IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Get started with IBM BPM > Key concepts > Bindings > Binding types > WebSphere MQ bindings
WebSphere MQ bindings overview
The WebSphere MQ binding provides integration with native MQ-based applications.
WebSphere MQ administrative tasks
The WebSphere MQ system administrator is expected to create the underlying WebSphere MQ Queue Manager, which the WebSphere MQ bindings will use, before running an application containing these bindings.
WebSphere administrative tasks
You must set the Native library path property of the MQ resource adapter in Websphere to the WebSphere MQ version supported by the server, and restart the server. This ensures that the libraries of a supported version of WebSphere MQ are being used. Detailed hardware and software requirements can be found on the 
IBM support pages.
WebSphere MQ import bindings
The WebSphere MQ import binding allows components within your SCA module to communicate
with services provided by external WebSphere MQ-based applications. You must be using a supported version of WebSphere MQ.
Detailed hardware and software requirements can be found on the IBM support pages.
Interaction with external WebSphere MQ systems includes the use of queues for sending requests and receiving replies.
Two types of usage scenarios for the WebSphere MQ import binding are supported, depending on the type of operation being invoked:
- One-way: The WebSphere MQ import puts a message on the queue configured in the Send destination queue field of the import binding. Nothing is sent to the replyTo field of the MQMD header.
- Two-way (request-response): The WebSphere MQ import puts a message on the queue
configured in the Send destination queue field
The receive queue is set in the replyTo MQMD header field. A message driven bean (MDB) is deployed to listen on the receive queue, and when a reply is received, the MDB passes the reply back to the component.
The import binding can be configured (using the Response correlation scheme field) to expect the response message correlation ID to have been copied from the request message ID (the default) or from the request message correlation ID.
It is important to note that WebSphere MQ is an asynchronous binding. If a calling component invokes a WebSphere MQ import synchronously (for a two-way operation), the calling component is blocked until the response is returned by the WebSphere MQ service.
Figure 1 illustrates how the import is linked to the external service.
Figure 1. WebSphere MQ import binding resources
WebSphere MQ export bindings
The WebSphere MQ export binding provides the means for SCA modules to provide services to external WebSphere MQ-based applications.
An MDB is deployed to listen to requests incoming to the Receive destination queue specified in the export binding. The queue specified in the Send destination queue field is used to send the reply to the inbound request if the invoked component provides a reply. The queue specified in the replyTo field of the response message overrides the queue specified in the Send destination queue field.
Figure 2 illustrates how the external requester is linked to the export.
Figure 2. WebSphere MQ export binding resources
Figure 1 and Figure 2 illustrate how an application from a previous version of IBM BPM is linked to an external service. For applications developed for IBM BPM Version 7.x or later, the Activation specification is used instead of the Listener Port and Connection Factory.