CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rabbitmqamqpstomp
Charlie
Charlie

Reputation: 2231

Why doesn't RabbitMQ support AMQP over HTTP instead of STOMP?

I understand that HTTP is text-based and AMQP is binary-based, but why can't AMQP be implemented over HTTP (meaning every binary message was sent as an HTTP payload)? I assume it's because it would be slow to have to constantly serialize/deserialize every back and forth?

How does the STOMP protocol address this? I get that it moves the binary-to-text conversion to the server, but at the expense of the "messages" being larger so is it really that much faster than a JS client that can serialize/deserialize AMQP?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 520

Answers (1)

pinepain
pinepain

Reputation: 12859

While this question is tends to be primarily opinion-based, have a look at section 1.2.4 The Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) in AMQP Protocol Specification:

The design of AMQ model was driven by these requirements:

  • To guarantee interoperability between conforming implementations.
  • To provide explicit control over the quality of service.
  • To be consistent and explicit in naming.
  • To allow complete configuration of server wiring via the protocol.
  • To use a command notation that maps easily into application-level API's.
  • To be clear, so each operation does exactly one thing.

The design of AMQP transport layer was driven by these main requirements, in no particular order:

  • To be compact, using a binary encoding that packs and unpacks rapidly.
  • To handle messages of any size without significant limit.
  • To carry multiple channels across a single connection.
  • To be long-lived, with no significant in-built limitations.
  • To allow asynchronous command pipe-lining.
  • To be easily extended to handle new and changed needs.
  • To be forward compatible with future versions.
  • To be repairable, using a strong assertion model.
  • To be neutral with respect to programming languages.
  • To fit a code generation process.

For better understanding (e.g. why one decisions was preferred over another) reading through whole specification is highly recommended.

Upvotes: 1

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