Java Eclipse Paho Implementation - Auto reconnect

Question

I'm trying to implement eclipse.paho in my project to connect Mqtt Broker (Both subscribing and publishing purpose). The problem is, when I using the subscribing feature (Implementing MqttCallback interface), I couldn't figure our how can I reconnect if the connection lost. MqttCallback interface has a connectionLost method, but it is useful for the debug what causes the connection lost. I searched but couldn't find a way to establish auto reconnect. Can you suggest a way or document about this problem?

Answer 1

I'm using the paho client 1.2.0. With the MqttClient.setAutomaticReconnect(true) and interface MqttCallbackExtended API, and thanks to https://github.com/eclipse/paho.mqtt.java/issues/493, I could manage to reconnect automatically when the connection to broker is down.

See below the code.

//Use the MqttCallbackExtended to (re-)subscribe when method connectComplete is invoked
public class MyMqttClient implements MqttCallbackExtended {
    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MqttClientTerni.class);
    private final int qos = 0;
    private String topic = "mytopic";
    private MqttClient client;

    public MyMqttClient() throws MqttException {
        String host = "tcp://localhost:1883";
        String clientId = "MQTT-Client";

        MqttConnectOptions conOpt = new MqttConnectOptions();
        conOpt.setCleanSession(true);
        //Pay attention here to automatic reconnect
    conOpt.setAutomaticReconnect(true);
        this.client = new org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.MqttClient(host, clientId);
        this.client.setCallback(this);
        this.client.connect(conOpt);
    }

    /**
     * @see MqttCallback#connectionLost(Throwable)
     */
    public void connectionLost(Throwable cause) {
        logger.error("Connection lost because: " + cause);


    /**
     * @see MqttCallback#deliveryComplete(IMqttDeliveryToken)
     */
    public void deliveryComplete(IMqttDeliveryToken token) {
    }

    /**
     * @see MqttCallback#messageArrived(String, MqttMessage)
     */
    public void messageArrived(String topic, MqttMessage message) throws MqttException {
        logger.info(String.format("[%s] %s", topic, new String(message.getPayload())));
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws MqttException, URISyntaxException {
        MyMqttClient s = new MyMqttClient();
    }

    @Override
    public void connectComplete(boolean arg0, String arg1) {
        try {
      //Very important to resubcribe to the topic after the connection was (re-)estabslished. 
      //Otherwise you are reconnected but you don't get any message
        this.client.subscribe(this.topic, qos);
        } catch (MqttException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }
}

Answer 2

The best way to do this is to structure your connection logic so it lives in a method on it's own so it can be called again from the connectionLost callback in the MqttCallback instance.

The connectionLost method is passed a Throwable that will be the exception that triggered the disconnect so you can make decisions about the root cause and how this may effect when/how you reconnect.

The connection method should connect and subscribe to the topics you require.

Something like this:

public class PubSub {

  MqttClient client;
  String topics[] = ["foo/#", "bar"];
  MqttCallback callback = new MqttCallback() {
    public void connectionLost(Throwable t) {
      this.connect();
    }

    public void messageArrived(String topic, MqttMessage message) throws Exception {
      System.out.println("topic - " + topic + ": " + new String(message.getPayload()));
    }

    public void deliveryComplete(IMqttDeliveryToken token) {
    }
  };

  public static void main(String args[]) {
    PubSub foo = new PubSub();
  }

  public PubSub(){
    this.connect();
  }

  public void connect(){
    client = new MqttClient("mqtt://localhost", "pubsub-1");
    client.setCallback(callback);
    client.connect();
    client.subscribe(topics);
  }

}

Answer 3

To use auto reconnect, just set setAutomaticReconnect(true) on the MqttConnectOptions object.

MqttAndroidClient mqttClient = new MqttAndroidClient(context, mqttUrl, clientId);

MqttConnectOptions mqttConnectOptions = new MqttConnectOptions();
mqttConnectOptions.setAutomaticReconnect(true);

mqttClient.connect(mqttConnectOptions, null, mqttActionListener());