Boomi has recently launched a new messaging solution called Boomi Event Streams. It’s a cloud native solution built into the AtomSphere platform that allows for event-driven architectures ensuring reliable messaging through persistent delivery of messages between different systems or components. You might be tempted to ask the question of what’s the difference between Event Streams and the previous messaging solution provided by Boomi, namely the Boomi Atom Queues. I’ll be covering that in an upcoming article, however, this article is meant to introduce you to Event Streams and how to use it in your Boomi integrations.
To use the Boomi Event Streams service, you will need to do two things. First configure your topics, i.e, create the topics and their subscriptions. If you don’t know what a topic is, it is nothing but a queue that could have multiple subscribers.
Once you configure the topics, you can head over to your integrations and publish / consume messages from the topic using a standard connector, similar to how Boomi uses any other connector.
Configuring the Boomi Event Streams Topic
Let’s start by showing a snapshot of where we can find the Event Streams in the Boomi AtomSphere platform.
Click on Services >> Event Streams menu item to head over to the Event Streams configuration
Configuring the Topic
Click “Topics”
Click “Create a Topic”
Fill out the topic name, select the environment to create the topic in, and a meaningful description for the topic, then click Save.
Configuring the Subscriptions
Click on the newly created orders topic
Click “Create a Subscription”
Populate the subscription name as “netsuite-subscription” and description, then click Save
Click “Create a Subscription” again
Similar to the first step, name the subscription as shopify-subscription, fill in a description and click “Save”
Retrieve the Environment Token
Click “Environments”
Navigate to the environment you created the topic in and click “View Details”
Click “Settings”
Copy the Token as this will be needed when configuring the connection
Use the Topic in Boomi Processes
Now that the topic configuration is complete, let’s navigate to our Boomi processes that should use this topic. I’ve created three processes, one to publish a message, and a couple to consume it from the two configured subscriptions. Let’s start by the “Publish Message” process
Configuring the Publisher
Search for the “Boomi Event Streams” connector and drag-drop it into the canvas after the payload step
In the connector config, let’s start by creating a connection
Set the environment token using the previously copied token while configuring the topic, then Save & Close
Now we have to create the operation to publish a message into the topic
Name the operation “Orders Produce”, populate the topic name and click “Save and Close”
Click “OK” to save the connection configuration
Connect the arrow from and to the connector shape
Click “Save”
Configuring the Consumers
Let’s configure the “NetSuite Consumer” now
Click the start shape to configure it
Click “Connector”
Select “Boomi Event Streams” in the Connector field, select the previously created “Event Streams Connection” for the “Connection” field. Select the Action as “Consume”, then hit the + sign to create to consume operation
Name the operation “NetSuite Consume”, populate the topic and subscription names, then click “Save and Close”
Click “OK” to finalise the connection configuration
Click “Save” to save your changes to the process
Similarly, let’s configure the “Shopify Consumer” process
Click the start shape
Click “Connector”
Select “Boomi Event Streams” in the Connector field, select the previously created “Event Streams Connection” for the “Connection” field. Select the Action as “Consume”, then hit the + sign to create to consume operation
Name the operation “Shopify Consume”, populate the topic and subscription names, then click “Save and Close”
Click “OK” to finalise the connector configuration
Click “Save” to save your process changes
Testing our Changes
Let’s now test our changes. We’ll need to start by publishing a message. To do that, click the “Publish Message” process
Click “Test”
Select the environment and click “OK” to run your test
Go back to your topic configuration and click “Refresh Table”, you should see 1 message in the backlog of both subscriptions
Let’s consume them now. To do that, click “NetSuite Consumer”
Click “Test”
Select the environment and click “OK”
Click the notify shape to view the message consumed
Click “Close”
Click “Shopify Consumer” to consume the message in the shopify subscription
Click “Test”
Select the environment and click “OK”
Click this notify shape to see the message here as well
Click “Close” once done
Go back to the topic configuration and click “Refresh Table” to see both messages cleared from the backlog
Click “Dashboard” to view some insights around the topics and messages
Refresh the data again to see that all messages has been cleared from the backlog
Summary
In this article, I have explained what Boomi Event Streams is, and provided a step-by-step instruction on how to configure and use it in your Boomi processes. As mentioned before, I will be creating an article in the upcoming days comparing and contrasting it to the Boomi Atom Queues offering.
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