def sim_msg_stream(self, sleep_time=0.25): """Sends a stream of messages to the Kafka topic "messages". Args: sleep_time: float number in seconds representing the rate messages should be sent to the Kafka topic Returns: None """ msg_cnt = 0 while True: print len(self.county_state_list) county, state = IngUt.select_random_county(self.county_state_list) timestamp = list(time.localtime()[0:6]) message_info = IngUt.create_json_message(county=county, state=state, rank=0, timestamp=timestamp, creator_id=random.randint(0, NUM_USERS-1), sender_id=random.randint(0, NUM_USERS-1), message_id=msg_cnt, message=fake.text()) self.producer.send_messages('messages', message_info) print timestamp if sleep_time != 0: time.sleep(sleep_time) msg_cnt += 1