nodemcu-firmware/docs/modules/mqtt.md

MQTT Module

Since	Origin / Contributor	Maintainer	Source
2015-01-23	Stephen Robinson, Tuan PM	Vowstar	mqtt.c

The client adheres to version 3.1.1 of the MQTT protocol. Make sure that your broker supports and is correctly configured for version 3.1.1. The client is backwards incompatible with brokers running MQTT 3.1.

mqtt.Client()

Creates a MQTT client.

Syntax

mqtt.Client(clientid, keepalive[, username, password, cleansession, max_message_length])

Parameters

• clientid client ID
• keepalive keepalive seconds
• username user name
• password user password
• cleansession 0/1 for false/true. Default is 1 (true).
• max_message_length, how large messages to accept. Default is 1024.

Returns

MQTT client

Notes

According to MQTT specification the max PUBLISH length is 256Mb. This is too large for NodeMCU to realistically handle. To avoid an out-of-memory situation, there is a limit on how big messages to accept. This is controlled by the max_message_length parameter. In practice, this only affects incoming PUBLISH messages since all regular control packets are small. The default 1024 was chosen as this was the implicit limit in NodeMCU 2.2.1 and older (where this was not handled at all).

Note that "message length" refers to the full MQTT message size, including fixed & variable headers, topic name, packet ID (if applicable), and payload. For exact details, please see the MQTT specification.

Any message larger than max_message_length will be (partially) delivered to the overflow callback, if defined. The rest of the message will be discarded. Any subsequent messages should be handled as expected. Discarded messages will still be ACK'ed if QoS level 1 or 2 was requested, even if the application stack cannot handle them.

Heap memory will be used to buffer any message which spans more than a single TCP packet. A single allocation for the full message will be performed when the message header is first seen, to avoid heap fragmentation. If allocation fails, the MQTT session will be disconnected. Naturally, messages larger than max_message_length will not be stored.

Note that heap allocation may occur even if the individual messages are not larger than the configured max! For example, the broker may send multiple smaller messages in quick succession, which could go into the same TCP packet. If the last message in the TCP packet did not fit fully, a heap buffer will be allocated to hold the incomplete message while waiting for the next TCP packet.

The typical maximum size for a message to fit into a single TCP packet is 1460 bytes, but this depends on the network's MTU configuration, any packet fragmentation, and as described above, multiple messages in the same TCP packet.

Example

-- init mqtt client without logins, keepalive timer 120s
m = mqtt.Client("clientid", 120)

-- init mqtt client with logins, keepalive timer 120sec
m = mqtt.Client("clientid", 120, "user", "password")

-- setup Last Will and Testament (optional)
-- Broker will publish a message with qos = 0, retain = 0, data = "offline"
-- to topic "/lwt" if client don't send keepalive packet
m:lwt("/lwt", "offline", 0, 0)

m:on("connect", function(client) print ("connected") end)
m:on("connfail", function(client, reason) print ("connection failed", reason) end)
m:on("offline", function(client) print ("offline") end)

-- on publish message receive event
m:on("message", function(client, topic, data)
  print(topic .. ":" )
  if data ~= nil then
    print(data)
  end
end)

-- on publish overflow receive event
m:on("overflow", function(client, topic, data)
  print(topic .. " partial overflowed message: " .. data )
end)

-- for TLS: m:connect("192.168.11.118", secure-port, 1)
m:connect("192.168.11.118", 1883, false, function(client)
  print("connected")
  -- Calling subscribe/publish only makes sense once the connection
  -- was successfully established. You can do that either here in the
  -- 'connect' callback or you need to otherwise make sure the
  -- connection was established (e.g. tracking connection status or in
  -- m:on("connect", function)).

  -- subscribe topic with qos = 0
  client:subscribe("/topic", 0, function(client) print("subscribe success") end)
  -- publish a message with data = hello, QoS = 0, retain = 0
  client:publish("/topic", "hello", 0, 0, function(client) print("sent") end)
end,
function(client, reason)
  print("failed reason: " .. reason)
end)

m:close();
-- you can call m:connect again

MQTT Client

mqtt.client:close()

Closes connection to the broker.

Syntax

mqtt:close()

Parameters

none

Returns

true on success, false otherwise

mqtt.client:connect()

Connects to the broker specified by the given host, port, and secure options.

Syntax

mqtt:connect(host[, port[, secure]][, function(client)[, function(client, reason)]])

Parameters

• host host, domain or IP (string)
• port broker port (number), default 1883
• secure boolean: if true, use TLS. Take note of constraints documented in the net module.
• function(client) callback function for when the connection was established
• function(client, reason) callback function for when the connection could not be established. No further callbacks should be called.

!!! attention

Secure (`mqtts`) connections come with quite a few limitations.  Please see
the warnings in the [tls module](tls.md)'s documentation.

Returns

nil; use callbacks to observe the outcome.

Notes

An application should watch for connection failures and handle errors in the error callback, in order to achieve a reliable connection to the server. For example:

function handle_mqtt_error(client, reason)
  tmr.create():alarm(10 * 1000, tmr.ALARM_SINGLE, do_mqtt_connect)
end

function do_mqtt_connect()
  mqtt:connect("server", function(client) print("connected") end, handle_mqtt_error)
end

In reality, the connected function should do something useful!

The first callback to :connect() aliases with the "connect" callback available through :on() (the last passed callback to either of those are used). However, if nil is passed to :connect(), any existing callback will be preserved, rather than removed.

The second (failure) callback aliases with the "connfail" callback available through :on(). (The "offline" callback is only called after an already established connection becomes closed. If the connect() call fails to establish a connection, the callback passed to :connect() is called and nothing else.)

Previously, we instructed an application to pass either the integer 0 or integer 1 for secure. Now, this will trigger a deprecation warning; please use the boolean false or true instead.

