Redis keyspace event not-firing

Question

I have two redis clients, in one file I have a simple script setting and deleted Redis keys:

var redis = require("redis");

var client = redis.createClient('6379','127.0.0.1');
client.config("SET","notify-keyspace-events", "KEA");

client.set("string key 1", "string val", redis.print);
client.set("string key 2", "string val", redis.print);
client.set("placeholder","placeholder value", redis.print);
client.del("string key 1", redis.print);
client.del("string key", redis.print);

in the second file, I have a Redis client serving as a subscriber:

var redis = require("redis");
var subscriber = redis.createClient('6379','127.0.0.1');

const REDIS_PUB_MESSAGE = 'redis_pub_message';
const EVENT_SET = '__keyevent@0__:set';
const EVENT_DEL = '__keyevent@0__:del';
const SPACE_SPECIFIC_KEY = '__keyspace@0__:placeholder set';
const EVENT_SPECIFIC_KEY = '__keyevent@0__:placeholder set';
const SPACE_SPECIFIC_KEY_set = '__keyspace@0__:set placeholder';
const EVENT_SPECIFIC_KEY_set = '__keyevent@0__:set placeholder';

subscriber.on('message', function(channel, key) {
    switch (channel) {
        case SPACE_SPECIFIC_KEY_set:
            console.log('space specific key channel:',channel,'key:',key);
        case EVENT_SPECIFIC_KEY_set:
            console.log('event specific key channel:',channel,'key:',key);
        case EVENT_SPECIFIC_KEY:
            console.log('space specific key channel:',channel,'key:',key);
        case SPACE_SPECIFIC_KEY:
            console.log('event specific key channel:',channel,'key:',key);
    }
});

the key 'placeholder' is being set, so is there any good reason that I am not getting any output in the 'message' handler?

Answer 1

You forgot to subscribe the subscriber client to a specific channel. Furthermore, if you want to watch for all events, you need to use pattern-based subscription.

You may want to do something like this (untested):

subscriber.on("pmessage", function (pattern, channel, message) {
    console.log("("+  pattern +")" + " client received message on " + channel + ": " + message);
    switch (channel) {
        // blah blah blah
        // ...
    }
});
subscriber.psubscribe(''__key*__:*')

See more information in the Redis documentation, and in node_redis examples.

Update:

Here is an example to illustrate the difference between channel subcription and pattern subscription. Proper error handling is omitted for brevity sake.

var redis = require("redis");

var client = redis.createClient('6379','127.0.0.1');
var subscriber1 = redis.createClient('6379','127.0.0.1');
var subscriber2 = redis.createClient('6379','127.0.0.1');

// First subscriber listens only to events occurring for key mykey
function S1(next) {
    subscriber1.on('message', function(channel, msg) {
        console.log( "S1: received on "+channel+" event "+msg )
    });
    subscriber1.subscribe( "__keyspace@0__:mykey", function (err) {
        next();
    });
}

// Second subscriber listens to events occuring for ALL keys
function S2(next) {
    subscriber2.on('pmessage', function(pattern,channel, msg) {
        console.log( "S2: received on "+channel+" event "+msg )
    });
    subscriber2.psubscribe( "__keyspace@0__:*", function (err) {
        next();
    });
}

// Do something with keys mykey and anotherkey
function do_something() {
    client.set("mykey","example", function( err ) {
        client.set("mykey", "another example", function( err ) {
            client.del("mykey", function( err ) {
                client.set("anotherkey","example", function( err ) {
                    client.del("anotherkey");
                });
            });
        });
    });
}

// Here we go
S1( function () {
    S2( function () {
        do_something();
    });
});

The result of this script is:

S1: received on __keyspace@0__:mykey event set
S2: received on __keyspace@0__:mykey event set
S2: received on __keyspace@0__:mykey event set
S1: received on __keyspace@0__:mykey event set
S1: received on __keyspace@0__:mykey event del
S2: received on __keyspace@0__:mykey event del
S2: received on __keyspace@0__:anotherkey event set
S2: received on __keyspace@0__:anotherkey event del

You can see that first subscriber received only events for mykey, while second subscriber receives events for all keys.