Delete messages as soon as they are received from the queue.
No: Messages can be received again after the visibility timeout.

Receive Request Attempt Id

(Optional) Provide a unique string ID to either assign an ID or to use that ID to resend a receive request the same way as a previous attempt id, ignoring the visibility timeout.

Only for FIFO Queues.

See SQS Receive Message Syntax - ReceiveRequestAttemptId.

Visibility Timeout (seconds)

When Delete on Receive Is No, specify the length of time in seconds that the message is invisible.

After the timeout expires, the message is visible.

The default is 30 seconds.

Heartbeat

Interval

Specify the duration of a period of inactivity before a heartbeat feature is emitted, in Time Units.

Default is 1.

Time Unit

Select the Interval unit:

Seconds
Minutes
Hours (default)
Days

Output Attributes

Attributes to Add

Select any available attributes to be included on the output features:

_attributes{}.key	A list of all the message attribute names.
_attributes{}.value	A list of all the message attribute values.
_message_deduplication_id	Only for a FIFO queue message. See above description.
_message_group_id	Only for a FIFO queue message. See above description.
_queue	The queue URL of the message.
_sequence_number	Only for a FIFO queue message. The large, non-consecutive number that Amazon SQS assigns to each message.
_timestamp	The message creation unix time in milliseconds.
sqs_content	The message content.
sqs_md5	The md5 of a message, including the message attributes.
sqs_message_id	The id of a message. Required for updating and deleting.
sqs_receipt_handle	The pop receipt of a message, obtained from a receive operation. Required for updating and deleting.

Action > Send

Send Options

Message Body

Provide the message content.

The default encoding is an xml unicode string.

Message Delay (seconds)

(Optional) Specify the length of time in seconds before a message is visible on the queue.

Is Queue FIFO

Select an option:

No (default): Standard queue.
Yes: FIFO (First-In-First-Out) queue.

Message Group Id

When Is Queue FIFO is Yes, provide an ID that specifies that a message belongs to a specific message group.

Messages that belong to the same message group are always processed one by one, in a strict order relative to the message group (however, messages that belong to different message groups might be processed out of order).

See FIFO queue delivery logic in Amazon SQS.

Message Deduplication Id

(Optional) When Is Queue FIFO is Yes, provide an ID to be used for deduplication of sent messages.

If the queue has ContentBasedDeduplication enabled, this parameter is optional. If a message with a message deduplication ID is sent successfully, any messages sent with the same message deduplication ID are accepted successfully but aren't delivered during the 5-minute deduplication interval.

See Using the message deduplication ID in Amazon SQS.

Message Attributes

(Optional) Set any additional message properties.

Attribute Name	The message attribute name can contain the following characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, underscore (_), hyphen (-), and period (.).
Type	Select between Binary, Number, or String.
Value	Binary: Either a binary value or a path to a binary file. Number: Any number value. String: Any string value.

Output Attributes

Attributes to Add

Select any available attributes to be included on the output features:

_attributes{}.key	A list of all the message attribute names.
_attributes{}.value	A list of all the message attribute values.
_message_deduplication_id	Only for a FIFO queue message. See above description.
_message_group_id	Only for a FIFO queue message. See above description.
_queue	The queue URL of the message.
_sequence_number	Only for a FIFO queue message. The large, non-consecutive number that Amazon SQS assigns to each message.
sqs_content	The message content.
sqs_message_id	The id of a message. Required for updating and deleting.

Editing Transformer Parameters

Transformer parameters can be set by directly entering values, using expressions, or referencing other elements in the workspace such as attribute values or user parameters. Various editors and context menus are available to assist. To see what is available, click beside the applicable parameter.

How to Set Parameter Values

Defining Values

There are several ways to define a value for use in a Transformer. The simplest is to simply type in a value or string, which can include functions of various types such as attribute references, math and string functions, and workspace parameters.

Using the Text Editor

The Text Editor provides a convenient way to construct text strings (including regular expressions) from various data sources, such as attributes, parameters, and constants, where the result is used directly inside a parameter.

Text Editor

Using the Arithmetic Editor

The Arithmetic Editor provides a convenient way to construct math expressions from various data sources, such as attributes, parameters, and feature functions, where the result is used directly inside a parameter.

Arithmetic Editor

Conditional Values

Set values depending on one or more test conditions that either pass or fail.

Parameter Condition Definition Dialog

Content

Expressions and strings can include a number of functions, characters, parameters, and more.

When setting values - whether entered directly in a parameter or constructed using one of the editors - strings and expressions containing String, Math, Date/Time or FME Feature Functions will have those functions evaluated. Therefore, the names of these functions (in the form @<function_name>) should not be used as literal string values.

Content Types

String Functions	These functions manipulate and format strings.
Special Characters	A set of control characters is available in the Text Editor.
Math Functions	Math functions are available in both editors.
Date/Time Functions	Date and time functions are available in the Text Editor.
Math Operators	These operators are available in the Arithmetic Editor.
FME Feature Functions	These return primarily feature-specific values.
FME Parameters	FME and workspace-specific parameters may be used.
Creating and Modifying User Parameters	Create your own editable parameters.

Dialog Options - Tables

Table Tools

Transformers with table-style parameters have additional tools for populating and manipulating values.

Row Reordering

Enabled once you have clicked on a row item. Choices include:

Add a row
Remove a row
Move current row up one
Move current row down one
Move current row to top
Move current row to bottom

Cut, Copy, and Paste

Enabled once you have clicked on a row item. Choices include:

Cut a row - delete and copy to clipboard
Copy a row to the clipboard
Paste a row from the clipboard

Cut, copy, and paste may be used within a transformer, or between transformers.

Filter

Start typing a string, and the matrix will only display rows matching those characters. Searches all columns. This only affects the display of attributes within the transformer - it does not alter which attributes are output.

Import

Import populates the table with a set of new attributes read from a dataset. Specific application varies between transformers.

Reset/Refresh

Generally resets the table to its initial state, and may provide additional options to remove invalid entries. Behavior varies between transformers.

Note: Not all tools are available in all transformers.

For more information, see Transformer Parameter Menu Options.

Reference

Processing Behavior	Feature-Based
Feature Holding	No
Dependencies	Amazon Web Services account
Aliases
History	Released FME 2020.0

FME Online Resources

The FME Community and Support Center Knowledge Base have a wealth of information, including active forums with 35,000+ members and thousands of articles.

Search for all results about the SQSConnector on the FME Community.

Examples may contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Vancouver, Open Government Licence - British Columbia, and/or Open Government Licence – Canada.