We continue with the entries dedicated to MQTT by looking at MQTT Explorer, a generic client that allows us to analyze the packets sent on our MQTT network.
In previous entries, we have seen What is MQTT and its importance in IoT, What are Topics and how to use them, and learned how to install Mosquitto, one of the most popular MQTT brokers.
The next step to start working and experimenting is to add a client to our MQTT system, and program our own clients to send and receive messages.
While not mandatory, it is more than convenient to have a generic client that allows us to monitor the operation of our MQTT network.
In this way, we can see the messages that are being exchanged in the network, which is a great help when testing and checking for faults in the system.
There are many generic clients that can help us with this functionality, but one of the best is MQTT Explorer, an open source development by Thomas Nordquist.
First of all, MQTT Explorer stands out for its interface, well designed and very easy to use. Messages and topics are displayed in a tree-like structure, and it is possible to expand each one and view its details.
Similarly, the large number of features it incorporates is important. With MQTT Explorer, we can view both topics and messages, search, filter, publish messages, and even create graphs of the received values.
On the other hand, the performance of MQTT Explorer is highly optimized, allowing it to handle hundreds of thousands of messages per minute. More than enough for any development network.
In conclusion, a very useful tool that should be part of your standard tools during the development of MQTT-based applications.
MQTT Explorer is cross-platform, and is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac on the project’s website http://mqtt-explorer.com/.
Also, as we have said, it is open source and all the code is available at https://github.com/thomasnordquist/MQTT-Explorer