Connection failure callback reason codes:

Constant	Value	Description
mqtt.CONN_FAIL_SERVER_NOT_FOUND	-5	There is no broker listening at the specified IP Address and Port
mqtt.CONN_FAIL_NOT_A_CONNACK_MSG	-4	The response from the broker was not a CONNACK as required by the protocol
mqtt.CONN_FAIL_DNS	-3	DNS Lookup failed
mqtt.CONN_FAIL_TIMEOUT_RECEIVING	-2	Timeout waiting for a CONNACK from the broker
mqtt.CONN_FAIL_TIMEOUT_SENDING	-1	Timeout trying to send the Connect message
mqtt.CONNACK_ACCEPTED	0	No errors. Note: This will not trigger a failure callback.
mqtt.CONNACK_REFUSED_PROTOCOL_VER	1	The broker is not a 3.1.1 MQTT broker.
mqtt.CONNACK_REFUSED_ID_REJECTED	2	The specified ClientID was rejected by the broker. (See mqtt.Client())
mqtt.CONNACK_REFUSED_SERVER_UNAVAILABLE	3	The server is unavailable.
mqtt.CONNACK_REFUSED_BAD_USER_OR_PASS	4	The broker refused the specified username or password.
mqtt.CONNACK_REFUSED_NOT_AUTHORIZED	5	The username is not authorized.

mqtt.client:lwt()

Setup Last Will and Testament.

As the last will is sent to the broker when connecting, lwt() must be called BEFORE calling connect().  

The broker will publish a client's last will message once it notices that the connection to the client is broken; that occurs when...  - The client fails to send a keepalive packet for as long as specified in mqtt.Client()  - The TCP connection is properly closed (without closing the mqtt-connection before)

• The broker tries to send data to the client and the TCP connection breaks.

This means if you specified 120 as keepalive timer, just turn off the client device and the broker does not send any data to the client, the last will message will be published 120s after turning off the device.

!!! note

There is at present a bug in the NodeMCU MQTT library that results in all disconnections
appearing as unexpected disconnects -- the MQTT-level disconnection message is not set
before the TCP connection is torn down.  As a result, LWT messages will almost always be
published.  See https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-firmware/issues/3031

Syntax

mqtt:lwt(topic, message[, qos[, retain]])

Parameters

• topic the topic to publish to (string)
• message the message to publish, (buffer or string)
• qos QoS level, default 0
• retain retain flag, default 0

Returns

nil

mqtt.client:on()

Registers a callback function for an event.

Syntax

mqtt:on(event, function(client[, topic[, message]]))

Parameters

• event can be "connect", "connfail", "suback", "unsuback", "puback", "message", "overflow", or "offline"

• callback function. The first parameter is always the client object itself. Any remaining parameters passed differ by event:

  • If event is "message", the 2nd and 3rd parameters are received topic and message, respectively, as Lua strings.

  • If the event is "overflow", the parameters are as with "message", save that the message string is truncated to the maximum message size.

  • If the event is "connfail", the 2nd parameter will be the connection failure code; see above.

  • Other event types do not provide additional arguments. This has some unfortunate consequences: the broker-provided subscription maximum QoS information is lost, and the application must, if it expects per-event acknowledgements, manage a queue or queues itself.

Returns

nil

mqtt.client:publish()

Publishes a message.

Syntax

mqtt:publish(topic, payload, qos, retain[, function(client)])

Parameters

• topic the topic to publish to (topic string)
• message the message to publish, (buffer or string)
• qos QoS level
• retain retain flag
• function(client) optional callback fired when PUBACK received (for QoS 1 or 2) or when message sent (for QoS 0).

Notes

When calling publish() more than once, the last callback function defined will be called for ALL publish commands. This callback argument also aliases with the "puback" callback for :on().

Returns

true on success, false otherwise

mqtt.client:subscribe()

Subscribes to one or several topics.

Syntax

mqtt:subscribe(topic, qos[, function(client)]) mqtt:subscribe(table[, function(client)])

Parameters

• topic a topic string
• qos QoS subscription level, default 0
• table array of 'topic, qos' pairs to subscribe to
• function(client) optional callback fired when subscription(s) succeeded.

Notes

When calling subscribe() more than once, the last callback function defined will be called for ALL subscribe commands. This callback argument also aliases with the "suback" callback for :on().

Returns

true on success, false otherwise

Example

-- subscribe topic with qos = 0
m:subscribe("/topic",0, function(conn) print("subscribe success") end)

-- or subscribe multiple topic (topic/0, qos = 0; topic/1, qos = 1; topic2 , qos = 2)
m:subscribe({["topic/0"]=0,["topic/1"]=1,topic2=2}, function(conn) print("subscribe success") end)

!!! caution

Rather than calling `subscribe` multiple times you should use the multiple topics syntax shown in the above example if you want to subscribe to more than one topic at once.

mqtt.client:unsubscribe()

Unsubscribes from one or several topics.

Syntax

mqtt:unsubscribe(topic[, function(client)]) mqtt:unsubscribe(table[, function(client)])

Parameters

• topic a topic string
• table array of 'topic, anything' pairs to unsubscribe from
• function(client) optional callback fired when unsubscription(s) succeeded.

Notes

When calling subscribe() more than once, the last callback function defined will be called for ALL subscribe commands. This callback argument also aliases with the "unsuback" callback for :on().

Returns

true on success, false otherwise

Example

-- unsubscribe topic
m:unsubscribe("/topic", function(conn) print("unsubscribe success") end)

-- or unsubscribe multiple topic (topic/0; topic/1; topic2)
m:unsubscribe({["topic/0"]=0,["topic/1"]=0,topic2="anything"}, function(conn) print("unsubscribe success") end)