Send messages to and receive messages from Azure Service Bus queues (Go)

Article
03/04/2024

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to send messages to and receive messages from Azure Service Bus queues using the Go programming language.

Azure Service Bus is a fully managed enterprise message broker with message queues and publish/subscribe capabilities. Service Bus is used to decouple applications and services from each other, providing a distributed, reliable, and high performance message transport.

The Azure SDK for Go's azservicebus package allows you to send and receive messages from Azure Service Bus and using the Go programming language.

By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to: send a single message or batch of messages to a queue, receive messages, and dead-letter messages that aren't processed.

Prerequisites

An Azure subscription. You can activate your Visual Studio or MSDN subscriber benefits or sign-up for a trial subscription.
If you don't have a queue to work with, follow steps in the Use Azure portal to create a Service Bus queue article to create a queue.
Go version 1.18 or above

Create the sample app

To begin, create a new Go module.

Create a new directory for the module named service-bus-go-how-to-use-queues.

In the azservicebus directory, initialize the module and install the required packages.

go mod init service-bus-go-how-to-use-queues

go get github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/azidentity

go get github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/messaging/azservicebus

Create a new file named main.go.

Authenticate and create a client

In the main.go file, create a new function named GetClient and add the following code:

func GetClient() *azservicebus.Client {
	namespace, ok := os.LookupEnv("AZURE_SERVICEBUS_HOSTNAME") //ex: myservicebus.servicebus.chinacloudapi.cn
	if !ok {
		panic("AZURE_SERVICEBUS_HOSTNAME environment variable not found")
	}

	cred, err := azidentity.NewDefaultAzureCredential(nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	client, err := azservicebus.NewClient(namespace, cred, nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	return client
}

The GetClient function returns a new azservicebus.Client object that's created by using an Azure Service Bus namespace and a credential. The namespace is provided by the AZURE_SERVICEBUS_HOSTNAME environment variable. And the credential is created by using the azidentity.NewDefaultAzureCredential function.

For local development, the DefaultAzureCredential used the access token from Azure CLI, which can be created by running the az login command to authenticate to Azure.

Tip

To authenticate with a connection string use the NewClientFromConnectionString function.

Send messages to a queue

In the main.go file, create a new function named SendMessage and add the following code:

func SendMessage(message string, client *azservicebus.Client) {
	sender, err := client.NewSender("myqueue", nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer sender.Close(context.TODO())

	sbMessage := &azservicebus.Message{
		Body: []byte(message),
	}
	err = sender.SendMessage(context.TODO(), sbMessage, nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
}

SendMessage takes two parameters: a message string and a azservicebus.Client object. It then creates a new azservicebus.Sender object and sends the message to the queue. To send bulk messages, add the SendMessageBatch function to your main.go file.

func SendMessageBatch(messages []string, client *azservicebus.Client) {
	sender, err := client.NewSender("myqueue", nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer sender.Close(context.TODO())

	batch, err := sender.NewMessageBatch(context.TODO(), nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	for _, message := range messages {
		if err := batch.AddMessage(&azservicebus.Message{Body: []byte(message)}, nil); err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}
	if err := sender.SendMessageBatch(context.TODO(), batch, nil); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
}

SendMessageBatch takes two parameters: a slice of messages and a azservicebus.Client object. It then creates a new azservicebus.Sender object and sends the messages to the queue.

Receive messages from a queue

After you've sent messages to the queue, you can receive them with the azservicebus.Receiver type. To receive messages from a queue, add the GetMessage function to your main.go file.

func GetMessage(count int, client *azservicebus.Client) {
	receiver, err := client.NewReceiverForQueue("myqueue", nil) //Change myqueue to env var
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer receiver.Close(context.TODO())

	messages, err := receiver.ReceiveMessages(context.TODO(), count, nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	for _, message := range messages {
		body := message.Body
		fmt.Printf("%s\n", string(body))

		err = receiver.CompleteMessage(context.TODO(), message, nil)
		if err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}
}

GetMessage takes an azservicebus.Client object and creates a new azservicebus.Receiver object. It then receives the messages from the queue. The Receiver.ReceiveMessages function takes two parameters: a context and the number of messages to receive. The Receiver.ReceiveMessages function returns a slice of azservicebus.ReceivedMessage objects.

Next, a for loop iterates through the messages and prints the message body. Then the CompleteMessage function is called to complete the message, removing it from the queue.

Messages that exceed length limits, are sent to an invalid queue, or aren't successfully processed can be sent to the dead letter queue. To send messages to the dead letter queue, add the SendDeadLetterMessage function to your main.go file.

func DeadLetterMessage(client *azservicebus.Client) {
	deadLetterOptions := &azservicebus.DeadLetterOptions{
		ErrorDescription: to.Ptr("exampleErrorDescription"),
		Reason:           to.Ptr("exampleReason"),
	}

	receiver, err := client.NewReceiverForQueue("myqueue", nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer receiver.Close(context.TODO())

	messages, err := receiver.ReceiveMessages(context.TODO(), 1, nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	if len(messages) == 1 {
		err := receiver.DeadLetterMessage(context.TODO(), messages[0], deadLetterOptions)
		if err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}
}

DeadLetterMessage takes an azservicebus.Client object and a azservicebus.ReceivedMessage object. It then sends the message to the dead letter queue. The function takes two parameters: a context and a azservicebus.DeadLetterOptions object. The Receiver.DeadLetterMessage function returns an error if the message fails to be sent to the dead letter queue.

