Summary

This article provides instructions on how to use the Google Pub/Sub emulator locally on a machine with an Apple Silicon Chip (M1) to test Google Pub/Sub applications before deploying them to Google Cloud Platform.

Abstract

The article begins by explaining the benefits of using the Google Pub/Sub emulator for testing applications locally, as it can save time and resources compared to testing in a sandbox environment. The author then provides a step-by-step guide on how to set up the emulator on a machine with an Apple Silicon Chip (M1), including the installation of Java if it is missing. The guide covers starting the emulator, changing the Google Pub/Sub connection for the application, and testing the emulator using the Google Pub/Sub Python library. The article concludes by providing instructions on how to stop using the emulator when testing is complete.

Opinions

The author believes that using the Google Pub/Sub emulator can save time and resources when testing applications.
The author suggests that installing Java is necessary for running the emulator on a macOS machine.
The author recommends creating a symlink to the Java path and exporting it to the .zshrc file to ensure that the emulator runs smoothly.
The author emphasizes the importance of testing the emulator using the Google Pub/Sub Python library to ensure that it is working correctly.
The author provides clear and concise instructions for setting up and using the emulator, making it easy for readers to follow along.
The author suggests that using the emulator can help developers integrate Pub/Sub functionality into their applications more efficiently.
The author concludes by providing instructions on how to stop using the emulator when testing is complete, emphasizing the importance of cleaning up resources after use.

How to use Google Pub/Sub emulator locally to test Google Pub/Sub on Apple Silicon Chip (M1)

When you are working with Google Pub/Sub you know it sometimes can be very boring to test on a new sandbox environment and the testing time can take longer than it should do.

So why not use the gcloud emulator for that? Yes, you can install a Google Pub/Sub emulator locally on your machine and test out an application before you ship it into Google Cloud Platform.

Setup Google Pub/Sub emulator

When you have installed the Google Pub/Sub emulator you can start it locally very easily with a single gcloud CLI command.

If you are missing Java on your macOS you need to install it first, you will probably see this message if so then you need to install Java from the brew package manager.

You need to install Java and then create a symlink to the java path and export it to your .zshrc file. After that, you are ready to go with your Google Pub/Sub emulator.

Now you try to start up your Google Pub/Sub emulator again and see about this time its start-up success, it will run on default port 8085

If your emulator is running on the same machine as your application you can change your Google Pub/Sub connection for your application so all connection is going directly to your local environment.

Using and testing the Google Pub/Sub emulator

The first thing you need to do is clone the GitHub repository https://github.com/googleapis/python-pubsub go inside the folder samples/snippets where you need to install all the packages from the requirements file.

Now let's create our first topic in our Google Pub/Sub emulator to test our Pub/Sub emulator are working.

Then you should get the response back there confirm our topic is created successfully.

Now let's create a subscriber bind to this test-topic

After that, it creates a subscriber bind to our test-topic with default settings.

It's time to publish messages into our Google Pub/Sub emulator topic with test data.

To receive your message again you can run a test subscriber application there are listen on your subscriber test-subscriber in your project my-test-project

Your terminal should look like my image below here, if so then you have done its success and are ready to integrate the Pub/Sub emulator into your own application.

Stop using the emulator

When you are finished testing your Google Pub/Sub emulator you can click control+c and then unset the environment related to the Google Pub/Sub emulator.

unset PUBSUB_EMULATOR_HOST