Embedding Apache ActiveMQ Artemis

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis is designed as set of simple Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs). This means Apache ActiveMQ Artemis can be instantiated and run in any dependency injection framework such as Spring or Google Guice. It also means that if you have an application that could use messaging functionality internally, then it can directly instantiate Apache ActiveMQ Artemis clients and servers in its own application code to perform that functionality. We call this embedding Apache ActiveMQ Artemis.

Examples of applications that might want to do this include any application that needs very high performance, transactional, persistent messaging but doesn't want the hassle of writing it all from scratch.

Embedding Apache ActiveMQ Artemis can be done in very few easy steps. Instantiate the configuration object, instantiate the server, start it, and you have a Apache ActiveMQ Artemis running in your virtual machine. It's as simple and easy as that.

Simple Config File Embedding

The simplest way to embed Apache ActiveMQ Artemis is to use the embedded wrapper classes and configure Apache ActiveMQ Artemis through its configuration files. There are two different helper classes for this depending on whether your using the Apache ActiveMQ Artemis Core API or JMS.

Embedding an Apache ActiveMQ Artemis Broker

For instantiating a core Apache ActiveMQ Artemis Server, the steps are pretty simple. The example requires that you have defined a configuration file broker.xml in your classpath:

import org.apache.activemq.artemis.core.server.embedded.EmbeddedActiveMQ;

...

EmbeddedActiveMQ embedded = new EmbeddedActiveMQ();

embedded.start();

ServerLocator serverLocator =  ActiveMQClient.createServerLocator("vm://0");

ClientSessionFactory factory =  serverLocator.createSessionFactory();

ClientSession session = factory.createSession();

session.createQueue("example", "example", true);

ClientProducer producer = session.createProducer("example");

ClientMessage message = session.createMessage(true);

message.getBody().writeString("Hello");

producer.send(message);

session.start();

ClientConsumer consumer = session.createConsumer("example");

ClientMessage msgReceived = consumer.receive();

System.out.println("message = " + msgReceived.getBody().readString());

session.close();

The EmbeddedActiveMQ class has a few additional setter methods that allow you to specify a different config file name as well as other properties. See the javadocs for this class for more details.

POJO instantiation - Embedding Programmatically

You can follow this step-by-step guide to programmatically embed the core, non-JMS Apache ActiveMQ Artemis Server instance:

Create the configuration object - this contains configuration information for an Apache ActiveMQ Artemis instance. The setter methods of this class allow you to programmatically set configuration options as describe in the Server Configuration section.

The acceptors are configured through Configuration. Just add the acceptor URL the same way you would through the main configuration file.

import org.apache.activemq.artemis.core.config.Configuration;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.core.config.impl.ConfigurationImpl;

...

Configuration config = new ConfigurationImpl();

config.addAcceptorConfiguration("in-vm", "vm://0");
config.addAcceptorConfiguration("tcp", "tcp://127.0.0.1:61616");

You need to instantiate an instance of org.apache.activemq.artemis.api.core.server.embedded.EmbeddedActiveMQ and add the configuration object to it.

import org.apache.activemq.artemis.api.core.server.ActiveMQ;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.core.server.embedded.EmbeddedActiveMQ;

...

EmbeddedActiveMQ server = new EmbeddedActiveMQ();
server.setConfiguration(config);

server.start();

You also have the option of instantiating ActiveMQServerImpl directly:

ActiveMQServer server = new ActiveMQServerImpl(config);
server.start();

Dependency Frameworks

You may also choose to use a dependency injection framework such as The Spring Framework. See Spring Integration for more details on Spring and Apache ActiveMQ Artemis.

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis standalone uses Airline to bootstrap.