Creating and configuring the IBM MQ custom channel for WCF

The IBM® MQ V7 custom channels for WCF work in the same manner as transport WCF channels offered by Microsoft. The IBM MQ custom channel for WCF can be created in one of two ways.

About this task

The IBM MQ custom channel integrates with WCF as a WCF transport channel, and as such must be paired with a message encoder and optional protocol channels, so it can create a complete channel stack that can be used by an application. Two elements are required for a complete channel stack to be created successfully:
  1. A binding definition: Specifies which elements are required to build the applications channel stack, including transport channel, message encoder, and any protocols, plus any general configuration settings. For the custom channel, the binding definition must be created in the form of a WCF custom binding.
  2. An endpoint definition: Links the service contract with the binding definition, and also provides the actual connection URI which describes where the application can connect. For the custom channel, the URI is in the form of a SOAP over JMS URI.
These definitions can be created in one of two different ways:
  • Administratively; The definitions are created by providing the details in an application configuration file (for example: app.config ).
  • Programmatically; The definitions are created directly from the application code.
The decision over which method to use to create the definitions must be based on the requirements of the application as follows:
  • The Administrative method for configuration provides the flexibility to alter the details of the service and client post-deployment without rebuilding the application.
  • The Programmatic method for configuration provides greater protection from configuration errors, and the ability to dynamically generate a configuration at run time.