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Header Exchange#

The Header Exchange is the most complex and flexible way to route messages in RabbitMQ. This exchange type sends messages to queues according by matching the queue binding arguments with message headers.

At the same time, if the queue listens to several consumers, messages will also be distributed among them (default scaling mechanism).

Example#

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from faststream import FastStream, Logger
from faststream.rabbit import ExchangeType, RabbitBroker, RabbitExchange, RabbitQueue

broker = RabbitBroker()
app = FastStream(broker)

exch = RabbitExchange("exchange", auto_delete=True, type=ExchangeType.HEADERS)

queue_1 = RabbitQueue(
    "test-queue-1",
    auto_delete=True,
    bind_arguments={"key": 1},
)
queue_2 = RabbitQueue(
    "test-queue-2",
    auto_delete=True,
    bind_arguments={"key": 2, "key2": 2, "x-match": "any"},
)
queue_3 = RabbitQueue(
    "test-queue-3",
    auto_delete=True,
    bind_arguments={"key": 2, "key2": 2, "x-match": "all"},
)


@broker.subscriber(queue_1, exch)
async def base_handler1(logger: Logger):
    logger.info("base_handler1")


@broker.subscriber(queue_1, exch)  # another service
async def base_handler2(logger: Logger):
    logger.info("base_handler2")


@broker.subscriber(queue_2, exch)
async def base_handler3(logger: Logger):
    logger.info("base_handler3")


@broker.subscriber(queue_3, exch)
async def base_handler4(logger: Logger):
    logger.info("base_handler4")


@app.after_startup
async def send_messages():
    await broker.publish(exchange=exch, headers={"key": 1})  # handlers: 1
    await broker.publish(exchange=exch, headers={"key": 1})  # handlers: 2
    await broker.publish(exchange=exch, headers={"key": 1})  # handlers: 1
    await broker.publish(exchange=exch, headers={"key": 2})  # handlers: 3
    await broker.publish(exchange=exch, headers={"key2": 2})  # handlers: 3
    await broker.publish(
        exchange=exch, headers={"key": 2, "key2": 2.0}
    )  # handlers: 3, 4

Consumer Announcement#

First, we announce our Header exchange and several queues that will listen to it:

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exch = RabbitExchange("exchange", auto_delete=True, type=ExchangeType.HEADERS)

queue_1 = RabbitQueue(
    "test-queue-1",
    auto_delete=True,
    bind_arguments={"key": 1},
)
queue_2 = RabbitQueue(
    "test-queue-2",
    auto_delete=True,
    bind_arguments={"key": 2, "key2": 2, "x-match": "any"},
)
queue_3 = RabbitQueue(
    "test-queue-3",
    auto_delete=True,
    bind_arguments={"key": 2, "key2": 2, "x-match": "all"},
)

The x-match argument indicates whether the arguments should match the message headers in whole or in part.

Then we signed up several consumers using the advertised queues to the exchange we created:

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@broker.subscriber(queue_1, exch)
async def base_handler1(logger: Logger):
    logger.info("base_handler1")


@broker.subscriber(queue_1, exch)  # another service
async def base_handler2(logger: Logger):
    logger.info("base_handler2")


@broker.subscriber(queue_2, exch)
async def base_handler3(logger: Logger):
    logger.info("base_handler3")


@broker.subscriber(queue_3, exch)
async def base_handler4(logger: Logger):
    logger.info("base_handler4")

Note

handler1 and handler2 are subscribed to the same exchange using the same queue: within a single service, this does not make sense, since messages will come to these handlers in turn. Here we emulate the work of several consumers and load balancing between them.

Message Distribution#

Now the distribution of messages between these consumers will look like this:

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await broker.publish(exchange=exch, headers={"key": 1})  # handlers: 1

Message 1 will be sent to handler1 because it listens to a queue whose "key" header matches the "key" header of the message.

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await broker.publish(exchange=exch, headers={"key": 1})  # handlers: 2

Message 2 will be sent to handler2 because it listens to exchange using the same queue, but handler1 is busy.

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await broker.publish(exchange=exch, headers={"key": 1})  # handlers: 1

Message 3 will be sent to handler1 again because it is currently free.

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await broker.publish(exchange=exch, headers={"key": 2})  # handlers: 3

Message 4 will be sent to handler3 because it listens to a queue whose "key" header coincided with the "key" header of the message.

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await broker.publish(exchange=exch, headers={"key2": 2})  # handlers: 3

Message 5 will be sent to handler3 because it listens to a queue whose header "key2" coincided with the header "key2" of the message.

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await broker.publish(
    exchange=exch, headers={"key": 2, "key2": 2.0}
)  # handlers: 3, 4

Message 6 will be sent to handler3 and handler4 because the message headers completely match the queue keys.

Note

When sending messages to Header exchange, it makes no sense to specify the arguments queue or routing_key, because they will be ignored

Warning

For incredibly complex routes, you can use the option to bind an exchange to another exchange. In this case, all the same rules apply as for queues subscribed to exchange. The only difference is that the signed exchange can further distribute messages according to its own rules.

So, for example, you can combine Topic and Header exchange types.