Azure Storage Queue client library for JavaScript - version 12.24.0

Azure Storage Queue provides cloud messaging between application components. In designing applications for scale, application components are often decoupled, so that they can scale independently. Queue storage delivers asynchronous messaging for communication between application components, whether they are running in the cloud, on the desktop, on an on-premises server, or on a mobile device. Queue storage also supports managing asynchronous tasks and building process work flows.

This project provides a client library in JavaScript that makes it easy to consume the Azure Storage Queue service.

Use the client libraries in this package to:

  • Get/Set Queue Service Properties
  • Create/List/Delete Queues
  • Send/Receive/Peek/Clear/Update/Delete Queue Messages

Key links:

Getting started

Currently supported environments

See our support policy for more details.

Prerequisites

Install the package

The preferred way to install the Azure Storage Queue client library for JavaScript is to use the npm package manager. Type the following into a terminal window:

npm install @azure/storage-queue

Authenticate the client

Azure Storage supports several ways to authenticate. In order to interact with the Azure Queue Storage service you'll need to create an instance of a Storage client - QueueServiceClient or QueueClient for example. See samples for creating the QueueServiceClient to learn more about authentication.

Azure Active Directory

The Azure Queue Storage service supports the use of Azure Active Directory to authenticate requests to its APIs. The @azure/identity package provides a variety of credential types that your application can use to do this. Please see the README for @azure/identity for more details and samples to get you started.

Compatibility

This library is compatible with Node.js and browsers, and validated against LTS Node.js versions (>=8.16.0) and latest versions of Chrome, Firefox and Edge.

Web Workers

This library requires certain DOM objects to be globally available when used in the browser, which web workers do not make available by default. You will need to polyfill these to make this library work in web workers.

For more information please refer to our documentation for using Azure SDK for JS in Web Workers

This library depends on following DOM APIs which need external polyfills loaded when used in web workers:

Differences between Node.js and browsers

There are differences between Node.js and browsers runtime. When getting started with this library, pay attention to APIs or classes marked with "ONLY AVAILABLE IN NODE.JS RUNTIME" or "ONLY AVAILABLE IN BROWSERS".

Following features, interfaces, classes or functions are only available in Node.js
  • Shared Key Authorization based on account name and account key
    • StorageSharedKeyCredential
  • Shared Access Signature(SAS) generation
    • generateAccountSASQueryParameters()
    • generateQueueSASQueryParameters()

JavaScript Bundle

To use this client library in the browser, first you need to use a bundler. For details on how to do this, please refer to our bundling documentation.

CORS

You need to set up Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) rules for your storage account if you need to develop for browsers. Go to Azure portal and Azure Storage Explorer, find your storage account, create new CORS rules for blob/queue/file/table service(s).

For example, you can create following CORS settings for debugging. But please customize the settings carefully according to your requirements in production environment.

  • Allowed origins: *
  • Allowed verbs: DELETE,GET,HEAD,MERGE,POST,OPTIONS,PUT
  • Allowed headers: *
  • Exposed headers: *
  • Maximum age (seconds): 86400

Key concepts

A Queue is a data store within an Azure Storage Queue service account for sending/receiving messages between connected clients.

Key data types in our library related to these services are:

  • A QueueServiceClient represents a connection (via a URL) to a given storage account in the Azure Storage Queue service and provides APIs for manipulating its queues. It is authenticated to the service and can be used to create QueueClient objects, as well as create, delete, list queues from the service.
  • A QueueClient represents a single queue in the storage account. It can be used to manipulate the queue's messages, for example to send, receive, and peek messages in the queue.

Examples

Import the package

To use the clients, import the package into your file:

const AzureStorageQueue = require("@azure/storage-queue");

Alternatively, selectively import only the types you need:

const { QueueServiceClient, StorageSharedKeyCredential } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

Create the queue service client

The QueueServiceClient requires an URL to the queue service and an access credential. It also optionally accepts some settings in the options parameter.

with DefaultAzureCredential from @azure/identity package

Recommended way to instantiate a QueueServiceClient

Setup : Reference - Authorize access to blobs and queues with Azure Active Directory from a client application - /azure/storage/common/storage-auth-aad-app

  • Register a new AAD application and give permissions to access Azure Storage on behalf of the signed-in user

    • Register a new application in the Azure Active Directory(in the azure-portal) - /azure/active-directory/develop/quickstart-register-app
    • In the API permissions section, select Add a permission and choose Microsoft APIs.
    • Pick Azure Storage and select the checkbox next to user_impersonation and then click Add permissions. This would allow the application to access Azure Storage on behalf of the signed-in user.
  • Grant access to Azure Storage Queue data with RBAC in the Azure Portal

    • RBAC roles for blobs and queues - /azure/storage/common/storage-auth-aad-rbac-portal.
    • In the azure portal, go to your storage-account and assign Storage Queue Data Contributor role to the registered AAD application from Access control (IAM) tab (in the left-side-navbar of your storage account in the azure-portal).
  • Environment setup for the sample

    • From the overview page of your AAD Application, note down the CLIENT ID and TENANT ID. In the "Certificates & Secrets" tab, create a secret and note that down.
    • Make sure you have AZURE_TENANT_ID, AZURE_CLIENT_ID, AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET as environment variables to successfully execute the sample (can leverage process.env).
const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");
const { QueueServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

const account = "<account>";
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();

const queueServiceClient = new QueueServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.queue.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

[Note - Above steps are only for Node.js]

using connection string

Alternatively, you can instantiate a QueueServiceClient using the fromConnectionString() static method with the full connection string as the argument. (The connection string can be obtained from the azure portal.) [ONLY AVAILABLE IN NODE.JS RUNTIME]

const { QueueServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

const connStr = "<connection string>";

const queueServiceClient = QueueServiceClient.fromConnectionString(connStr);

with StorageSharedKeyCredential

Alternatively, you instantiate a QueueServiceClient with a StorageSharedKeyCredential by passing account-name and account-key as arguments. (The account-name and account-key can be obtained from the azure portal.) [ONLY AVAILABLE IN NODE.JS RUNTIME]

const { QueueServiceClient, StorageSharedKeyCredential } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

// Enter your storage account name and shared key
const account = "<account>";
const accountKey = "<accountkey>";

// Use StorageSharedKeyCredential with storage account and account key
// StorageSharedKeyCredential is only available in Node.js runtime, not in browsers
const sharedKeyCredential = new StorageSharedKeyCredential(account, accountKey);

const queueServiceClient = new QueueServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.queue.core.windows.net`,
  sharedKeyCredential,
  {
    retryOptions: { maxTries: 4 }, // Retry options
    telemetry: { value: "BasicSample/V11.0.0" } // Customized telemetry string
  }
);

with SAS Token

Also, You can instantiate a QueueServiceClient with a shared access signatures (SAS). You can get the SAS token from the Azure Portal or generate one using generateAccountSASQueryParameters().

const { QueueServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-queue");
const account = "<account name>";
const sas = "<service Shared Access Signature Token>";
const queueServiceClient = new QueueServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.queue.core.windows.net${sas}`
);

List queues in this account

Use QueueServiceClient.listQueues() function to iterate the queues, with the new for-await-of syntax:

const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");
const { QueueServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

const account = "<account>";
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();

const queueServiceClient = new QueueServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.queue.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

async function main() {
  const iter1 = queueServiceClient.listQueues();
  let i = 1;
  for await (const item of iter1) {
    console.log(`Queue${i}: ${item.name}`);
    i++;
  }
}

main();

Alternatively without for-await-of:

const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");
const { QueueServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

const account = "<account>";
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();

const queueServiceClient = new QueueServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.queue.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

async function main() {
  const iter2 = queueServiceClient.listQueues();
  let i = 1;
  let item = await iter2.next();
  while (!item.done) {
    console.log(`Queue ${i++}: ${item.value.name}`);
    item = await iter2.next();
  }
}

main();

For a complete sample on iterating queues please see samples/v12/typescript/listQueues.ts.

Create a new queue

Use QueueServiceClient.getQueueClient() function to create a new queue.

const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");
const { QueueServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

const account = "<account>";
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();

const queueServiceClient = new QueueServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.queue.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

const queueName = "<valid queue name>";

async function main() {
  const queueClient = queueServiceClient.getQueueClient(queueName);
  const createQueueResponse = await queueClient.create();
  console.log(
    `Created queue ${queueName} successfully, service assigned request Id: ${createQueueResponse.requestId}`
  );
}

main();

Send a message to the queue

Use sendMessage() to add a message to the queue:

const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");
const { QueueServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

const account = "<account>";
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();

const queueServiceClient = new QueueServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.queue.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

const queueName = "<valid queue name>";

async function main() {
  const queueClient = queueServiceClient.getQueueClient(queueName);
  // Send a message into the queue using the sendMessage method.
  const sendMessageResponse = await queueClient.sendMessage("Hello World!");
  console.log(
    `Sent message successfully, service assigned message Id: ${sendMessageResponse.messageId}, service assigned request Id: ${sendMessageResponse.requestId}`
  );
}

main();

Peek a message

QueueClient.peekMessages() allows looking at one or more messages in front of the queue. This call doesn't prevent other code from accessing peeked messages.

const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");
const { QueueServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

const account = "<account>";
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();

const queueServiceClient = new QueueServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.queue.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

const queueName = "<valid queue name>";

async function main() {
  const queueClient = queueServiceClient.getQueueClient(queueName);
  const peekMessagesResponse = await queueClient.peekMessages();
  console.log(`The peeked message is: ${peekMessagesResponse.peekedMessageItems[0].messageText}`);
}

main();

Processing a message

Messages are processed in two steps.

  • First call queueClient.receiveMessages(). This makes the messages invisible to other code reading messages from this queue for a default period of 30 seconds.
  • When processing of a message is done, call queueClient.deleteMessage() with the message's popReceipt.

If your code fails to process a message due to hardware or software failure, this two-step process ensures that another instance of your code can get the same message and try again.

const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");
const { QueueServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

const account = "<account>";
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();

const queueServiceClient = new QueueServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.queue.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

const queueName = "<valid queue name>";

async function main() {
  const queueClient = queueServiceClient.getQueueClient(queueName);
  const response = await queueClient.receiveMessages();
  if (response.receivedMessageItems.length === 1) {
    const receivedMessageItem = response.receivedMessageItems[0];
    console.log(`Processing & deleting message with content: ${receivedMessageItem.messageText}`);
    const deleteMessageResponse = await queueClient.deleteMessage(
      receivedMessageItem.messageId,
      receivedMessageItem.popReceipt
    );
    console.log(
      `Delete message successfully, service assigned request Id: ${deleteMessageResponse.requestId}`
    );
  }
}

main();

Delete a queue

const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");
const { QueueServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-queue");

const account = "<account>";
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();

const queueServiceClient = new QueueServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.queue.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

const queueName = "<valid queue name>";

async function main() {
  const queueClient = queueServiceClient.getQueueClient(queueName);
  const deleteQueueResponse = await queueClient.delete();
  console.log(
    `Deleted queue successfully, service assigned request Id: ${deleteQueueResponse.requestId}`
  );
}

main();

A complete example of simple QueueServiceClient scenarios is at samples/v12/typescript/src/queueClient.ts.

Troubleshooting

Enabling logging may help uncover useful information about failures. In order to see a log of HTTP requests and responses, set the AZURE_LOG_LEVEL environment variable to info. Alternatively, logging can be enabled at runtime by calling setLogLevel in the @azure/logger:

const { setLogLevel } = require("@azure/logger");

setLogLevel("info");

Next steps

More code samples

Contributing

If you'd like to contribute to this library, please read the contributing guide to learn more about how to build and test the code.

Also refer to Storage specific guide for additional information on setting up the test environment for storage libraries.

Impressions