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Applying a subscription filter policy in Amazon SNS

Message filtering in Amazon SNS allows you to selectively deliver messages to subscribers based on filter policies. These policies define conditions that messages must meet to be delivered to a subscription. While raw message delivery is an option that can affect message processing, it is not required for subscription filters to work.

You can apply a filter policy to an Amazon SNS subscription using the Amazon SNS console. Or, to apply policies programmatically, you can use the Amazon SNS API, the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), or any AWS SDK that supports Amazon SNS. You can also use AWS CloudFormation.

Enabling Raw Message Delivery

Raw message delivery ensures that message payloads are delivered as-is to subscribers without any additional encoding or transformation. This can be useful when subscribers require the original message format for processing. However, raw message delivery is not directly related to the functionality of subscription filters.

Applying Subscription Filters

To apply message filters to a subscription, you define a filter policy using JSON syntax. This policy specifies the conditions that a message must meet to be delivered to the subscription. Filters can be based on message attributes, such as message attributes, message structure, or even message content.

Relationship between Raw Message Delivery and Subscription Filters

While enabling raw message delivery can affect how messages are delivered and processed by subscribers, it is not a prerequisite for using subscription filters. However, in scenarios where subscribers require the original message format without any modifications, enabling raw message delivery might be beneficial alongside subscription filters.

Considerations for Effective Filtering

When implementing message filtering, consider the specific requirements of your application and subscribers. Define filter policies that accurately match the criteria for message delivery to ensure efficient and targeted message distribution.

Important

AWS services such as IAM and Amazon SNS use a distributed computing model called eventual consistency. Additions or changes to a subscription filter policy require up to 15 minutes to fully take effect.

AWS Management Console

Sign in to the Amazon SNS console.
On the navigation panel, choose Subscriptions.
Select a subscription and then choose Edit.
On the Edit page, expand the Subscription filter policy section.
Choose between attribute-based filtering or payload-based filtering.
In the JSON editor field, provide the JSON body of your filter policy.
Choose Save changes.

Amazon SNS applies your filter policy to the subscription.

AWS CLI

To apply a filter policy with the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), use the set-subscription-attributes command, as shown in the following example. For the --attribute-name option, specify FilterPolicy. For --attribute-value, specify your JSON policy.


$ aws sns set-subscription-attributes --subscription-arn arn:aws:sns: ... --attribute-name FilterPolicy --attribute-value '{"store":["example_corp"],"event":["order_placed"]}'

To provide valid JSON for your policy, enclose the attribute names and values in double quotes. You must also enclose the entire policy argument in quotes. To avoid escaping quotes, you can use single quotes to enclose the policy and double quotes to enclose the JSON names and values, as shown in the above example.

If you want to switch from attribute-based (default) to payload-based message filtering, you can use the set-subscription-attributes command as well. For the --attribute-name option, specify FilterPolicyScope. For --attribute-value, specify MessageBody.


$ aws sns set-subscription-attributes --subscription-arn arn:aws:sns: ... --attribute-name FilterPolicyScope --attribute-value MessageBody

To verify that your filter policy was applied, use the get-subscription-attributes command. The attributes in the terminal output should show your filter policy for the FilterPolicy key, as shown in the following example:


$ aws sns get-subscription-attributes --subscription-arn arn:aws:sns: ...
{
    "Attributes": {
        "Endpoint": "endpoint . . .", 
        "Protocol": "https",
        "RawMessageDelivery": "false", 
        "EffectiveDeliveryPolicy": "delivery policy . . .",
        "ConfirmationWasAuthenticated": "true", 
        "FilterPolicy": "{\"store\": [\"example_corp\"], \"event\": [\"order_placed\"]}", 
        "FilterPolicyScope": "MessageAttributes",
        "Owner": "111122223333", 
        "SubscriptionArn": "arn:aws:sns: . . .", 
        "TopicArn": "arn:aws:sns: . . ."
    }
}

AWS SDKs

The following code examples show how to use SetSubscriptionAttributes.

Important

If you are using the SDK for Java 2.x example, the class SNSMessageFilterPolicy is not available out of the box. For instructions on how to install this class, see the example from the GitHub website.

CLI

AWS CLI

To set subscription attributes

The following set-subscription-attributes example sets the RawMessageDelivery attribute to an SQS subscription.


aws sns set-subscription-attributes \
    --subscription-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:mytopic:f248de18-2cf6-578c-8592-b6f1eaa877dc \
    --attribute-name RawMessageDelivery \
    --attribute-value true

This command produces no output.

The following set-subscription-attributes example sets a FilterPolicy attribute to an SQS subscription.


aws sns set-subscription-attributes \
    --subscription-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:mytopic:f248de18-2cf6-578c-8592-b6f1eaa877dc \
    --attribute-name FilterPolicy \
    --attribute-value "{ \"anyMandatoryKey\": [\"any\", \"of\", \"these\"] }"

This command produces no output.

