SdkPerf, but Pretty for JSON and XML!

Training, Tips and Tricks
1

Hi everyone,

Just thought I’d make a post here to let people know I made a little Solace utility, and it’s now public on GitHub:

Often times when developing/debugging a Solace app, I just want to dump / echo messages that are going over the broker so I can see them. For this, SdkPerf with -md “message dump” flag is exceptionally useful. But when it prints a message, it shows the payload as both hex and ASCII values formatted into columns;


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Start Message ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Destination:                            Topic 'pq-demo/stats/sub/pq-demo/sub/sub-18490'
Priority:                               4
Class Of Service:                       COS_1
DeliveryMode:                           DIRECT
Binary Attachment:                      len=126
1d 00 7e 7b 22 72 65 64    22 3a 30 2c 22 6f 6f 73    ..~{"red":0,"oos
22 3a 30 2c 22 71 75 65    75 65 4e 61 6d 65 22 3a    ":0,"queueName":
22 70 71 31 32 22 2c 22    73 6c 6f 77 22 3a 30 2c    "pq12","slow":0,
22 72 61 74 65 22 3a 30    2c 22 6e 65 77 4b 73 22    "rate":0,"newKs"
3a 30 2c 22 64 75 70 65    73 22 3a 30 2c 22 6b 65    :0,"dupes":0,"ke
79 73 22 3a 34 2c 22 61    63 6b 64 22 3a 30 2c 22    ys":4,"ackd":0,"
67 61 70 73 22 3a 30 2c    22 66 6c 6f 77 22 3a 22    gaps":0,"flow":"
46 4c 4f 57 5f 41 43 54    49 56 45 22 7d 00          FLOW_ACTIVE"}.

This is great for binary messages or messages of any type, but often I’m working with either JSON or XML payloads. So I took one of our basic Solace JCSMP samples and added the ability to pretty-print payloads if it recognizes them as either JSON or XML:


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Start Message ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Destination:                            Topic 'pq-demo/stats/sub/pq-demo/sub/sub-18455'
Priority:                               4
Class Of Service:                       USER_COS_1
DeliveryMode:                           DIRECT
Message Id:                             6
Binary Attachment:                      len=126
JSON TextMessage: {
    "red": 0,
    "oos": 0,
    "queueName": "pq12",
    "slow": 0,
    "rate": 1,
    "newKs": 0,
    "dupes": 0,
    "keys": 4,
    "ackd": 0,
    "gaps": 0,
    "flow": "FLOW_ACTIVE"
}
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ End Message ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It works with either Direct topic subscriptions (comma separated list if more than one) (also remember to use " quotes if using > wildcard), or it can bind/consume from a single queue, as well as browse a queue to ensure messages aren’t consumed.

Give it a try! Let me know if you have any issues. ??

https://github.com/SolaceLabs/pretty-dump

Aaron

2

Bump to this thread! Have updated my Pretty Dump utility to work with:

  • JSON objects, arrays, and XML
  • Non-UTF-8 chars
  • Direct topic subscriptions (multiple if desired), consuming from a queue, or browsing a queue

Give it a try and let me know if you like it: https://github.com/SolaceLabs/pretty-dump

3

Wow, it’s been more than a year since I updated this thread! :hourglass_not_done:

PrettyDump v1.1 has just been released ? and includes MANY updates/features since this previous post. This tool is invaluable for any developer working with Solace, or any admin looking to browse their queues effectively. A quick summary:

  • Listen/dump any message going across your Solace broker (Direct subs, queue consume, browse)
  • ANSI colour support (6 different colour schemes)
  • JSON, XML, Protobuf, and binary pretty-print formatting
  • Multiple “indent” payload display options (e.g. one-line mode, hide payload, topic only, etc.)
  • Temporary queue consumer, with topic subscriptions (can use ! NOT subscriptions as well)
  • Broker-side Selector support for queues, and client-side payload content-filtering for easy searching of messages
  • count parameter that allows either: stopping after n messages, or gathering/storing last n messages and dumping them when program terminates
  • Timestamp of received messages
  • Supports automatic payload ungzipping and deflating
  • Support for SMF WebSockets
  • And lots, lots more

Available as a Java app (JRE 8 required) or a self-contained Docker container. Check out the README for more information: https://github.com/SolaceLabs/solace-pretty-dump

Quite a few customers who have complained about performance issues with JMSToolBox (large payloads, deep queues, etc.) have been very satisfied with the capabilities of PrettyDump. So give it a try! ??