WebSphere MQ messaging interface

The WebSphere® MQ messaging interface helps you establish and maintain services and policies and the related attributes of messages.

You can connect to WebSphere MQ, the transport layer, by using a WebSphere MQ server. The messaging interface communicates with the application programs by using MQ user-defined functions. The messaging interface provides access to the WebSphere MQ server and the messaging functions through the DB2® database objects. The functions that are required in a particular installation are defined by using services and policies.

Sender, receiver, publisher, and subscriber objects are services of the MQ messaging interface.

The DB2MQ configuration tables for the MQ messaging interface are loaded by a system administrator. The configuration tables define various types of MQ services and policies, as well as other messaging objects.

Sending and receiving messages

You can use the MQ messaging interface to send and receive messages in a number of different ways:
  • Send and forget (datagram), where no reply is needed
  • Request and response, where a sending application needs a response to the request message
  • Publish and subscribe, where a broker manages the distribution of messages

Interoperability

The MQ messaging interface is interoperable with other WebSphere MQ interfaces. By using the MQ messaging interface, you can exchange messages with one or more of the following:
  • Another application that is using the messaging interface.
  • Any application that is using the message queue interface (MQI).
  • A message broker (such as WebSphere MQ Publish/Subscribe or WebSphere MQ Integrator).