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WAMP Programming

This guide gives an introduction to programming with WAMP in Python using . (Go straight to wamp_examples)

WAMP provides two communication patterns for application components to talk to each other

  • remote-procedure-calls
  • publish-and-subscribe

and we will cover all four interactions involved in above patterns

  1. registering-procedures for remote calling
  2. calling-procedures remotely
  3. subscribing-to-topics for receiving events
  4. publishing-events to topics

Note that WAMP is a "routed" protocol, and defines a Dealer and Broker role. Practically speaking, this means that any WAMP client needs a WAMP Router to talk to. We provide an open-source one called Crossbar (there are other routers available). See also the WAMP specification for more details

Tip

If you are new to WAMP or want to learn more about the design principles behind WAMP, we have a longer text here.

Application Components

WAMP is all about creating systems from loosely coupled application components. These application components are where your application-specific code runs.

A WAMP-based system consists of potentially many application components, which all connect to a WAMP router. The router is generic, which means, it does not run any application code, but only provides routing of events and calls.

These components use either Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) or Publish/Subscribe (PubSub) to communicate. Each component can do any mix of: register, call, subscribe or publish.

For RPC, an application component registers a callable method at a URI ("endpoint"), and other components call it via that endpoint.

In the Publish/Subscribe model, interested components subscribe to an event URI and when a publish to that URI happens, the event payload is routerd to all subscribers:

Hence, to create a WAMP application, you:

  1. write application components
  2. connect the components to a router

Note that each component can do any mix of registering, calling, subscribing and publishing -- it is entirely up to you to logically group functionality as suits your problem space.

Creating Components

You create an application component by deriving from a base class provided by .

When using Twisted, you derive from autobahn.twisted.wamp.ApplicationSession

from autobahn.twisted.wamp import ApplicationSession

class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
   def onJoin(self, details):
      print("session ready")

whereas when you are using asyncio, you derive from autobahn.asyncio.wamp.ApplicationSession

from autobahn.asyncio.wamp import ApplicationSession

class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
   def onJoin(self, details):
      print("session ready")

As can be seen, the only difference between Twisted and asyncio is the import (line 1). The rest of the code is identical.

Also, will invoke callbacks on your application component when certain events happen. For example, ISession.onJoin <autobahn.wamp.interfaces.ISession.onJoin> is triggered when the WAMP session has connected to a router and joined a realm. We'll come back to this topic later.

Running Components

To actually make use of an application components, the component needs to connect to a WAMP router. includes a runner that does the heavy lifting for you.

Here is how you use autobahn.twisted.wamp.ApplicationRunner with Twisted

from autobahn.twisted.wamp import ApplicationRunner

runner = ApplicationRunner(url=u"ws://localhost:8080/ws", realm=u"realm1")
runner.run(MyComponent)

and here is how you use autobahn.asyncio.wamp.ApplicationRunner with asyncio

from autobahn.asyncio.wamp import ApplicationRunner

runner = ApplicationRunner(url=u"ws://localhost:8080/ws", realm=u"realm1")
runner.run(MyComponent)

As can be seen, the only difference between Twisted and asyncio is the import (line 1). The rest of the code is identical.

There are two mandatory arguments to ApplicationRunner:

  1. url: the WebSocket URL of the WAMP router (for WAMP-over-WebSocket)
  2. realm: the Realm the component should join on that router

Tip

A Realm is a routing namespace and an administrative domain for WAMP. For example, a single WAMP router can manage multiple Realms, and those realms are completely separate: an event published to topic T on a Realm R1 is NOT received by a subscribe to T on Realm R2.

Here are quick templates for you to copy/paste for creating and running a WAMP component.

Twisted:

from twisted.internet.defer import inlineCallbacks
from autobahn.twisted.wamp import ApplicationSession, ApplicationRunner

class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):

    @inlineCallbacks
    def onJoin(self, details):
        print("session joined")
        # can do subscribes, registers here e.g.:
        # yield self.subscribe(...)
        # yield self.register(...)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    runner = ApplicationRunner(url=u"ws://localhost:8080/ws", realm=u"realm1")
    runner.run(MyComponent)

asyncio:

from asyncio import coroutine
from autobahn.asyncio.wamp import ApplicationSession, ApplicationRunner

class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
    @coroutine
    def onJoin(self, details):
        print("session joined")
        # can do subscribes, registers here e.g.:
        # yield from self.subscribe(...)
        # yield from self.register(...)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    runner = ApplicationRunner(url=u"ws://localhost:8080/ws", realm=u"realm1")
    runner.run(MyComponent)

Running a WAMP Router

The component we've created attempts to connect to a WAMP router running locally which accepts connections on port 8080, and for a realm realm1.

