EventHub PHP SDK

This is a set of PHP classes design to give you easy access to the new Northwestern EventHub & AMQ.

As of writing, this PHP SDK implements methods for all EventHub API calls.

Installation

This package is available via composer:

composer require northwestern-sysdev/event-hub-php-sdk

The latest version of this package supports PHP v7.4+. It may not work on older versions of PHP. Please use v1 if you require compatability with older versions!

Examples

Here are some quick examples for using this SDK. For more information about EventHub & its capabilities, please see the documentation on the Service Registry.

Note that all methods from this SDK can throw Northwestern\SysDev\SOA\EventHub\Exception\EventHubDown and Northwestern\SysDev\SOA\EventHub\Exception\EventHubError messages. The former indicates a network problem or outage; the latter is something wrong with your usage of EventHub.

Consumers

You can loop something like the below example code & schedule it in cron to poll the queue for messages.

$message_api = new \Northwestern\SysDev\SOA\EventHub\Message('https://northwestern-dev.apigee.net', 'my api key', new GuzzleHttp\Client);
$topic_name = 'etsysdev.test.queue.name';

try {
    $message = $message_api->readOldest($topic_name); // returns a DeliveredMessage object

    // The ID is useful for moving messages & troubleshooting. The raw message will be a plain text representation, ideal for logging!
    log_stuff_in_my_database($message->getId(), $message->getRawMessage());

    // If you use JSON messages, this will be a PHP associative array. For XML, you'll need to getRawMessage() and parse it yourself.
    $body = $message->getMessage();
    update_my_database($body['some_unique_id_from_the_message'], $body['some_other_info']['a_field']);

    // Should be the last thing you do in your try block
    $message_api->acknowledgeOldest($topic_name);
} catch (\Exception $e) {
    // If we get an error before the acknowledgeOldest call, the message won't be ack'd & removed from the queue.
    // This gives you an opportunity to fix your stuff & try again!
}

Just be aware that EventHub supports webhook delivery; it can do HTTP POSTs to your application when it receives messages in real-time. You should evaluate that option before implementing queue polling.

Publishers

$topic_api = new \Northwestern\SysDev\SOA\EventHub\Topic('https://northwestern-dev.apigee.net', 'my api key', new GuzzleHttp\Client);
$topic_name = 'etsysdev.test.queue.name';

// If you are sending JSON messages, you can build your messages as PHP associative arrays and send those.
$my_message = [
    'id' => 1,
    'important_enterprise_data' => 'Bananas float in water because they are less dense in comparison.',
    'crucial_security_info' => 'Bananas grow on plants that are officially considered an herb.',
];
$message_id = $eh->writeJsonMessage($topic_name, $my_message);

// For XML, you are responsible for building the string & sending the appropriate content type.
$my_message = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><banana><fact>The banana is actually classified as a berry.</fact></banana>'; // but you're using an XML builder -- do whatever to cast to string
$message_id = $eh->writeMessage($topic_name, $my_message, 'application/xml');

Managing Webhooks

EventHub can be configured to deliver messages destined for your application via HTTP POSTs to an API endpoint you've created via webhooks. This is a self-service feature you can configure yourself.

For full details on how this works & the config options, see the EventHub Webhook documentation.

$webhook_api = new \Northwestern\SysDev\SOA\EventHub\Webhook('https://northwestern-dev.apigee.net', 'my api key', new GuzzleHttp\Client);
$topic_name = 'etsysdev.test.queue.name';

// Create a paused webhook
$details = $webhook_api->create($topic_name, [
    'topicName' => $topic_name,
    'endpoint' => 'https://my-app-dev.northwestern.edu/api/webhook/receive', // the URL in your application
    'contentType' => 'application/json', // desired format for delivered messages
    'active' => false, // start off paused, so no deliveries are made to your app
    'securityTypes' => ['NONE'], // what authentication method(s) need to be done to authenticate w/ your endpoint -- see the webhook documentation for more info
    'webhookSecurity' => [
        ['securityType' => 'NONE']
    ]
]);

// When you're ready, turn the webhook on:
$details = $webhook_api->unpause($topic_name);

// You can adjust any of your settings whenever you need to -- see the EventHub docs for more info
$details = $webhook_api->updateConfig($topic_name, [
    'endpoint' => 'https://my-app-dev.northwestern.edu/api/v2/webhooks',
]);

// Or remove the webhook entirely & go back to polling the queue
$webhook_api->delete($topic_name);

FAQs

Why do I have to pass in a GuzzleHttp Client?

I've split this package off from a Laravel-specific one, and having Guzzle in the constructor makes it easy for me to let Laravel's service container inject the dependency.

Guzzle supports some cool middleware stuff, which you may want to set up before giving it to the EventHub SDK.

In fact, this package comes with a re-try middleware for temporary network errors. You can do this instead to get a Guzzle Client that will make three immediate re-try attempts if it's unable to establish a connection to EventHub:

$client = \Northwestern\SysDev\SOA\EventHub\Guzzle\RetryClient::make();
$api = new \Northwestern\SysDev\SOA\EventHub\Webhook('https://northwestern-dev.apigee.net', 'my api key', $client);

This won't auto-retry anything that gets an HTTP error code, e.g. 401 Unauthorized won't trigger a re-try attempt. Feel free to extend the class & adjust createRetryHandler() to better suit your needs.

Do you have more documentation?

Not really. There are PHP docblocks in the code, but they just refer you back to the main EventHub API documentation. This SDK is just a little adapter layer to make using EventHub feel more PHP-y.

I need help!

The I&A team is the primary contact for EventHub -- I'm an end-user too!

But, if you have questions specifically abou the PHP SDK, you can ask in #et-sysdev on the NIT Slack or email nick.evans@northwestern.edu.

Contributing

Submit a pull request!

If you need to include a local copy of the package for development purposes, adjust your consuming apps' composer.json thusly:

{
    // Add this section
    "repositories": [
        {
            "type": "path",
            "url": "/home/vagrant/code/SysDev-EventHub-PHP-SDK"
        }
    ],

    "require": {
        // Any branch that isn't named in a version format can be specified by prefixing
        // it with 'dev-', so this would install the 'my-feature' branch from a local copy of the package.
        "northwestern-sysdev/event-hub-php-sdk": "dev-my-feature"
    },
}

You can test the package by running phpunit && ./vendor/bin/phpstan analyse --level 5 src/.