Msmq

[fractalvibes]

Does anyone have any knowledge of MSMQ or can provide links to some practical articles on using MSMQ? I potentially have a need to create a MSMQ message via a COM+ component on the server and have a Windows Scripting Host *.wsf script pick up the message later and act upon it.

Any info appreciated,

fv

[fractalvibes]

I take it that no one has used MSMQ (MicroSoft Message Queuing) then???

fv

[Roelf]

have used msmq a while ago, now mostly work on Websphere MQSeries. Knowledge is a bit rusty

[fractalvibes]

Did you use in conjunction with Classic ASP? Just looking for ideas, etc.
from those who have used it before.

thanks,

fv

[Roelf]

no, have used msmq from VB-app, not from asp. Have used MQSeries from asp.net app and vb.net windows service.
Now starting to use MQSeries trough java-app

[fractalvibes]

I take it that MQseries is essentially the same concept, except with an IBM flavor? Do you invoke via a DB2 call?

fv

[Roelf]

no, MQseries ships with an very useable API, java, vb.net, ActiveX. which one you want to use depends on the language of your choice.

[fractalvibes]

Sounds interesting. So your web app could use MQSeries to marshall data
asynchronously between mainframe and webserver then? Know of any good online resources re: MQSeries and/or MSMQ?

fv

[Roelf]

Try here (http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/cgi-bin/searchsite.cgi?query=mq)

[fractalvibes]

Thanks for the link, Roelf! know of anything similar for MSMQ?

fv

[Roelf]

MSDN (http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?qu=msmq&View=msdn&st=b&c=0&s=1&swc=0)

[fractalvibes]

Thanks again. Roelf! Another link of interest re: MSMQ is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/technologies/communications/msmq/default.asp

From just a little reading, MSMQ just seems to make sense when you deal with an app with parts and pieces distributed all over the place and you cannot 100% guarantee that every piece is available and talking/listening
at all times...

Opinions?

fv

[Roelf]

agree, also msmq can be used to couple applications without integrating them with their api's glued to each other, that way, you can easily replace one of the applications by another one. The only thing for the new application needed is connecting it to the queue so it can get/post messages. The other app wont even know it was replaced. And in your previous example, you can connect apps on different platforms (but then you need a queue which can operate on those platforms too, and i bet msmq cannot do that)

I did an mq project to connect an old oracle-forms app to a asp.net website. In that same project, i created a windows service listening to a queue, to receive servicerequests from that oracle forms app, and post back the results of the request.

[fractalvibes]

That sounds really interesting, Roelf! I did see somewhere an article that had MSMQ working in conjunction with MQSeries...

My current app takes payments 24 X 7. This data is inserted into 2 DB2 mainframe tables and 1 DB2/Win table. The processing takes place once a day at 6:00 pm. We are seeing some "drop outs" of one heavily-used table during the time of massive mainframe batch processing. My thought was to write that particular data to MSMQ during that batch window, then have a Windows Scripting Host *.wsf script read that queue and apply to the troublesome table after the mainframe batch window.

It does appear that MSMQ is not automattically installed with Win 2000, so we would have some work to do there. Not sure about MQSeries - wonder if it is automatically a part of OS-390? Doubt it - looks to perhaps be a component of WebSphere?

fv

[Roelf]

websphere MQ is a separate product, not part of websphere or an OS. Why try to let msmq and websphere mq communicate to each other. Websphere can be used on Win platforms and can be accessed with vbs within wsh. so no need for msmq at all