Our suggested way is to use Crossbar.io as your WAMP router. There are other WAMP routers besides Crossbar.io as well.

Once you've installed Crossbar.io, initialize an instance of it with the default settings, which will accept WAMP (over WebSocket) connections on ws://<hostname>:8080/ws and has a realm1 pre-configured.

To do this, do

crossbar init

This will create the default Crossbar.io node configuration ./.crossbar/config.json. You can then start Crossbar.io by doing:

crossbar start

Remote Procedure Calls

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is a messaging pattern involving peers of three roles:

  • Caller
  • Callee
  • Dealer

A Caller issues calls to remote procedures by providing the procedure URI and any arguments for the call. The Callee will execute the procedure using the supplied arguments to the call and return the result of the call to the Caller.

Callees register procedures they provide with Dealers. Callers initiate procedure calls first to Dealers. Dealers route calls incoming from Callers to Callees implementing the procedure called, and route call results back from Callees to Callers.

The Caller and Callee will usually run application code, while the Dealer works as a generic router for remote procedure calls decoupling Callers and Callees. Thus, the Caller can be in a separate process (even a separate implementation language) from the Callee.

Registering Procedures

To make a procedure available for remote calling, the procedure needs to be registered. Registering a procedure is done by calling ICallee.register <autobahn.wamp.interfaces.ICallee.register> from a session.

Here is an example using Twisted

from autobahn.twisted.wamp import ApplicationSession
from twisted.internet.defer import inlineCallbacks


class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
    @inlineCallbacks
    def onJoin(self, details):
        print("session ready")

        def add2(x, y):
            return x + y

        try:
            yield self.register(add2, u'com.myapp.add2')
            print("procedure registered")
        except Exception as e:
            print("could not register procedure: {0}".format(e))

The procedure add2 is registered (line 14) under the URI u"com.myapp.add2" immediately in the onJoin callback which fires when the session has connected to a Router and joined a Realm.

Tip

You can register local functions like in above example, global functions as well as methods on class instances. Further, procedures can also be automatically registered using decorators.

When the registration succeeds, authorized callers will immediately be able to call the procedure (see calling-procedures) using the URI under which it was registered (u"com.myapp.add2").

A registration may also fail, e.g. when a procedure is already registered under the given URI or when the session is not authorized to register procedures.

Using asyncio, the example looks like this:

from autobahn.asyncio.wamp import ApplicationSession
from asyncio import coroutine

class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
    @coroutine
    def onJoin(self, details):
        print("session ready")

        def add2(x, y):
            return x + y

        try:
            yield from self.register(add2, u'com.myapp.add2')
            print("procedure registered")
        except Exception as e:
            print("could not register procedure: {0}".format(e))

The differences compared with the Twisted variant are:

  • the import of ApplicationSession
  • the use of @coroutine to decorate co-routines
  • the use of yield from instead of yield

Calling Procedures

Calling a procedure (that has been previously registered) is done using autobahn.wamp.interfaces.ICaller.call.

Here is how you would call the procedure add2 that we registered in registering-procedures under URI com.myapp.add2 in Twisted

from autobahn.twisted.wamp import ApplicationSession
from twisted.internet.defer import inlineCallbacks


class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
    @inlineCallbacks
    def onJoin(self, details):
        print("session ready")

        try:
            res = yield self.call(u'com.myapp.add2', 2, 3)
            print("call result: {}".format(res))
        except Exception as e:
            print("call error: {0}".format(e))

And here is the same done on asyncio

from autobahn.asyncio.wamp import ApplicationSession
from asyncio import coroutine


class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
    @coroutine
    def onJoin(self, details):
        print("session ready")

        try:
            res = yield from self.call(u'com.myapp.add2', 2, 3)
            print("call result: {}".format(res))
        except Exception as e:
            print("call error: {0}".format(e))

Publish & Subscribe

Publish & Subscribe (PubSub) is a messaging pattern involving peers of three roles:

  • Publisher
  • Subscriber
  • Broker

A Publisher publishes events to topics by providing the topic URI and any payload for the event. Subscribers of the topic will receive the event together with the event payload.

Subscribers subscribe to topics they are interested in with Brokers. Publishers initiate publication first at a Broker. Brokers route events incoming from Publishers to Subscribers that are subscribed to respective topics.

The Publisher and Subscriber will usually run application code, while the Broker works as a generic router for events thus decoupling Publishers from Subscribers. That is, there can be many Subscribers written in different languages on different machines which can all receive a single event published by an independant Publisher.

Subscribing to Topics

To receive events published to a topic, a session needs to first subscribe to the topic. Subscribing to a topic is done by calling autobahn.wamp.interfaces.ISubscriber.subscribe.

