Spring Boot Microservices with RabbitMQ Example

In this tutorial, we will create two Spring Boot microservices that communicate with each other using RabbitMQ. We'll use RabbitMQ as a message broker to enable asynchronous communication between the microservices. This guide is intended for beginners and includes detailed explanations for each step.

Introduction to RabbitMQ

RabbitMQ is an open-source message broker software that implements the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP). It allows applications to communicate with each other using messages, enabling asynchronous and decoupled communication. RabbitMQ is often used to build scalable and fault-tolerant distributed systems.

Prerequisites

• JDK 17 or later
• Maven or Gradle
• IDE (IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, etc.)
• RabbitMQ server (You can run RabbitMQ using Docker)

Step 1: Set Up RabbitMQ Server

You can run RabbitMQ using Docker with the following command:

docker run -d --name rabbitmq -p 5672:5672 -p 15672:15672 rabbitmq:3-management

This command will start RabbitMQ with the management UI accessible at http://localhost:15672 (default username and password: guest/guest).

Step 2: Create the Projects

We'll create two Spring Boot projects: producer-service and consumer-service.

Step 3: Set Up producer-service

3.1 Create the Project

Use Spring Initializr to create a new project with the following dependencies:

• Spring Web
• Spring Boot Actuator
• Spring for RabbitMQ

3.2 Configure application.properties

Set up the application properties for producer-service.

spring.application.name=producer-service
spring.rabbitmq.host=localhost
spring.rabbitmq.port=5672
spring.rabbitmq.username=guest
spring.rabbitmq.password=guest

Explanation:

• spring.application.name=producer-service: Names the application.
• spring.rabbitmq.host=localhost: Specifies the RabbitMQ server host.
• spring.rabbitmq.port=5672: Specifies the RabbitMQ server port.
• spring.rabbitmq.username=guest: Specifies the RabbitMQ username.
• spring.rabbitmq.password=guest: Specifies the RabbitMQ password.

3.3 Configure RabbitMQ

Create a configuration class to define the RabbitMQ components.

package com.example.producerservice;

import org.springframework.amqp.core.Queue;
import org.springframework.amqp.rabbit.core.RabbitTemplate;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class RabbitMQConfig {

    public static final String QUEUE_NAME = "exampleQueue";

    @Bean
    public Queue exampleQueue() {
        return new Queue(QUEUE_NAME, false);
    }
}

Explanation:

• @Configuration: Indicates that this class contains Spring configuration.
• @Bean: Marks this method as a bean producer.
• Queue exampleQueue(): Creates a new queue named exampleQueue.

3.4 Create a Message Producer

Create a service to send messages to the queue.

package com.example.producerservice;

import org.springframework.amqp.rabbit.core.RabbitTemplate;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
public class MessageProducer {

    private final RabbitTemplate rabbitTemplate;

    public MessageProducer(RabbitTemplate rabbitTemplate) {
        this.rabbitTemplate = rabbitTemplate;
    }

    public void sendMessage(String message) {
        rabbitTemplate.convertAndSend(RabbitMQConfig.QUEUE_NAME, message);
    }
}

Explanation:

• @Service: Marks this class as a service component.
• RabbitTemplate rabbitTemplate: Injects the RabbitTemplate for sending messages to RabbitMQ.
• sendMessage(String message): Sends a message to the exampleQueue.

3.5 Create a Controller

Create a controller to handle HTTP requests and send messages to the queue.

package com.example.producerservice;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
public class MessageController {

    private final MessageProducer messageProducer;

    public MessageController(MessageProducer messageProducer) {
        this.messageProducer = messageProducer;
    }

    @GetMapping("/send")
    public String sendMessage(@RequestParam String message) {
        messageProducer.sendMessage(message);
        return "Message sent: " + message;
    }
}

Explanation:

• @RestController: Marks this class as a REST controller.
• @GetMapping("/send"): Maps GET requests to /send to this method.
• @RequestParam String message: Extracts the message parameter from the request.
• messageProducer.sendMessage(message): Sends the message to the queue.

Step 4: Set Up consumer-service

4.1 Create the Project

Use Spring Initializr to create a new project with the following dependencies:

• Spring Web
• Spring Boot Actuator
• Spring for RabbitMQ

4.2 Configure application.properties

Set up the application properties for consumer-service.

spring.application.name=consumer-service
spring.rabbitmq.host=localhost
spring.rabbitmq.port=5672
spring.rabbitmq.username=guest
spring.rabbitmq.password=guest

Explanation:

• spring.application.name=consumer-service: Names the application.
• spring.rabbitmq.host=localhost: Specifies the RabbitMQ server host.
• spring.rabbitmq.port=5672: Specifies the RabbitMQ server port.
• spring.rabbitmq.username=guest: Specifies the RabbitMQ username.
• spring.rabbitmq.password=guest: Specifies the RabbitMQ password.

4.3 Configure RabbitMQ

Create a configuration class to define the RabbitMQ components.

package com.example.consumerservice;

import org.springframework.amqp.core.Queue;
import org.springframework.amqp.rabbit.annotation.RabbitListener;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class RabbitMQConfig {

    public static final String QUEUE_NAME = "exampleQueue";

    @Bean
    public Queue exampleQueue() {
        return new Queue(QUEUE_NAME, false);
    }

    @RabbitListener(queues = QUEUE_NAME)
    public void listen(String message) {
        System.out.println("Received message: " + message);
    }
}

Explanation:

• @Configuration: Indicates that this class contains Spring configuration.
• @Bean: Marks this method as a bean producer.
• Queue exampleQueue(): Creates a new queue named exampleQueue.
• @RabbitListener(queues = QUEUE_NAME): Annotates a method to listen to messages from the exampleQueue.
• listen(String message): Processes the received message and prints it to the console.

Step 5: Run the Microservices

1. Start RabbitMQ: Ensure RabbitMQ is running using the Docker command mentioned above.
2. Start producer-service: Run the ProducerServiceApplication class.
3. Start consumer-service: Run the ConsumerServiceApplication class.

Step 6: Test the Communication

1. Open your browser or use a tool like Postman to send a GET request to producer-service:

   • URL: http://localhost:8081/send?message=Hello
   • This will send the message "Hello" to the queue.

2. Check the console logs of consumer-service to see the received message:

   • You should see Received message: Hello in the logs.

Conclusion

You have successfully set up two Spring Boot microservices that communicate asynchronously using RabbitMQ. This setup allows you to decouple the services and enable asynchronous processing, which can improve the scalability and resilience of your system. This example can be expanded to include more complex message handling, additional microservices, and advanced RabbitMQ configurations.