Managing WebSocket messages concurrently with detached actions

When using Django Channels, WebSocket consumers handle one message at a time for each connection. This means long-running async tasks block the consumer from processing other messages.

With Django Channels Rest Framework, you can run actions in a detached manner, allowing your consumer to handle other messages concurrently.

To enable this, add detached=True to your @action method decorator:

from djangochannelsrestframework.decorators import action
from djangochannelsrestframework.consumers import AsyncAPIConsumer

class MyConsumer(AsyncAPIConsumer):
    @action(detached=True)
    async def send_email(self, pk=None, to=None, **kwargs):
        # Perform long-running async tasks like making network requests

Detached actions are essential for handling long-running async operations, such as upstream network requests. Without them, your consumer will queue all incoming messages until the current action finishes.

If you are enjoying our blog and would like to support us, you can sponsor us on GitHub.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to get exclusive Swift and SwiftUI tips, project updates, behind-the-scenes insights, and special discounts on our books.