by Example
Key-Value Intro in Key-Value
The key-value (KV) capability in NATS is an abstraction over a stream which models message subjects as keys. It uses a standard set of stream configuration to be optimized for KV workloads.
Code
using NATS.Client.JetStream.Models;
using NATS.Client.KeyValueStore;
using NATS.Net;
NATS_URL environment variable can be used to pass the locations of the NATS servers.
var url = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("NATS_URL") ?? "nats://127.0.0.1:4222";
Connect to NATS server. Since connection is disposable at the end of our scope, we should flush our buffers and close the connection cleanly.
await using var nc = new NatsClient(url);
var kv = nc.CreateKeyValueStoreContext();
Bucket basics
A key-value (KV) bucket is created by specifying a bucket name.
var profiles = await kv.CreateStoreAsync(new NatsKVConfig("profiles"));
As one would expect, the KeyValue interface provides the
standard Put and Get methods. However, unlike most KV
stores, a revision number of the entry is tracked.
await profiles.PutAsync("sue.color", "blue");
var entry = await profiles.GetEntryAsync<string>("sue.color");
Console.WriteLine($"{entry.Key} @ {entry.Revision} ->{entry.Value}\n");
await profiles.PutAsync("sue.color", "green");
entry = await profiles.GetEntryAsync<string>("sue.color");
Console.WriteLine($"{entry.Key} @ {entry.Revision} ->{entry.Value}\n");
A revision number is useful when you need to enforce optimistic
concurrency control on a specific key-value entry. In short,
if there are multiple actors attempting to put a new value for a
key concurrently, we want to prevent the “last writer wins” behavior
which is non-deterministic. To guard against this, we can use the
kv.Update method and specify the expected revision. Only if this
matches on the server, will the value be updated.
try
{
await profiles.UpdateAsync("sue.color", "red", 1);
}
catch (NatsKVWrongLastRevisionException e)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Expected error: {e.Message}");
}
await profiles.UpdateAsync("sue.color", "red", 2);
entry = await profiles.GetEntryAsync<string>("sue.color");
Console.WriteLine($"{entry.Key} @ {entry.Revision} ->{entry.Value}\n");
Stream abstraction
Before moving on, it is important to understand that a KV bucket is light abstraction over a standard stream. This is by design since it enables some powerful features that we will observe in a minute.
How exactly is a KV bucket modeled as a stream?
When one is created, internally, a stream is created using the KV_
prefix as convention. Appropriate stream configuration is used that
are optimized for the KV access patterns, so you can ignore the
details.
var js = nc.CreateJetStreamContext();
await foreach (var name in js.ListStreamNamesAsync())
{
Console.WriteLine($"KV stream name: {name}");
}
Since it is a normal stream, we can create a consumer and fetch messages. If we look at the subject, we will notice that the first token is a special reserved prefix, the second token is the bucket name, and the remaining suffix is the actually key. The bucket name is inherently a namespace for all keys, and thus there is no concern for conflict across buckets. This is different from what we need to do for a stream which is to bind a set of public subjects to a stream.
var consumer = await js.CreateConsumerAsync("KV_profiles", new ConsumerConfig
{
AckPolicy = ConsumerConfigAckPolicy.None,
});
{
var next = await consumer.NextAsync<string>();
if (next is { Metadata: { } metadata } msg)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{msg.Subject} @ {metadata.Sequence.Stream} -> {msg.Data}");
}
}
Let’s put a new value for this key and see what we get from the subscription.
await profiles.PutAsync("sue.color", "yellow");
{
var next = await consumer.NextAsync<string>();
if (next is { Metadata: { } metadata } msg)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{msg.Subject} @ {metadata.Sequence.Stream} -> {msg.Data}");
}
}
Unsurprisingly, we get the new updated value as a message. Since it’s a KV interface, we should be able to delete a key as well. Does this result in a new message?
await profiles.DeleteAsync("sue.color");
{
var next = await consumer.NextAsync<string>();
if (next is { Metadata: { } metadata } msg)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{msg.Subject} @ {metadata.Sequence.Stream} -> {msg.Data}");
🤔 That is useful to get a message that something happened to that key,
and that this is considered a new revision.
However, how do we know if the new value was set to be nil or the key
was deleted?
To differentiate, delete-based messages contain a header. Notice the KV-Operation: DEL
header.
Console.WriteLine($"Headers: {msg.Headers}");
}
}
Watching for changes
Although one could subscribe to the stream directly, it is more convenient
to use a KeyWatcher which provides a deliberate API and types for tracking
changes over time.
Notice that we can use a wildcard which we will come back to.
var watcher = Task.Run(async () => {
await foreach (var kve in profiles.WatchAsync<string>())
{
Console.WriteLine($"{kve.Key} @ {kve.Revision} -> {kve.Value} (op: {kve.Operation})");
if (kve.Key == "sue.food")
break;
}
});
Even though we deleted the key, of course we can put a new value.
await profiles.PutAsync("sue.color", "purple");
To finish this short intro, since we know that keys are subjects under the covers, if we
put another key, we can observe the change through the watcher. One other detail to call out
is notice the revision for this new key is not 1. It relies on the underlying stream’s
message sequence number to indicate the revision. The guarantee is that it is always
monotonically increasing, but numbers will be shared across keys (like subjects) rather
than sequence numbers relative to each key.
await profiles.PutAsync("sue.food", "pizza");
await watcher;
That’s it!
Console.WriteLine("Bye!");Output
sue.color @ 1 ->blue sue.color @ 2 ->green Expected error: Wrong last revision sue.color @ 3 ->red KV stream name: KV_profiles $KV.profiles.sue.color @ 3 -> red $KV.profiles.sue.color @ 4 -> yellow $KV.profiles.sue.color @ 5 -> Headers: NATS.Client.Core.NatsHeaders sue.color @ 6 -> purple (op: Put) sue.food @ 7 -> pizza (op: Put) Bye!
Install NuGet package
NATS.Net