Messages carried using the SOAP over JMS format

A typical usage pattern scenario of the IBM MQ custom channel for WCF is as an interface to web services hosted over IBM MQ (SOAP/JMS).

Messages are carried using the SOAP over JMS message format of IBM MQ, enabling WCF clients and services to also call or be called by other WebSphere Application Server applications or hosting environments which are compatible with this format, including web services and clients running in , CICS®, Axis v1 ( Java ), and .asmx (.NET), as shown in the following diagram:

For details on SOAP over JMS, see: Developing web services with IBM MQ transport for SOAP An example of a typical scenario from the diagram would be:

1. A web Service hosted within WebSphere Application Server and exposed over IBM MQ using the support for SOAP over JMS within WebSphere Application Server.
2. The WSDL document describing the service can then be used by the WCF tool to generate a client proxy and configuration which would then create an appropriate WCF channel stack, including the custom channel.
3. The client application can then use the proxy to start the web service in the same way as any other web service.

The channel would typically be used with a WCF text/SOAP message encoder, but the channel can be paired with other WCF message encoders if required. Using alternative encoders can also provide limited integration with native IBM MQ applications which do not support SOAP over JMS, but this is not the primary role of the channel. The key benefits of using the custom channel in a WCF environment are:

• Asynchronous invocation: Supporting fire and forget client operations where the client is decoupled from the availability of the service and features, such as rerouting of responses and multi-hop.
• Reliable scaling characteristics: Queue based messaging allows capacity to be predictably added to a system.
• Quality of service: Messages are tangible and traceable, and can be easily managed and administered.