AWS SQS SendMessage Command 101: Syntax, Easy Steps & Examples

In modern cloud architecture, systems are built by breaking applications into smaller, independent components that are easier to develop, maintain, and deploy. Message queues play a crucial role in connecting these distributed systems, ensuring reliable, scalable, and high-performing communication.

A message queue enables asynchronous communication between services in a microservices architecture. Messages are stored in the queue until they are processed and deleted, with each message being handled once by a single consumer.

Businesses use message queues to handle spiky workloads, decouple heavy processing, and batch or buffer tasks. AWS offers Simple Queue Service (SQS)—a fully managed message queuing solution that helps you decouple and scale distributed systems, microservices, and serverless applications.

In this blog, you’ll explore the features and benefits of AWS SQS, along with its parameters and examples of using the SQS SendMessage function.

Prerequisites

• Amazon SQS account

What is AWS SQS?

Amazon SQS is a durable, secure, scalable, and available hosted Q that lets users integrate Software Systems and Components. It’s a hosted solution provided by Amazon, so you don’t need to manage the Service Infrastructure. SQS stores messages in transit between Applications and Microservices. Amazon provides a host of web service APIs, which users can access with a programming language supported by AWS SDK.

SQS eliminates the overhead and complexity associated with managing and operating message-oriented systems. Amazon SQS has no upfront cost or minimum fee, and every user gets the first million monthly requests free under the Amazon SQS Free Tier. However, users have to pay based on the content and number of requests and their interactions with Amazon S3 and the AWS Key Management Service. 

SQS offers an API for developers to connect with the service. SQS does not work as a database, so the user can’t decide which message to receive. However, they can choose how many messages they want to receive.

The main actions in high-level are:

• Send Message: Send a request to a queue available for use by another service.
• Receive Message: Another service can request to receive pending messages in the queue.
• Delete Message: The user can remove the message from the queue upon proper processing.

Key Features of AWS SQS

Following are the features of Amazon SQS:

1) Queue Types

• There are two types of SQS queues: Standard Queue and FIFO Queue.
• Standard Queue: Offers unlimited throughput, at-least-once delivery, and best-effort ordering. Ideal for high-throughput applications where message order isn’t critical.
• FIFO Queue: Ensures exactly-once processing and strict first-in-first-out delivery. Best for cases where message order is essential.
• Standard Queue supports almost unlimited API calls per second, while FIFO Queue supports up to 3,000 messages per second per API method.
• In Standard Queue, messages may be delivered out of order, whereas FIFO Queue preserves the exact order of message sending and receiving.

2) Functionality

• SQS allows sending batches of up to 10 messages or 256 KB each, with payloads supporting any text format.
• It supports unlimited queues and messages, with messages retained for up to 14 days.
• Features include queue sharing, simultaneous message sending and reading, and long polling to reduce costs for receiving new messages.
• AWS SQS provides Server-Side Encryption (SSE) for securing message content.
• It also includes Dead Letter Queues (DLQ) for managing unprocessed messages.

3) SQS with AWS infrastructure

• Amazon SQS pairs seamlessly with AWS services like DynamoDB, Redshift, ECS, Lambda, RDS, EC2, and S3.
• This integration helps build distributed applications that are more reliable and scalable.

Benefits of AWS SQS

1) Reliably Deliver Messages

• AWS SQS allows users to transmit any volume of data at any speed without losing messages or needing extra services.
• It decouples application components, letting them run or fail independently, improving fault tolerance.
• Messages are redundantly stored across multiple availability zones to ensure they are always accessible when needed.

2) Eliminate Administrative Overhead

• AWS manages all the infrastructure and operations for a highly accessible and scalable message queuing service.
• With SQS, there’s no need to acquire, install, or maintain a messaging system; it’s fully managed.
• SQS queues are created automatically and can scale on their own, enabling users to quickly and efficiently develop and grow applications.

3) Keep Sensitive Information Secure

• Amazon SQS allows secure exchange of sensitive data using Server-Side Encryption (SSE) to encrypt message bodies.
• SQS integrates with AWS Key Management Service (KMS) to manage encryption keys for both SQS messages and other AWS resources.
• Every use of encryption keys is logged in AWS CloudTrail for auditing and monitoring.

