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How to use ActiveMQ in C#

January 23, 2021

Two versions of ActiveMQ

ActiveMQ 5 “Classic”
ActiveMQ Artemis

Pre-Installation

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is needed

Download

download ActiveMq from https://activemq.apache.org/ Download link https://activemq.apache.org/components/classic/download/

Extract the files into a directory

Start

Run activemq start command to start the server C:\....\apache-activemq-5.16.0\bin> activemq start

ActiveMQ will start a webserver which is displayed on the screen

open the below link in browser, you will be asked to enter password, use the below. http://127.0.0.1:8161/admin/

username: admin
password: admin

Create a queue

Click Queues link
Type a queue name
Click create

Queue created

Create a C# WPF project for producer

Tools —> Nuget package —> Manage nuget packge for solution
search for activemq
select Apache NMS ActiveMQ
install the package.

Default port for ActiveMQ

61616 is the default port for ActiveMQ, so we have to connect localhost:61616

Create producer and send message in C

Create below XAML in the window

<Grid>
        <StackPanel Margin="10">
            <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                <Button Content="Send message"
                        Name="sendButton"
                        Click="SendButton_Click" />
            </StackPanel>
        </StackPanel>
    </Grid>

Type below code in code behind. I wanted to keep the code simple, so didn’t use MVVM concept, just simply using code behind.

using Apache.NMS;
using Apache.NMS.ActiveMQ;
using System;
using System.Windows;

namespace ActiveMQPOC
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        private IConnection connection;
        private ISession session;
        private IMessageProducer producer;

        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Init()
        {
            Uri connecturi = new Uri("activemq:tcp://localhost:61616");
            ConnectionFactory connectionFactory = new ConnectionFactory(connecturi);

            // Create a Connection
            this.connection = connectionFactory.CreateConnection();
            this.connection.Start();

            // Create a Session
            this.session = connection.CreateSession(AcknowledgementMode.AutoAcknowledge);

            // Get the destination (Topic or Queue)
            IDestination destination = this.session.GetQueue("testqueue");

            // Create a MessageProducer from the Session to the Topic or Queue
            this.producer = this.session.CreateProducer(destination);
            this.producer.DeliveryMode = MsgDeliveryMode.NonPersistent;
        }

        private void SendButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            // Create a messages
            String text = "Test msg : " + DateTime.Now;
            ITextMessage message = session.CreateTextMessage(text);

            // Tell the producer to send the message
            this.producer.Send(message);
        }

        private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            this.Init();
        }

        private void Window_Closing(object sender, System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs e)
        {
            // Clean up
            session.Close();
            connection.Close();
        }
    }
}

Running the producer

Run our producer program and click send message
Go to ActiveMQ admin page and navigate to Queues page
Refresh the page to see the updated value.
we can see the number of pending messages.

Create a C# WPF project for consumer

create one more C# project in the same solution. Add the same nuget package in this project also.

Consumer UI

simple add a list box in xaml

    <Grid>
        <ListBox Name="lstBox">
        </ListBox>
    </Grid>

Consumer C# code

add below code in the windows’s code behind

using Apache.NMS;
using Apache.NMS.ActiveMQ;
using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows;

namespace ActiveMQConsumer
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        private IConnection connection;
        private ISession session;
        private IMessageConsumer consumer;

        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Init()
        {
            Uri connecturi = new Uri("activemq:tcp://localhost:61616");
            ConnectionFactory connectionFactory = new ConnectionFactory(connecturi);

            // Create a Connection
            this.connection = connectionFactory.CreateConnection();
            this.connection.Start();

            // Create a Session
            this.session = connection.CreateSession(AcknowledgementMode.AutoAcknowledge);

            // Get the destination (Topic or Queue)
            IDestination destination = this.session.GetQueue("testqueue");

            // Create a MessageProducer from the Session to the Topic or Queue
            this.consumer = this.session.CreateConsumer(destination);
            this.consumer.Listener += Consumer_Listener;
        }

        private void Consumer_Listener(IMessage message)
        {
            var txtMessage = message as ITextMessage;
            lstBox.Dispatcher.Invoke(() => {
                lstBox.Items.Add(txtMessage.Text);
            });
        }

        private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            this.Init();
        }

        private void Window_Closing(object sender, System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs e)
        {
            // Clean up
            consumer.Close();
            session.Close();
            connection.Close();
        }
    }
}

Run Producer and Consumer program at the same time

in visual studio, right click on a project —> Debug —> Start a new instance. start producer and consumer project.

Running screen

by clicking the send message at producer program, we can see the messages reached at consumer’s side. At the same time we can refresh the admin webpage to see the status.

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