amqtt/docs/references/broker.md

# Broker API reference

The `amqtt.broker.Broker` class provides a complete MQTT 3.1.1 broker implementation. This class allows Python developers to embed a MQTT broker in their own applications.

## Usage example

The following example shows how to start a broker using the default configuration:

```python
import logging
import asyncio
import os
from amqtt.broker import Broker


async def broker_coro():
    broker = Broker()
    await broker.start()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    formatter = "[%(asctime)s] :: %(levelname)s :: %(name)s :: %(message)s"
    logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO, format=formatter)
    asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(broker_coro())
    asyncio.get_event_loop().run_forever()
```

When executed, this script gets the default event loop and asks it to run the `broker_coro` until it completes.
`broker_coro` creates `amqtt.broker.Broker` instance and then starts the broker for serving using the `start()` method.
Once completed, the loop is ran forever, making this script never stop...

## Reference

### Broker API

The `amqtt.broker` module provides the following key methods in the `Broker` class:

- `start()`: Starts the broker and begins serving
- `shutdown()`: Gracefully shuts down the broker

### Broker configuration

The `Broker` class's `__init__` method accepts a `config` parameter which allows setup of behavior and default settings. This argument must be a Python dict object. For convenience, it is presented below as a YAML file[^1]:

```yaml
listeners:
    default:
        max-connections: 50000
        type: tcp
    my-tcp-1:
        bind: 127.0.0.1:1883
    my-tcp-2:
        bind: 1.2.3.4:1884
        max-connections: 1000
    my-tcp-ssl-1:
        bind: 127.0.0.1:8885
        ssl: on
        cafile: /some/cafile
        capath: /some/folder
        capath: certificate data
        certfile: /some/certfile
        keyfile: /some/key
    my-ws-1:
        bind: 0.0.0.0:8080
        type: ws
timeout-disconnect-delay: 2
auth:
    plugins: ['auth.anonymous'] #List of plugins to activate for authentication among all registered plugins
    allow-anonymous: true / false
    password-file: /some/passwd_file
topic-check:
    enabled: true / false  # Set to False if topic filtering is not needed
    plugins: ['topic_acl'] #List of plugins to activate for topic filtering among all registered plugins
    acl:
        # username: [list of allowed topics]
        username1: ['repositories/+/master', 'calendar/#', 'data/memes']  # List of topics on which client1 can publish and subscribe
        username2: ...
        anonymous: []  # List of topics on which an anonymous client can publish and subscribe
```

The `listeners` section allows defining network listeners which must be started by the `Broker`. Several listeners can be setup. `default` subsection defines common attributes for all listeners. Each listener can have the following settings:

- `bind`: IP address and port binding.
- `max-connections`: Set maximum number of active connection for the listener. `0` means no limit.
- `type`: transport protocol type; can be `tcp` for classic TCP listener or `ws` for MQTT over websocket.
- `ssl`: enables (`on`) or disable secured connection over the transport protocol.
- `cafile`, `cadata`, `certfile` and `keyfile`: mandatory parameters for SSL secured connections.

The `auth` section setup authentication behaviour:

- `plugins`: defines the list of activated plugins. Note the plugins must be defined in the `amqtt.broker.plugins` [entry point](https://pythonhosted.org/setuptools/setuptools.html#dynamic-discovery-of-services-and-plugins).
- `allow-anonymous`: used by the internal `amqtt.plugins.authentication.AnonymousAuthPlugin` plugin. This parameter enables (`on`) or disable anonymous connection, i.e. connection without username.
- `password-file`: used by the internal `amqtt.plugins.authentication.FileAuthPlugin` plugin. This parameter gives to path of the password file to load for authenticating users.

The `topic-check` section setup access control policies for publishing and subscribing to topics:

- `enabled`: set to true if you want to impose an access control policy. Otherwise, set it to false.
- `plugins`: defines the list of activated plugins. Note the plugins must be defined in the `amqtt.broker.plugins` [entry point](https://pythonhosted.org/setuptools/setuptools.html#dynamic-discovery-of-services-and-plugins).
- additional parameters: depending on the plugin used for access control, additional parameters should be added.
  - In case of `topic_acl` plugin, the Access Control List (ACL) must be defined in the parameter `acl`.
    - For each username, a list with the allowed topics must be defined.
    - If the client logs in anonymously, the `anonymous` entry within the ACL is used in order to grant/deny subscriptions.


::: amqtt.broker.Broker

[^1]: See [PyYAML](http://pyyaml.org/wiki/PyYAMLDocumentation) for loading YAML files as Python dict.