To receive messages from the dead letter queue, add the ReceiveDeadLetterMessage function to your main.go file.

func GetDeadLetterMessage(client *azservicebus.Client) {
	receiver, err := client.NewReceiverForQueue(
		"myqueue",
		&azservicebus.ReceiverOptions{
			SubQueue: azservicebus.SubQueueDeadLetter,
		},
	)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer receiver.Close(context.TODO())

	messages, err := receiver.ReceiveMessages(context.TODO(), 1, nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	for _, message := range messages {
		fmt.Printf("DeadLetter Reason: %s\nDeadLetter Description: %s\n", *message.DeadLetterReason, *message.DeadLetterErrorDescription) //change to struct an unmarshal into it
		err := receiver.CompleteMessage(context.TODO(), message, nil)
		if err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}
}

GetDeadLetterMessage takes a azservicebus.Client object and creates a new azservicebus.Receiver object with options for the dead letter queue. It then receives the messages from the dead letter queue. The function then receives one message from the dead letter queue. Then it prints the dead letter reason and description for that message.

Sample code

package main

import (
	"context"
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"os"

	"github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/azcore/to"
	"github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/azidentity"
	"github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/messaging/azservicebus"
)

func GetClient() *azservicebus.Client {
	namespace, ok := os.LookupEnv("AZURE_SERVICEBUS_HOSTNAME") //ex: myservicebus.servicebus.chinacloudapi.cn
	if !ok {
		panic("AZURE_SERVICEBUS_HOSTNAME environment variable not found")
	}

	cred, err := azidentity.NewDefaultAzureCredential(nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	client, err := azservicebus.NewClient(namespace, cred, nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	return client
}

func SendMessage(message string, client *azservicebus.Client) {
	sender, err := client.NewSender("myqueue", nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer sender.Close(context.TODO())

	sbMessage := &azservicebus.Message{
		Body: []byte(message),
	}
	err = sender.SendMessage(context.TODO(), sbMessage, nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
}

func SendMessageBatch(messages []string, client *azservicebus.Client) {
	sender, err := client.NewSender("myqueue", nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer sender.Close(context.TODO())

	batch, err := sender.NewMessageBatch(context.TODO(), nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	for _, message := range messages {
		err := batch.AddMessage(&azservicebus.Message{Body: []byte(message)}, nil)
		if errors.Is(err, azservicebus.ErrMessageTooLarge) {
			fmt.Printf("Message batch is full. We should send it and create a new one.\n")
		}
	}

	if err := sender.SendMessageBatch(context.TODO(), batch, nil); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
}

func GetMessage(count int, client *azservicebus.Client) {
	receiver, err := client.NewReceiverForQueue("myqueue", nil) 
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer receiver.Close(context.TODO())

	messages, err := receiver.ReceiveMessages(context.TODO(), count, nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	for _, message := range messages {
		body := message.Body
		fmt.Printf("%s\n", string(body))

		err = receiver.CompleteMessage(context.TODO(), message, nil)
		if err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}
}

func DeadLetterMessage(client *azservicebus.Client) {
	deadLetterOptions := &azservicebus.DeadLetterOptions{
		ErrorDescription: to.Ptr("exampleErrorDescription"),
		Reason:           to.Ptr("exampleReason"),
	}

	receiver, err := client.NewReceiverForQueue("myqueue", nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer receiver.Close(context.TODO())

	messages, err := receiver.ReceiveMessages(context.TODO(), 1, nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	if len(messages) == 1 {
		err := receiver.DeadLetterMessage(context.TODO(), messages[0], deadLetterOptions)
		if err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}
}

func GetDeadLetterMessage(client *azservicebus.Client) {
	receiver, err := client.NewReceiverForQueue(
		"myqueue",
		&azservicebus.ReceiverOptions{
			SubQueue: azservicebus.SubQueueDeadLetter,
		},
	)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer receiver.Close(context.TODO())

	messages, err := receiver.ReceiveMessages(context.TODO(), 1, nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	for _, message := range messages {
		fmt.Printf("DeadLetter Reason: %s\nDeadLetter Description: %s\n", *message.DeadLetterReason, *message.DeadLetterErrorDescription) 
		err := receiver.CompleteMessage(context.TODO(), message, nil)
		if err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}
}

func main() {
	client := GetClient()

	fmt.Println("send a single message...")
	SendMessage("firstMessage", client)

	fmt.Println("send two messages as a batch...")
	messages := [2]string{"secondMessage", "thirdMessage"}
	SendMessageBatch(messages[:], client)

	fmt.Println("\nget all three messages:")
	GetMessage(3, client)

	fmt.Println("\nsend a message to the Dead Letter Queue:")
	SendMessage("Send message to Dead Letter", client)
	DeadLetterMessage(client)
	GetDeadLetterMessage(client)
}

Run the code

Before you run the code, create an environment variable named AZURE_SERVICEBUS_HOSTNAME. Set the environment variable's value to the Service Bus namespace.

Bash
PowerShell

export AZURE_SERVICEBUS_HOSTNAME=<YourServiceBusHostName>

$env:AZURE_SERVICEBUS_HOSTNAME=<YourServiceBusHostName>

Next, run the following go run command to run the app:

go run main.go

Next steps

For more information, check out the following links: