qified

Task and Message Queues with Multiple Providers

Features

• Simple Message Queue for Processing Messages
• Simple Message Format Message
• Easily Send a Message publish()
• Easily Subscribe to a message Queue subscribe()
• Simple Task Format Task
• Easily Send a Task enqueue()
• Easily Subscribe to a Task Queue dequeue()
• Ack / Reject / Extend in the handler via TaskContext
• Async/Await Built In By Default
• Written in Typescript, Nodejs Last Two Versions, ESM and CJS
• Events and Hooks for all major actions via Hookified
• Provider Fail Over Support

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Quick Start
• Constructor
• Properties
  • • messageProviders: MessageProvider[]
    • taskProviders: TaskProvider[]
• Methods
  • subscribe
  • publish
  • unsubscribeMessage
  • enqueue
  • dequeue
  • unsubscribeTask
  • disconnect
• Events
• Available Events
• Listening to Events
  • • Error Handling with Events
• Hooks
  • Available Hooks
  • Using Hooks
  • Modifying Data with Before Hooks
  • Modifying Topics with Before Hooks
  • Multiple Hooks
  • Hooks vs Events
• Providers
• Development and Testing
• License

Installation

pnpm add qified

Quick Start

import { Qified, MemoryMessageProvider } from 'qified';

// Create a new Qified instance with a memory provider
const qified = new Qified({
  messageProviders: new MemoryMessageProvider()
});

// Subscribe to a topic
await qified.subscribe('notifications', {
  id: 'notificationHandler',
  handler: async (message) => {
    console.log('Received:', message.data);
  }
});

// Publish a message
await qified.publish('notifications', {
  id: 'msg-1',
  data: { text: 'Hello, World!' }
});

// Clean up
await qified.disconnect();

Constructor

new Qified(options?: QifiedOptions)

Options:

• messageProviders?: MessageProvider | MessageProvider[] - a provider or Array of message providers to use
• taskProviders?: TaskProvider[] - Array of task providers to use

Example:

import { Qified, MemoryMessageProvider } from 'qified';

const qified = new Qified({
  messageProviders: new MemoryMessageProvider()
});

Properties

messageProviders: MessageProvider[]

Get or set the array of message providers. This property allows you to dynamically manage which message providers are active in your Qified instance.

Type: MessageProvider[]

Access: Read/Write

Description:

• Getter: Returns the current array of message providers being used
• Setter: Replaces all current message providers with a new array

Use Cases:

• Inspect which providers are currently configured
• Add or remove providers dynamically at runtime
• Replace all providers with a new set
• Migrate from one provider to another

Example:

import { Qified, MemoryMessageProvider } from 'qified';
import { NatsMessageProvider } from '@qified/nats';
import { RedisMessageProvider } from '@qified/redis';

const qified = new Qified({
  messageProviders: new MemoryMessageProvider()
});

// Get current providers
const providers = qified.messageProviders;
console.log(`Currently using ${providers.length} provider(s)`);

// Add another provider
qified.messageProviders = [
  new MemoryMessageProvider(),
  new NatsMessageProvider()
];

// Replace all providers
qified.messageProviders = [
  new RedisMessageProvider({ uri: 'redis://localhost:6379' })
];

// Access provider properties
qified.messageProviders.forEach(provider => {
  console.log('Provider ID:', provider.id);
});

Important Notes:

• Setting this property does not automatically disconnect existing providers
• You should call disconnect() on old providers before replacing them to clean up resources
• All message operations (subscribe, publish, unsubscribeMessage) will execute across all message providers in this array

taskProviders: TaskProvider[]

Get or set the array of task providers. Works the same way as messageProviders — getter returns the active providers, setter replaces them.

Type: TaskProvider[]

Access: Read/Write

Example:

import { Qified, MemoryTaskProvider } from 'qified';
import { RedisTaskProvider } from '@qified/redis';

const qified = new Qified({
  taskProviders: new MemoryTaskProvider()
});

// Replace with a Redis-backed task provider
qified.taskProviders = [
  new RedisTaskProvider({ uri: 'redis://localhost:6379' })
];

All task operations (enqueue, dequeue, unsubscribeTask) execute across every task provider in this array.

Methods

subscribe

Subscribe to a topic to receive messages. If multiple message providers are configured, this will subscribe on all of them.

Parameters:

• topic: string - The topic to subscribe to
• handler: TopicHandler - Object containing an optional id and a handler function

Example:

await qified.subscribe('user-events', {
  id: 'userEventHandler',
  handler: async (message) => {
    console.log('User event:', message.data);
  }
});

publish

Publish a message to a topic. If multiple message providers are configured, this will publish to all of them.

Parameters:

• topic: string - The topic to publish to
• message: Message - The message object to publish

Example:

await qified.publish('user-events', {
  id: 'evt-123',
  data: {
    userId: 'user-456',
    action: 'login',
    timestamp: Date.now()
  },
  headers: {
    'content-type': 'application/json'
  }
});

unsubscribeMessage

Unsubscribe a message handler from a topic. If an id is provided, only that handler is unsubscribed. Otherwise, all handlers for the topic are unsubscribed.

Parameters:

• topic: string - The topic to unsubscribe from
• id?: string - Optional handler ID. If not provided, all handlers are unsubscribed

Example:

// Unsubscribe a specific handler
await qified.unsubscribeMessage('user-events', 'userEventHandler');

// Unsubscribe all handlers for a topic
await qified.unsubscribeMessage('user-events');

enqueue

Enqueue a task to a queue. If multiple task providers are configured, this will enqueue on all of them and return the id assigned by each provider (in provider order).

Parameters:

• queue: string - The queue to enqueue to
• task: EnqueueTask - The task payload. id and timestamp are assigned by the provider

Returns: Promise - The task ids from each provider

Example:

const ids = await qified.enqueue('image-processing', {
  data: { imageUrl: 'https://example.com/img.png' },
  headers: { 'x-source': 'uploader' },
  maxRetries: 3,
  timeout: 30_000
});

console.log('Enqueued as', ids);

dequeue

Register a handler to process tasks from a queue. If multiple task providers are configured, this registers the handler on all of them. The handler receives the task and a TaskContext with ack(), reject(), and extend() methods.

Parameters:

• queue: string - The queue to dequeue from
• handler: TaskHandler - Object containing an optional id and a handler(task, context) function

Example:

await qified.dequeue('image-processing', {
  id: 'resizer',
  handler: async (task, context) => {
    try {
      await processImage(task.data.imageUrl);
      await context.ack();
    } catch (error) {
      // true = requeue for retry; false = send to dead-letter queue
      await context.reject(true);
    }
  }
});

unsubscribeTask

Unsubscribe a task handler from a queue. If an id is provided, only that handler is unsubscribed. Otherwise, all handlers for the queue are unsubscribed.

Parameters:

• queue: string - The queue to unsubscribe from
• id?: string - Optional handler ID. If not provided, all handlers are unsubscribed

Example:

// Unsubscribe a specific handler
await qified.unsubscribeTask('image-processing', 'resizer');

// Unsubscribe all handlers for a queue
await qified.unsubscribeTask('image-processing');

disconnect

Disconnect from all providers and clean up resources.

Example:

await qified.disconnect();

Events

Qified extends Hookified and emits events for all major operations. You can listen to these events to add custom logging, monitoring, or error handling.

