jEAP Messaging Sequential Inbox

The jEAP Sequential Inbox lets a microservice control the order in which Kafka messages are processed, even when that order differs from the order in which the messages arrive. Sequencing is declared by the DevOps team in a YAML descriptor: messages sharing the same contextId form a sequence instance, and a message is only handed to the application once its configured release conditions (its predecessor messages) are satisfied. Messages that are not yet releasable are buffered in the database and replayed later. The library builds on jeap-messaging and complements its at-least-once, idempotent delivery.

• Declarative, YAML-based sequencing of Kafka messages by contextId, message type and optional subtype
• Release conditions with predecessor, and and or operators to express message dependencies
• Buffering of not-yet-releasable messages in a JPA-backed store, with idempotent handling
• Per-message contextIdExtractor, optional messageFilter (bypass sequencing) and subTypeResolver
• Retention, housekeeping and metrics for sequence instances and buffered messages
• DevOps operations (force-consume, expire, close) via pending actions and an optional REST API
• Multi-cluster Kafka consumption and recording-mode migration for introducing a sequence on a live topic

Documentation

Start with Getting started, then follow the links below.

Topic	File
Getting started (add the dependency, declare a sequence)	docs/getting-started.md
How sequencing works (buffering & release flow)	docs/how-it-works.md
Sequence declaration reference (jeap-sequential-inbox.yml)	docs/sequence-declaration.md
Configuration reference (jeap.messaging.sequential-inbox.*)	docs/configuration.md
Housekeeping, retention & metrics	docs/housekeeping-and-metrics.md
DevOps operations (pending actions & REST API)	docs/devops-operations.md

Modules

Group id for all modules is ch.admin.bit.jeap; the version is managed by the jEAP Spring Boot parent. The artifact a consuming service depends on is jeap-messaging-sequential-inbox.

Module	Purpose
jeap-messaging-sequential-inbox	The library: auto-configuration, sequencing service, JPA persistence, Kafka listeners, housekeeping, metrics
jeap-messaging-sequential-inbox-rest-api	Optional REST API exposing read operations and DevOps pending actions (role-protected)
jeap-messaging-sequential-inbox-test	Internal integration-test harness for the library (EmbeddedKafka / Testcontainers); not a consumer artifact