U S I N G   T H E   J M S   A P I  

Chapter  

11 

11.  Using the JMS API 

Messaging Service for Asynchronous Calls by Hiram 

Chirino 

The JMS API stands for Java  Message Service Application Programming Interface, and it 

is used by applications to send asynchronous  business quality  messages to other 

applications.  In the JMS world, messages are not sent directly to other applications.  

Instead, messages are sent to destinations, also known as  queues  or  topics .  The 

applications sending messages do not need to worry if the receiving applications are up and 

running, and conversely, receiving applications do not need to worry about the sending 

application's status.  Both senders, and receivers only interact with the destinations.  

The JMS API is the standardized interface to a JMS provider, sometimes called a Message 

Oriented Middleware (MOM) system.  JBoss comes a with JMS 1.0.2b compliant JMS 

provider called JBossMQ.  When you use the JMS API with JBoss, you are using the 

JBossMQ engine transparently.  JBossMQ implements the JMS spec fully, and adds few 

extra features, so the best JBossMQ user guide is the JMS specification!  For more 

information about the JMS API please visit the 

JMS Tutorial

 or 

JMS Downloads & 

Specifications

.  This rest of this chapter will assume you are already familiar with JMS 

and it will mainly cover all the JBoss specifics. 

Using JMS with JBoss 

Looking up the ConnectionFactory 

To use JMS in a client application, it is recommended that JNDI

8

 be used to locate the JMS 

ConnectionFactory objects that create connections to the JBoss JMS provider, JBossMQ.   

Most standalone JMS client applications

9

 should use the OIL invocation protocol.  The OIL 

uses and optimized socket protocol to communicate with the server.  Listing 11 1, looking up 

8

 More information about the Java Naming and Directory Services (JNDI) can be found at the java.sun.com web site. 

9

 A standalone JMS client application is considered to be one that does not run inside the JBoss application server. 

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