4) Scale Elastically and Cost-Effectively

• AWS SQS automatically scales with your application’s demand, eliminating the need for capacity planning or pre-provisioning.
• There is no limit to the number of messages per queue, and the standard queue offers unlimited throughput.
• Costs for sending and receiving messages are based on usage.

Setting up Amazon SQS

You can set up an Amazon SQS by the following steps:

Step 1: Create an AWS account

Start by creating an AWS account and open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup to use AWS products. 

Step 2: Create an IAM user

It is best to create an IAM user for each user who needs administrative access to your company’s Amazon SQS account. Sign up to the IAM console as the account owner and enter your AWS account email address and password. Choose users and then choose to add users in the navigation pane.

Step 3: Get your access key ID and secret access key

To use Amazon SQS actions, you need an access key ID and a secret access key. If you don’t have access keys, create them from the AWS Management Console. Do not use the AWS account root user access keys unless required. 

Getting started with Amazon SQS SendMessage

Amazon SQS SendMessage allows users to deliver a message to the specified queue. 

Amazon SQS SendMessage Request Parameters

• DelaySeconds: This contains information about the length of time in seconds for which SQS will delay a specific message. The value can be between zero to 900, with a maximum value of 15 minutes. However, this feature is only available for the Standard queue. You will have to set this parameter on queue level for the FIFO queue.
• MessageAttribute: Every message contains attributes such as Name, Type, and value. 
• MessageBody: Contains the message to be sent. The minimum size is one character and the maximum size is 256 KB. The message can only be in XML, JSON, and unformatted text. These unicode characters are also allowed: #x9 | #xA | #xD | #x20 to #xD7FF | #xE000 to #xFFFD | #x10000 to #x10FFFF.
• MessageDeduplicationId: This parameter is only for FIFO (first-in-first-out) queues. Whenever there are two messages with the same MessageDeduplicationId, the second message will be accepted but won’t be delivered during the 5-minute duplication interval. 
• MessageGroupId: This parameter also applies only to FIFO (first-in-first-out) queues. When a message belongs to a specific queue, multiple receivers can process the queue. However, the session data of each user is processed in a FIFO fashion. 
• MessageSystemAttribute: Each message system attribute consists of a Name, Type, and Value.

Amazon SQS SendMessage Errors

Here are the two errors that are specific to the SendMessage function in AWS: 

AWS.SimpleQueueService.UnsupportedOperation

Error code 400. Unsupported operation.

HTTP Status Code: 400

InvalidMessageContents

The message contains characters outside the allowed set.

HTTP Status Code: 400

Amazon SQS SendMessage Examples

The following AWS SQS SendMessage example sends a message containing ‘This is a test message’ to the queue. User must URL- encode the entire URL where only the message body is URL-encoded. 

Here is the example request code:

https://sqs.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/123456789012/MyQueue/
?Action=SendMessage
&MessageBody=This+is+a+test+message
&MessageAttribute.1.Name=my_attribute_name_1
&MessageAttribute.1.Value.StringValue=my_attribute_value_1
&MessageAttribute.1.Value.DataType=String
&MessageAttribute.2.Name=my_attribute_name_2
&MessageAttribute.2.Value.StringValue=my_attribute_value_2
&MessageAttribute.2.Value.DataType=String
&Expires=2020-05-05T22%3A52%3A43PST
&Version=2012-11-05
&AUTHPARAMS

Here is an example of response code:

<SendMessageResponse>
    <SendMessageResult>
        <MD5OfMessageBody>fafb00f5732ab283681e124bf8747ed1</MD5OfMessageBody>
        <MD5OfMessageAttributes>3ae8f24a165a8cedc005670c81a27295</MD5OfMessageAttributes>
        <MessageId>5fea7756-0ea4-451a-a703-a558b933e274</MessageId>
    </SendMessageResult>
    <ResponseMetadata>
        <RequestId>27daac76-34dd-47df-bd01-1f6e873584a0</RequestId>
    </ResponseMetadata>
</SendMessageResponse>

Conclusion

Here are the key takeaway points:

• Amazon SQS enables secure communication between web applications without requiring installation, configuration, or infrastructure setup.
• It provides a simple way to use Amazon’s messaging services, with 1,000,000 free monthly requests under the free tier.
• Users can send messages through the SQS SendMessage feature for seamless application communication.
• SQS eliminates the need to purchase or build a messaging infrastructure, offering scalability as needed.
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