Designing Applications with MSMQ: Message Queuing for Developers
Alan Dickman, Peter HoustonBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
"This book is an invaluable resource for learning about MSMQ."
--Peter Houston MSMQ Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ)--which is incorporated into the newest version of Windows NT--brings asynchronous transaction processing (TP) capabilities to the Windows platform for the first time. MSMQ combines the high performance and robustness of mainframe transaction processing with a flexibility of objects, an administrative ease-of-use, and an ability to scale. As such MSMQ is a key technology contributing to the growth of Internet commerce and intranet distributed processing.
Whether you are a Windows programmer who is new to transaction processing or a UNIX programmer who wants to learn more about MSMQ, this book will introduce you to the topic and show you how to develop transaction-processing applications using the MSMQ technology.
Designing Applications with MSMQ offers an overview of the general design of queued messaging applications and a discussion on how MSMQ can be used in two-tier, three-tier, Web, and component architecture applications. This book also provides a detailed description of MSMQ architecture, queue, and message properties, as well as a detailed description of how MSMQ interacts with other transaction technologies, such as MTS and SQL Server.
A step-by-step tutorial shows you how to write MSMQ applications using COM components, Visual Basic, Visual C++, and the MSMQ API. In addition to the tutorial, this book offers a comprehensive introduction to transaction processing and develops a full-scale application using MSMQ that illustrates the technology's power and potential for this emergent field.
0201325810B04062001
Synopsis
Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ) - which is incorporated into the newest version of Windows NT - brings asynchronous transaction processing (TP) capabilities to the Windows platform for the first time. MSMQ combines the high performance and robustness of mainframe transaction processing with the flexibility of objects, an administrative ease-of-use, and an ability to scale. As such MSMQ is a key technology contributing to the growth of Internet commerce and intranet distributed processing. Whether you are a Windows programmer who is new to transaction processing or a UNIX programmer who wants to learn more about MSMQ, this book will introduce you to the topic and show you how to develop transaction-processing applications using MSMQ technology.
Booknews
A guide for Windows or Unix programmers to a transaction processing technology, which is built into the newest versions of Windows NT. Overviews the general design of queued messaging applications and discusses how MSMQ can be used in two-tier- three-tier, Web, and component architecture applications. Also describes the architecture, queue, and message properties and how the system interacts with other transaction technologies such as MTX and SQL Server. No bibliography. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Editorials
Booknews
A guide for Windows or Unix programmers to a transaction processing technology, which is built into the newest versions of Windows NT. Overviews the general design of queued messaging applications and discusses how MSMQ can be used in two-tier- three-tier, Web, and component architecture applications. Also describes the architecture, queue, and message properties and how the system interacts with other transaction technologies such as MTX and SQL Server. No bibliography. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.Dino Esposito
Where Do You Want To Queue Today?
Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) is relatively new software for Microsoft, but not a new kind of software; other vendors have sold similar products for a long time. MSMQ, however, represents Microsoft's first crack at asynchronous, time-independent transaction processing. But although MSMQ is new in Microsoft's space, it is important since it is incorporated in Windows 2000 and merged in older versions through the NT 4.0 Option Pack. Also, MSMQ will be tightly integrated with COM+, the next generation of COM.
Once you've decided that your middleware should be based on a queue, MSMQ becomes a primary option to consider. Designing Applications With MSMQ, by Alan Dickman, examines MSMQ from the perspective of application design, rather than, say, a programmer's reference for using MSMQ. Ultimately, the book explains why you may need MSMQ within a queued messaging system and how to take advantage of it.
Three key aspects of Designing Applications With MSMQ struck me as significant:
- The author's knowledge and expertise.
- The overall developer slant that is useful to managers too.
- The open vision of the problem that is focused on Microsoft environments, but not blindly based only on them.
These three aspects are correlated and work together, confirming that the book is really the result of Dickman's direct experience with and understanding of MSMQ.
I particularly liked the attention to the manager's point of view. MSMQ is not the kind of product that a single developer would use. It's not like a compiler or a code editor. MSMQ is an important element in a three-tier, distributed, enterprise, and mostly web-based application. The goal of the book, well-expressed by the title, is to show how to design applications using MSMQ. However, the majority of the chapters are clearly for developers and contain plenty of programming details. In other words, Designing Applications With MSMQ is definitely a programming book, but not one developers only can benefit from.
After an introduction on distributed and queued systems, Dickman describes the architecture of MSMQ -- messages, named queues, routing, security devices -- and touches on the integration between MSMQ and other queue servers. He then turns his attention to purely programming topics and presents a demo and simple application written using both COM objects and the MSMQ API. Once you've seen MSMQ in action and understand its capabilities, the book provides some design considerations, particularly targeted to software architects. Dickman then takes the demo application and discusses how you can make it more reliable and secure by using message properties and formats. He covers message tracking, journaling, and security facilities. The latter parts of the book are dedicated to transaction processing, followed by an appendix with the MSMQ COM and API reference.
Designing Applications With MSMQ is not the only book on MSMQ I've read, but it's the first one that specifically covers the argument of MSMQ. If you're interested in MSMQ as just one of the components of your n-tiered distributed system, then you probably need a more DNA-oriented book. However, if you want to delve deep inside MSMQ and queued middleware, this book is an excellent choice because it does a good job balancing strategic vision with technical details.--Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer Books