Here is a Twisted example:

from autobahn.twisted.wamp import ApplicationSession
from twisted.internet.defer import inlineCallbacks


class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
    @inlineCallbacks
    def onJoin(self, details):
        print("session ready")

        def oncounter(count):
            print("event received: {0}", count)

        try:
            yield self.subscribe(oncounter, u'com.myapp.oncounter')
            print("subscribed to topic")
        except Exception as e:
            print("could not subscribe to topic: {0}".format(e))

We create an event handler function oncounter (you can name that as you like) which will get called whenever an event for the topic is received.

To subscribe (line 15), we provide the event handler function (oncounter) and the URI of the topic to which we want to subscribe (u'com.myapp.oncounter').

When the subscription succeeds, we will receive any events published to u'com.myapp.oncounter'. Note that we won't receive events published before the subscription succeeds.

The corresponding asyncio code looks like this

from autobahn.asyncio.wamp import ApplicationSession
from asyncio import coroutine


class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
   @coroutine
   def onJoin(self, details):
       print("session ready")

       def oncounter(count):
           print("event received: {0}", count)

       try:
           yield from self.subscribe(oncounter, u'com.myapp.oncounter')
           print("subscribed to topic")
       except Exception as e:
           print("could not subscribe to topic: {0}".format(e))

Again, nearly identical to Twisted.

Publishing Events

Publishing an event to a topic is done by calling autobahn.wamp.interfaces.IPublisher.publish.

Events can carry arbitrary positional and keyword based payload -- as long as the payload is serializable in JSON.

Here is a Twisted example that will publish an event to topic u'com.myapp.oncounter' with a single (positional) payload being a counter that is incremented for each publish:

from autobahn.twisted.wamp import ApplicationSession
from autobahn.twisted.util import sleep
from twisted.internet.defer import inlineCallbacks


class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
    @inlineCallbacks
    def onJoin(self, details):
        print("session ready")

        counter = 0
        while True:
            self.publish(u'com.myapp.oncounter', counter)
            counter += 1
            yield sleep(1)

The corresponding asyncio code looks like this

from autobahn.asyncio.wamp import ApplicationSession
from asyncio import sleep
from asyncio import coroutine


class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
    @coroutine
    def onJoin(self, details):
        print("session ready")

        counter = 0
        while True:
            self.publish(u'com.myapp.oncounter', counter)
            counter += 1
            yield from sleep(1)

Tip

By default, a publisher will not receive an event it publishes even when the publisher is itself subscribed to the topic subscribed to. This behavior can be overridden; see PublishOptions <autobahn.wamp.types.PublishOptions> and exclude_me=False.

Tip

By default, publications are unacknowledged. This means, a publish() may fail silently (like when the session is not authorized to publish to the given topic). This behavior can be overridden; see PublishOptions <autobahn.wamp.types.PublishOptions> and acknowledge=True.

Session Lifecycle

A WAMP application component has this lifecycle:

  1. component created
  2. transport connected (ISession.onConnect <autobahn.wamp.interfaces.ISession.onConnect> called)
  3. authentication challenge received (only for authenticated WAMP sessions, ISession.onChallenge <autobahn.wamp.interfaces.ISession.onChallenge> called)
  4. session established (realm joined, ISession.onJoin <autobahn.wamp.interfaces.ISession.onJoin> called)
  5. session closed (realm left, ISession.onLeave <autobahn.wamp.interfaces.ISession.onLeave> called)
  6. transport disconnected (ISession.onDisconnect <autobahn.wamp.interfaces.ISession.onDisconnect> called)

The ApplicationSession <autobahn.twisted.wamp.ApplicationSession> will fire the following events which you can handle by overriding the respective method (see ISession <autobahn.wamp.interfaces.ISession> for more information):

class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):
    def __init__(self, config=None):
        ApplicationSession.__init__(self, config)
        print("component created")

    def onConnect(self):
        print("transport connected")
        self.join(self.config.realm)

    def onChallenge(self, challenge):
        print("authentication challenge received")

    def onJoin(self, details):
        print("session joined")

    def onLeave(self, details):
        print("session left")

    def onDisconnect(self):
        print("transport disconnected")

Upgrading

From < 0.8.0

Starting with release 0.8.0, now supports WAMP v2, and also support both Twisted and asyncio. This required changing module naming for WAMP v1 (which is Twisted only).

Hence, WAMP v1 code for < 0.8.0

from autobahn.wamp import WampServerFactory

should be modified for >= 0.8.0 for (using Twisted)

from autobahn.wamp1.protocol import WampServerFactory

Warning

WAMP v1 will be deprecated with the 0.9 release of which is expected in Q4 2014.

From < 0.9.4

Starting with release 0.9.4, all WAMP router code in has been split out and moved to Crossbar.io. Please see the announcement here.