The following set-subscription-attributes example removes the FilterPolicy attribute from an SQS subscription.


aws sns set-subscription-attributes \
    --subscription-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:mytopic:f248de18-2cf6-578c-8592-b6f1eaa877dc \
    --attribute-name FilterPolicy \
    --attribute-value "{}"

This command produces no output.

For API details, see SetSubscriptionAttributes in AWS CLI Command Reference.

Java

SDK for Java 2.x

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.


import software.amazon.awssdk.regions.Region;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.sns.SnsClient;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.sns.model.SnsException;
import java.util.ArrayList;

/**
 * Before running this Java V2 code example, set up your development
 * environment, including your credentials.
 *
 * For more information, see the following documentation topic:
 *
 * https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-java/latest/developer-guide/get-started.html
 */
public class UseMessageFilterPolicy {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        final String usage = """

                Usage:    <subscriptionArn>

                Where:
                   subscriptionArn - The ARN of a subscription.

                """;

        if (args.length != 1) {
            System.out.println(usage);
            System.exit(1);
        }

        String subscriptionArn = args[0];
        SnsClient snsClient = SnsClient.builder()
                .region(Region.US_EAST_1)
                .build();

        usePolicy(snsClient, subscriptionArn);
        snsClient.close();
    }

    public static void usePolicy(SnsClient snsClient, String subscriptionArn) {
        try {
            SNSMessageFilterPolicy fp = new SNSMessageFilterPolicy();
            // Add a filter policy attribute with a single value
            fp.addAttribute("store", "example_corp");
            fp.addAttribute("event", "order_placed");

            // Add a prefix attribute
            fp.addAttributePrefix("customer_interests", "bas");

            // Add an anything-but attribute
            fp.addAttributeAnythingBut("customer_interests", "baseball");

            // Add a filter policy attribute with a list of values
            ArrayList<String> attributeValues = new ArrayList<>();
            attributeValues.add("rugby");
            attributeValues.add("soccer");
            attributeValues.add("hockey");
            fp.addAttribute("customer_interests", attributeValues);

            // Add a numeric attribute
            fp.addAttribute("price_usd", "=", 0);

            // Add a numeric attribute with a range
            fp.addAttributeRange("price_usd", ">", 0, "<=", 100);

            // Apply the filter policy attributes to an Amazon SNS subscription
            fp.apply(snsClient, subscriptionArn);

        } catch (SnsException e) {
            System.err.println(e.awsErrorDetails().errorMessage());
            System.exit(1);
        }
    }
}

For API details, see SetSubscriptionAttributes in AWS SDK for Java 2.x API Reference.

Python

SDK for Python (Boto3)

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.


class SnsWrapper:
    """Encapsulates Amazon SNS topic and subscription functions."""

    def __init__(self, sns_resource):
        """
        :param sns_resource: A Boto3 Amazon SNS resource.
        """
        self.sns_resource = sns_resource


    @staticmethod
    def add_subscription_filter(subscription, attributes):
        """
        Adds a filter policy to a subscription. A filter policy is a key and a
        list of values that are allowed. When a message is published, it must have an
        attribute that passes the filter or it will not be sent to the subscription.

        :param subscription: The subscription the filter policy is attached to.
        :param attributes: A dictionary of key-value pairs that define the filter.
        """
        try:
            att_policy = {key: [value] for key, value in attributes.items()}
            subscription.set_attributes(
                AttributeName="FilterPolicy", AttributeValue=json.dumps(att_policy)
            )
            logger.info("Added filter to subscription %s.", subscription.arn)
        except ClientError:
            logger.exception(
                "Couldn't add filter to subscription %s.", subscription.arn
            )
            raise

For API details, see SetSubscriptionAttributes in AWS SDK for Python (Boto3) API Reference.

Amazon SNS API

To apply a filter policy with the Amazon SNS API, make a request to the SetSubscriptionAttributes action. Set the AttributeName parameter to FilterPolicy, and set the AttributeValue parameter to your filter policy JSON.

If you want to switch from attribute-based (default) to payload-based message filtering, you can use the SetSubscriptionAttributes action as well. Set the AttributeName parameter to FilterPolicyScope, and set the AttributeValue parameter to MessageBody.

AWS CloudFormation

To apply a filter policy using AWS CloudFormation, use a JSON or YAML template to create a AWS CloudFormation stack. For more information, see the FilterPolicy property of the AWS::SNS::Subscription resource in the AWS CloudFormation User Guide and the example AWS CloudFormation template.

Sign in to the AWS CloudFormation console.
Choose Create Stack.
On the Select Template page, choose Upload a template to Amazon S3, choose the file, and choose Next.
On the Specify Details page, do the following:
1. For Stack Name, type MyFilterPolicyStack.
2. For myHttpEndpoint, type the HTTP endpoint to be subscribed to your topic.
  
  Tip
  If you don't have an HTTP endpoint, create one.
On the Options page, choose Next.
On the Review page, choose Create.

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Document Conventions

String value matching

Removing a subscription filter policy

Applying a subscription filter policy in Amazon SNS

Important

AWS Management Console

AWS CLI

AWS SDKs

Important

Note

Note

Amazon SNS API

AWS CloudFormation

Tip