STOMP – Simple/Streaming Text Oriented Messaging Protocol

29th January 2019 Harshvardhan Mishra

What is Stomp?

STOMP provides an interoperable wire format so that STOMP clients can communicate with any supported message broker to provide easy and widespread messaging interoperability among many languages, platforms and brokers.

It is the only one of these three protocols to be text-based, making it more analogous to HTTP in terms of how it looks under the covers. Like AMQP, STOMP provides a message (or frame) header with properties, and a frame body. The design principles here were to create something simple, and widely-interoperable. For example, it’s possible to connect to a STOMP broker using something as simple as a telnet client.

It does not, however, deal in queues and topics—it uses a SEND semantic with a “destination” string. The broker must map onto something that it understands internally such as a topic, queue, or exchange. Consumers then SUBSCRIBE to those destinations. Since those destinations are not mandated in the specification, different brokers may support different flavours of destination. So, it’s not always straightforward to port code between brokers.

However, It is simple and lightweight (although somewhat verbose on the wire), with a wide range of language bindings. It also provides some transactional semantics. One of the most interesting examples is with RabbitMQ Web Stomp which allows you to expose messaging in a browser through websockets. This opens up some interesting possibilities—like updating a browser, mobile app, or machine in real-time with all types of information.

Simple Design

It is a very simple and easy to implement protocol, coming from the HTTP school of design; the server side may be hard to implement well, but it is very easy to write a client to get yourself connected. For example you can use Telnet to login to any STOMP broker and interact with it!

Many developers have told us that they have managed to write a STOMPclient in a couple of hours to in their particular language, runtime or platform into the STOMPnetwork. So if your favored language/runtime of choice does not offer a good enough Simple/Streaming Text Oriented Messaging Protocol client don’t be afraid to write one.

The protocol is broadly similar to HTTP, and works over TCP using the following commands:

CONNECT
SEND
SUBSCRIBE
UNSUBSCRIBE
BEGIN
COMMIT
ABORT
ACK
NACK
DISCONNECT

Communication between client and server is through a “frame” consisting of a number of lines. The first line contains the command, followed by headers in the form <key>: <value> (one per line), followed by a blank line and then the body content, ending in a null character. Communication between server and client is through a MESSAGE, RECEIPT or ERROR frame with a similar format of headers and body content.

Implementations

These are some MOM products that support STOMPProtocol:

STOMPservers
STOMPclients

Servers

Here are the known STOMPcompliant message servers:

Name	Description	Compliance
Apache ActiveMQ	the most popular and powerful open source messaging and Integration Patterns server	1.0 1.1
Apache ActiveMQ Artemis	Apache ActiveMQ Artemis has a proven non blocking architecture. It delivers outstanding performance.	1.0 1.1 1.2
Apache Apollo	a redesigned version of ActiveMQ	1.0 1.1 1.2
CoilMQ	a lightweight pure Python STOMPbroker inspired by StompServer	1.0
Gozirra	a lightweight Java STOMPbroker	1.0
HornetQ	puts the buzz in messaging	1.0
MorbidQ	a STOMPbased publish/subscribe server with absolutely no potential to cluster	1.0
RabbitMQ	an Erlang-based, multi-protocol broker with full support forSTOMP via a plugin	1.0 1.1 1.2
Sprinkle	written in Python and runs on Unix type platforms	1.0
Stampy	a Java implementation of the STOMP1.2 specification	1.2
StompConnect	provides a bridge to any other JMS provider	1.0
StompServer	a lightweight pure Ruby STOMPserver	1.0

Clients

Here are the known STOMPcompliant client libraries:

Name	Language	Description	Compliance
activemessaging	Ruby	an attempt to bring the simplicity and elegance of Rails development to the world of messaging	1.0
AnyEvent::STOMP	Perl	a lightweight event-driven STOMPclient	1.0
Apache CMS	C++	is a JMS-like API for C++	1.0
Apache NMS	C# and .Net	a JMS-like API for .Net	1.0
as3-stomp	Flash	an actionscript 3 implementation of the STOMPprotocol	1.0
delphistompclient	Delphi and FreePascal	a STOMPclient for Embarcadero Delphi and FreePascal	1.0
dstomp	Dynamic C	a STOMPclient library written in Dynamic C for Rabbit	1.0
Gozirra	Java	a lightweight implementation of the STOMPspecification	1.0
hxStomp	Haxe	a TCP socket-based STOMPprotocol client library written for the Haxe language	1.0
libstomp	C	an APR based C library	1.0
Net::Stomp	Perl	a Streaming Text Orientated Messaging Protocol client	1.0
Net::STOMP::Client	Perl	STOMPobject oriented client module	1.0 1.1 1.2
objc-stomp	Objective-C	a simple STOMP client based on AsynSocket	1.0
POE::Component::Client::Stomp	Perl	a Perl extension for the POE Environment	1.0
onstomp	Ruby	client library for message passing with brokers that support the STOMPprotocol	1.0 1.1
Public.Protocols.Stomp	Pike	Public.Protocols.Stomp	1.0
pyactivemq	Python	module for communicating with the ActiveMQ message broker	1.0
React/STOMP	PHP	STOMPbindings for React	1.1
simplisticstompclient	PHP	a simpler STOMPclient for PHP	1.0
Stampy	Java	a Java implementation of the STOMP1.2 specification	1.2
stomp	PHP	STOMPclient extension	1.0
stomp	Ruby	client for the STOMPmessaging protocol	1.0 1.1
stomper	Python	a client implementation of the STOMPprotocol	1.0
stomp.erl	Erlang	a STOMPclient for Erlang	1.0
stompest	Python	a full-featured STOMPimplementation for Python including both synchronous and asynchronous clients	1.0 1.1 1.2
StompKit	Objective-C	modern event-driven Objective-C library forSTOMP	1.2
stompy	Python	implementation of the STOMPprotocol in Python	1.0
stompngo	Go	a STOMP1.1+ Client Package	1.0 1.1 1.2
stomp-php	PHP	the FuseSource PHP client implementation	1.0
stomp.py	Python	a Python client library which can also be run as a standalone, command-line client for testing.	1.0 1.1 1.2
stomp.js	JavaScript	is a JavaScript library for Web browsers usingSTOMP Over HTML Web Sockets	1.0 1.1
tStomp	TCL	a STOMPImplementation for TCL	1.1
Zend_Queue	PHP	for Zend PHP clients	1.0

Where Get It

The latest version of the specification can be found at:

STOMP1.2 Released on 10/22/2012

The older version of the specification can also be accessed at:

Learn more at stomp.github.com.

STOMP – Simple/Streaming Text Oriented Messaging Protocol