Available Events

The following events are available via the QifiedEvents enum:

• QifiedEvents.publish - Emitted after a message is successfully published
• QifiedEvents.subscribe - Emitted after successfully subscribing to a topic
• QifiedEvents.unsubscribeMessage - Emitted after successfully unsubscribing a message handler from a topic
• QifiedEvents.enqueue - Emitted after a task is successfully enqueued
• QifiedEvents.dequeue - Emitted after successfully registering a task handler on a queue
• QifiedEvents.unsubscribeTask - Emitted after successfully unsubscribing a task handler from a queue
• QifiedEvents.disconnect - Emitted after successfully disconnecting from all providers
• QifiedEvents.error - Emitted when an error occurs during any operation
• QifiedEvents.info - Emitted for informational messages
• QifiedEvents.warn - Emitted for warning messages

Listening to Events

Use the on() method to listen to events:

import { Qified, MemoryMessageProvider, QifiedEvents } from 'qified';

const qified = new Qified({
  messageProviders: new MemoryMessageProvider()
});

// Listen for publish events
await qified.on(QifiedEvents.publish, async (data) => {
  console.log('Message published to topic:', data.topic);
  console.log('Message:', data.message);
});

// Listen for subscribe events
await qified.on(QifiedEvents.subscribe, async (data) => {
  console.log('Subscribed to topic:', data.topic);
  console.log('Handler ID:', data.handler.id);
});

// Listen for unsubscribeMessage events
await qified.on(QifiedEvents.unsubscribeMessage, async (data) => {
  console.log('Unsubscribed from topic:', data.topic);
  if (data.id) {
    console.log('Handler ID:', data.id);
  }
});

// Listen for enqueue events
await qified.on(QifiedEvents.enqueue, async (data) => {
  console.log('Task enqueued to queue:', data.queue);
  console.log('Assigned ids:', data.ids);
});

// Listen for dequeue events
await qified.on(QifiedEvents.dequeue, async (data) => {
  console.log('Handler registered on queue:', data.queue);
  console.log('Handler ID:', data.handler.id);
});

// Listen for unsubscribeTask events
await qified.on(QifiedEvents.unsubscribeTask, async (data) => {
  console.log('Unsubscribed from queue:', data.queue);
  if (data.id) {
    console.log('Handler ID:', data.id);
  }
});

// Listen for disconnect events
await qified.on(QifiedEvents.disconnect, async () => {
  console.log('Disconnected from all providers');
});

// Listen for errors
await qified.on(QifiedEvents.error, async (error) => {
  console.error('Error occurred:', error);
});

// Now perform operations
await qified.subscribe('events', {
  id: 'handler1',
  handler: async (message) => {
    console.log('Received:', message.data);
  }
});

await qified.publish('events', {
  id: 'msg-1',
  data: { text: 'Hello!' }
});

await qified.unsubscribeMessage('events', 'handler1');
await qified.disconnect();

Error Handling with Events

Events provide a centralized way to handle errors across all operations:

import { Qified, QifiedEvents } from 'qified';
import { NatsMessageProvider } from '@qified/nats';

const qified = new Qified({
  messageProviders: new NatsMessageProvider()
});

// Centralized error handler
await qified.on(QifiedEvents.error, async (error) => {
  console.error('Qified error:', error.message);
  // Send to error tracking service
  // Log to file
  // Send alert
});

// Errors from publish, subscribe, etc. will be caught and emitted
await qified.publish('topic', { id: '1', data: { test: true } });

Hooks

Qified provides before and after hooks for all major operations, allowing you to intercept and modify data before an operation executes, or perform actions after it completes. Hooks are powered by Hookified.

Available Hooks

The following hooks are available via the QifiedHooks enum:

Using Hooks

Use the onHook() method to register a hook handler. Hooks use the IHook object format from Hookified:

import { Qified, MemoryMessageProvider, QifiedHooks } from 'qified';

const qified = new Qified({
  messageProviders: new MemoryMessageProvider()
});

// Register a before hook using IHook object
qified.onHook({
  event: QifiedHooks.beforePublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    console.log('About to publish to:', context.topic);
  }
});

// Register an after hook with an id for later removal
qified.onHook({
  id: 'publish-logger',
  event: QifiedHooks.afterPublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    console.log('Published message:', context.message.id);
  }
});

