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Simple Message Queue (formerly MNS):Push topic messages to a queue

Last Updated:Mar 11, 2026

Simple Message Queue (SMQ, formerly MNS) can deliver messages published to a topic to one or more subscribed queues. This decouples publishers from consumers and enables parallel, asynchronous processing -- for example, an order event that triggers both inventory updates and analytics in separate queues.

This guide walks through the console workflow: create a topic, subscribe a queue, and publish a test message.

How it works

  1. A publisher sends a message to a topic.

  2. The topic evaluates its subscriptions and delivers a copy of the message to each subscribed endpoint.

  3. A queue subscribed to the topic receives the message and holds it until a consumer retrieves it.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure that you have:

  • An Alibaba Cloud account with SMQ activated

  • A queue created in the SMQ console to use as the subscription endpoint

Step 1: Create a topic

  1. Log on to the SMQ console.

  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Topic Model > Topics.

  3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.

  4. On the Topics page, click Create Topic.

  5. In the Create Topic panel, configure the following parameters, and then click OK.

    Parameter

    Description

    Name

    The topic name. Use a descriptive name that reflects the message type, such as order-events.

    Maximum Message Length

    The maximum length of the message body sent to this topic.

    Enable Logging Feature

    Specifies whether to enable log management for this topic.

    After the topic is created, the Topic Details page appears.

Step 2: Subscribe a queue to the topic

A subscription defines where and how topic messages are delivered. In this step, you create a subscription that routes messages to an existing queue.

  1. On the Topics page, find the target topic and click Subscriptions in the Actions column.

  2. In the View Subscriptions to {topic} Topic panel, click Subscriptions.

  3. On the Manage Subscriptions page, click Create Subscription.

  4. In the Create Subscription panel, configure the following parameters, and then click OK.

    Parameter

    Description

    Topic Name

    The name of the topic that this subscription belongs to.

    Subscription Name

    A unique name for the subscription.

    Subscription

    The endpoint type. Select Queue.

    Receiver Endpoint

    The target queue. Select an existing queue name.

    Message Filtering Tag

    (Optional) A tag to filter messages.

    Retry Policy

    The retry policy for message delivery. Select a retry policy.

    Message Format

    The format of the message payload pushed to the endpoint.

Step 3: Publish a test message

After the topic and subscription are configured, publish a message to verify the pipeline.

  1. On the Topics page, find the target topic and click Publish Message in the Actions column.

  2. On the Try Publishing Message To Topic page, configure the following parameters, and then click Publish Message.

    Parameter

    Description

    Message Content

    The message body to publish.

    Message Tag

    (Optional) A tag to filter messages.

    Subscription Type

    Select Queue.