Request-response pattern not working with em-zeromq - ruby

Question

I am trying to implement a request-response pattern using the em-zeromq gem, but I can't get the response socket to send a message back to the request socket in its handler. I have written some very simple code to test it:
em_req.rb
require 'em-zeromq'
client_id = ARGV[0] ? ARGV[0].to_i : 1
message = ARGV[1] || "Foo"
Thread.abort_on_exception = true
class ReqHandler
attr_reader :received
def on_readable(socket, messages)
messages.each do |m|
puts "Received message from server: #{m.copy_out_string}"
end
end
end
trap('INT') do
EM.stop
end
ctx = EM::ZeroMQ::Context.new(1)
EM.run do
conn = ctx.connect(ZMQ::REQ, 'tcp://127.0.0.1:9000', ReqHandler.new, identity: "client#{client_id}")
conn.socket.send_string(message)
end
em_rep.rb
require 'em-zeromq'
Thread.abort_on_exception = true
class ResponseHandler
attr_reader :received
def on_readable(socket, messages)
message = messages.first.copy_out_string
puts "Received message from client: #{message}"
socket.send_msg("re: #{message}")
end
end
trap('INT') do
EM.stop
end
ctx = EM::ZeroMQ::Context.new(1)
EM.run do
socket = ctx.bind(ZMQ::REP, 'tcp://127.0.0.1:9000', ResponseHandler.new)
end
I have written similar code using the push-pull pattern and got that to work, but for request-response all I get is the response code printing "Received message from client1: Foo" but the reply never reaches the request code. I suspect it has to do with writing to the socket in the response code's handler, because the same thing happens when I use a request-router pattern. The only time it works is when I send a message from the server without sending a message from the client first (using push-pull).
Any ideas about what might be causing this? The author of the gem isn't maintaining it anymore, but I thought I would post this issue anyway in the hopes of other developers with similar experiences seeing this.
I am using em-zeromq 0.2.2 on Ruby 1.9.2p290.

Answer 1

I commmited a fix in the master branch which should solve your problem, can you give it a try ?
You can use bundler to easily test it:
Create a file called Gemfile in your application folder:
source :rubygems
gem 'em-zeromq', :git => "git://github.com/andrewvc/em-zeromq.git"
And add this on top of your ruby files:
require 'rubygems'
require 'bundler/setup'
And last run this in the application folder ($ is your prompt):
$ bundle
Now you can execute your ruby files they will use the latest code from github
Edit: I am the new maintainer for the em-zeromq gem.