// Register with options to control position
qified.onHook({
  event: QifiedHooks.beforePublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    console.log('This runs first');
  }
}, { position: 'Top' });

Modifying Data with Before Hooks

Before hooks receive a mutable context object. Any changes you make to the context will be applied to the operation:

import { Qified, MemoryMessageProvider, QifiedHooks } from 'qified';

const qified = new Qified({
  messageProviders: new MemoryMessageProvider()
});

// Add timestamp and headers to all messages
qified.onHook({
  event: QifiedHooks.beforePublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    // Add timestamp if not present
    context.message.timestamp = context.message.timestamp ?? Date.now();

    // Add custom headers
    context.message.headers = {
      ...context.message.headers,
      'x-processed-by': 'qified',
      'x-environment': process.env.NODE_ENV
    };
  }
});

// Modify message data
qified.onHook({
  event: QifiedHooks.beforePublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    // Add metadata to the message data
    context.message.data = {
      ...context.message.data,
      _meta: {
        version: '1.0',
        source: 'api'
      }
    };
  }
});

// Subscribe to receive messages
await qified.subscribe('events', {
  id: 'handler1',
  handler: async (message) => {
    // Message will have timestamp, headers, and modified data
    console.log('Timestamp:', message.timestamp);
    console.log('Headers:', message.headers);
    console.log('Data:', message.data);
  }
});

// Publish a message - hooks will modify it before sending
await qified.publish('events', {
  id: 'msg-1',
  data: { text: 'Hello!' }
});

Modifying Topics with Before Hooks

You can also modify the topic in before hooks:

// Route all messages to a prefixed topic
qified.onHook({
  event: QifiedHooks.beforePublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    context.topic = `production/${context.topic}`;
  }
});

// Subscribe to the prefixed topic
await qified.subscribe('production/events', {
  id: 'handler1',
  handler: async (message) => {
    console.log('Received:', message.data);
  }
});

// This publishes to 'production/events' due to the hook
await qified.publish('events', {
  id: 'msg-1',
  data: { text: 'Hello!' }
});

Multiple Hooks

Multiple hooks for the same event execute in the order they were registered:

// First hook - runs first (default position is 'Bottom')
qified.onHook({
  event: QifiedHooks.beforePublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    context.message.timestamp = Date.now();
  }
});

// Second hook - runs second, can see changes from first hook
qified.onHook({
  event: QifiedHooks.beforePublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    context.message.headers = { 'x-timestamp': String(context.message.timestamp) };
  }
});

// Third hook - runs third
qified.onHook({
  event: QifiedHooks.beforePublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    console.log('Final message:', context.message);
  }
});

// Use position option to insert at the top
qified.onHook({
  event: QifiedHooks.beforePublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    console.log('This runs before all other hooks');
  }
}, { position: 'Top' });

Hooks vs Events

Both hooks and events are available, but they serve different purposes:

// Hook - can modify the message before it's published
qified.onHook({
  event: QifiedHooks.beforePublish,
  handler: async (context) => {
    context.message.timestamp = Date.now();
  }
});

// Event - notified after publish completes (cannot modify)
qified.on(QifiedEvents.publish, async (data) => {
  console.log('Published:', data.message.id);
});

Providers

There are multiple providers available to use:

• Memory - this is built into the current qified library as MemoryMessageProvider and MemoryTaskProvider.
• @qified/redis - Redis Provider (messages and tasks)
• @qified/rabbitmq - RabbitMQ Provider (messages and tasks)
• @qified/nats - NATS Provider (messages and tasks)
• @qified/zeromq - ZeroMQ Provider (messages only)

Development and Testing

Qified is written in TypeScript and tests are written in vitest. To run the tests, use the following command:

1. pnpm install - This will install all the dependencies
2. pnpm test:services:start - This will start the services needed for testing (Redis, RabbitMQ, etc)
3. pnpm test - This will run the tests

To contribute follow the Contributing Guidelines and Code of Conduct.

License

MIT & © Jared Wray