Python language binding for IronMQ. IronMQ is an elastic message queue for managing data and event flow within cloud applications and between systems. See How It Works

Getting Started

Get credentials

To start using iron_mq_python, you need to sign up and get an OAuth2 token.

1. Go to http://iron.io/ and sign up.
2. Get an OAuth2 Token at http://hud.iron.io/tokens

Install iron_mq_python

pip install iron-mq

or just copy iron_mq.py and include it in your script:

from iron_mq import *

Configure

ironmq = IronMQ()

will try reasonable defaults, accepting following optionally:

ironmq = IronMQ(host="mq-aws-us-east-1.iron.io",
                project_id="500f7b....b0f302e9",
                token="Et1En7.....0LuW39Q",
                protocol="https", port=443,
                api_version=1,
                config_file=None)

The Basics

Listing queues

ironmq.queues()

returns list of queues names

we get queue by name:

queue = ironmq.queue("test_queue")

Push a message(s) on the queue:

queue.post("Hello world")

// Maybe a little more verbose here?

This message will have the default properties. In order to customize them, Message can be described by dict:

message = {
    "body" : "Test Message",
    "timeout" : 120, # Timeout, in seconds. After timeout, item will be placed back on queue. Defaults to 60.
    "delay" : 5, # The item will not be available on the queue until this many seconds have passed. Defaults to 0.
    "expires_in" : 2*24*3600 # How long, in seconds, to keep the item on the queue before it is deleted.
}
queue.post(message)

// // For each of the above comments it would be nice to clarify when the countdown begins. // For instance, for "expires_in" it's unclear whether this countdown restarts when a message is popped and then pushed back on the queue // I suggest the following:

message = {
    "body" : "Test Message",
    "timeout" : 120, # Timeout, in seconds. After timeout, item will be placed back on queue. Defaults to 60.
    "delay" : 5, # The item will not be available on the queue until this many seconds have passed since message being pushed. Defaults to 0.
    "expires_in" : 2*24*3600 # How long, in seconds, to keep the item on the queue before it is deleted. When a message is popped and then pushed back on the queue the countdown restarts.
}
queue.post(message)

We can post several messages at once:

queue.post("more", "and more", "and more")
queue.post(*[str(i) for i in range(10)])

// // All the example messages are strings: a user might think that only strings can be passed to "push" and "post" functions. // If it's not so, adding an example with int/float would help avoid misunderstanding //

Pop a message off the queue:

queue.get()

This will pop a message off the queue and return its body (aka a string) In order to obtain its attributes, use the following syntax:

message = queue.get(verbose=True)

Now you have access to all the data associated with this message, i.e. message["timeout"]

When you pop/get a message from the queue, it will NOT be deleted. It will eventually go back onto the queue after a timeout if you don't delete it (default timeout is 60 seconds).

// Stating constants several times throughout the manual is unsafe because if it gets altered // an editor will have to change one statement and forget about the other one.

Delete a message from the queue:

queue.delete(message_id)

Delete a message from the queue when you're done with it.

Touch a message:

queue.touch(message_id)

Touching a popped message extends its timeout by the duration specified when the message was created, which is 60 seconds by default. After the timeout it will be placed back onto the queue.

Release a message:

queue.release(message_id)

Release is opposite to Touch. Releasing a reserved message unreserves the message and puts it back on the queue as if the message had timed out.

Peek at a message:

message = queue.peek()

or

message = queue.peek(verbose=True)

Use this instead of Get if you wish the message to remain on the queue.

Clear a queue:

queue.clear()

Get queue size, id, total_messages and whole info

queue.info()
 # {u'id': u'502d03d3211a8f5e7742d224',
 # u'name': u'queue12',
 # u'reserved': 0,
 # u'size': 15,
 # u'total_messages': 17}
queue.size() # 15
queue.name
queue.total_messages() # 17
queue.id() # u'502d03d3211a8f5e7742d224' 

Full Documentation

You can find more documentation here:

• http://iron.io
• http://docs.iron.io