# Message Queue (MQ) Listener

- Updated on Jul 18, 2025
- Published on Sep 17, 2024
- 5 minute(s) read

## Overview

With the Message Queue Listener Input Block, you can configure connections to the following message queue types:

- ActiveMQ
- Amazon SQS
- IBM MQ
- RabbitMQ

To select the message queue type you want to use for a Message Queue Listener connection, click on its name in the **Message Queue Type** drop-down list at the top of the block’s settings.

If you would like to use a Message Queue Listener connection in a SaaS instance and your MQ service is not public, you should create a firewall pinhole for the connection. Contact your Hyperscience representative for more information.

## Sample use cases

- I send submission info from external systems to an Amazon SQS queue. I want to ingest this submission info into Hyperscience for processing.
- My customers will post relevant documents and metadata to my ActiveMQ queue. I want to then ingest these documents and metadata for processing into Hyperscience.

## Message format

A JSON object must be passed to the message queue in order for Hyperscience to read the appropriate input image files. It should have the same format as the request payload for the Submission Creation API endpoint, with one key difference: in the MQ message payload, the _files_ element is an array of file URLs and does not contain individual _file_url_ elements.

An example MQ message payload is shown below.

```json
{
  "flow_uuid": "a89d6440-a2c2-423b-8c95",
  "machine_only": "true",
  "files": [
    "s3://s3-bucket/input/demo-file.pdf",
    "https://example.com/files/demo-file.pdf",
    "ocs://2021"
  ]
}
```

For more information about the Submission Creation payload, see the [Submission Creation](https://docs.hyperscience.ai/v5/#submission-creation) section of our API documentation.

## Block settings table

In addition to the settings outlined below, you can also configure the settings described in [Universal Integration Block Settings](https://help.hyperscience.ai/general-information/docs/choosing-a-data-type).

### ActiveMQ

| **Name** | **Required?** | **Description** |
| -------- | -------------- | ---------------- |
| **Username** | Yes | The username of a user that has access to the message queue. |
| **Password** | Yes | The password of a user that has access to the message queue.  
| **Queue Name** | Yes | The name of the message queue in ActiveMQ. |
| **Host Name** | Yes | The hostname of the system where the message queue is being run. |

### Amazon SQS

| **Name** | **Required?** | **Description** |
| -------- | -------------- | ---------------- |
| **AWS Region** | Yes | The AWS region of the source data. |
| **Access Key ID** | No | The access key ID allows access to the message queue. |
| **Secret Access Key** | No | The secret access key allows access to the message queue. |
| **Queue URL** | Yes | The queue URL for sending messages. |
| **Use AWS EC2 Instance IAM Role Credentials** | Yes | If selected, credentials are obtained from the EC2 instance directly, and **Access Key ID** and **Secret Access Key** are not present. |

#### Additional configurations

The following permissions should be granted via the AWS interface:

- _sqs:ReceiveMessage_
- _sqs:GetQueueUrl_
- _sqs:DeleteMessage_
- _sqs:ChangeMessageVisibility_

#### Message size

Note that Amazon imposes certain limitations on the size of messages sent to Amazon SQS message queues. At the time of writing this article, the maximum message size allowed is 256KB.

### IBM MQ

| **Name** | **Required?** | **Description** |
| -------- | -------------- | ---------------- |
| **No Auth Credentials Required** | Yes | Indicates whether the connection requires a username and password. |
| **Username** | Yes, if available | The username of a user that has access to the queue manager. |
| **Password** | Yes, if available | The password of a user that has access to the queue manager. |
| **Queue Name** | Yes | The name of the message queue in IBM MQ. |
| **Host Name** | Yes | The hostname of the system where the message queue is being run. |
| **Port Number** | Yes | The port number the connection should use to access the queue manager. |
| **Queue Manager** | Yes | The name of the message queue's queue manager in IBM MQ. |
| **Channel** | Yes | The queue manager's channel in IBM MQ. |
| **SSL Cipher Suite** | Yes, if you want to use an SSL connection | The CipherSuite connection should use to communicate with the queue manager.  |

### RabbitMQ

| **Name** | **Required?** | **Description** |
| -------- | -------------- | ---------------- |
| **Username** | Yes | The username of a user that has access to the message queue. |
| **Password** | Yes | The password of a user that has access to the message queue. |
| **Queue Name** | Yes | The name of the message queue in RabbitMQ. |
| **Host Name** | Yes | The host name of the system where the message queue is being run. |
| **Port Number** | Yes | The port number the connection should use to access the message queue. |
| **Virtual Host** | No | The name of the virtual host where the message queue is being run. |
| **Connection Type** | Yes | Specify whether the connection is a TCP or SSL connection. |

## Setting up Message Queue Listener

All Message Queue Listener connections can be set up in Hyperscience, but Amazon SQS connections require additional configuration steps in AWS.

### Setting up a Message Queue Listener in Hyperscience

To set up any of the Message Queue Listener Input Blocks, follow these steps.

1. Log in to your Hyperscience instance.
2. Go to **Flows** and choose any flow.
3. Scroll to the start of the flow in the Flow Studio and click **Inputs**.
4. Click **Add** and select Message Queue Listener from the list.
5. Click the **Add Connection** button.
6. From the **Message Queue Type** drop-down menu, select your Message Queue Type and enter the Block settings described above.

If you are setting up an ActiveMQ, IBM MQ, or RabbitMQ connection, you do not need to complete any additional steps.

If you are setting up an Amazon SQS connection, you also need to complete the steps outlined in [Setting up an Amazon SQS connection in AWS](https://help.hyperscience.ai/general-information/docs/v38-message-queue-mq-listener#setting-up-an-amazon-sqs-connection-in-aws).

### Setting up a DLQ

To set up a DLQ, see the instructions for the MQ listener you’re currently using:

- **SQS** — Amazon's [Configuring a dead-letter queue redrive](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSSimpleQueueService/latest/SQSDeveloperGuide/sqs-configure-dead-letter-queue-redrive.html)
- **IBM MQ** — IBM's [Dead-letter queues](https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/ibm-mq/7.5?topic=queue-defining-dead-letter)
- **ActiveMQ** — ActiveMQ's [Message Redelivery and DLQ Handling](https://activemq.apache.org/message-redelivery-and-dlq-handling)
- **RabbitMQ** — RabbitMQ's [Dead Letter Exchanges](https://www.rabbitmq.com/dlx.html)

If you’re setting up a DLQ, make sure to set the _DISCARD_MALFORMED_RESOURCES_ “.env” file variable to _false._