AsyncServer (Asynchronous Server) is an implementation of a queue like protocol for sending/receiving messages over tcp/ssl sockets.
A client connects to the socket and continuously writes a stream of data, with each message having the structure n-bytes-message-length+message. The server reads the first n bytes to determine length of the message, then reads the next length bytes.
Messages are tagged and then forwarded to internal services through a redis queue.
Responses are read from redis and sent to the respective client using the same message structure as above.
This implementation fits best situations where a request/response cycle is non viable/kludgy to do (polling for responses). eg due to external api calls necessary to process a request.
Clients connect from static IP addresses, probably allowed in through firewall rules. Messages are tagged and routed based on the IP addresses of the sender.
If available in Hex, the package can be installed as:
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Add async_server to your list of dependencies in
mix.exs:def deps do [{:async_server, "~> 0.0.1"}] end
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Ensure async_server is started before your application:
def application do [applications: [:async_server]] end