Pro MSMQ: Microsoft Message Queue Programming

Foreword by Yoel Arnon, MSMQ Software Development Engineer, Microsoft Corporation
No application is an island…In today's connected world, each and every professional developer must assume that his or her applications will need to communicate with other applications. Distributed applications, however, present a large set of unique challenges, like, What do I do when the network is disconnected? How do I coordinate the actions of two separate applications? How do I handle peak times? How do I guarantee delivery? How do I upgrade my application without breaking the communication? We at the Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) team have worked hard to provide an elegant solution to these questions and many others. This book will help you leverage this work by using MSMQ in your distributed applications so that you will be able to concentrate on the business logic rather than network problems. What is MSMQ? MSMQ is message-oriented middleware (MOM) that comes as a standard component of Windows and allows applications to exchange messages among them using queues&emdash;outgoing queues for messages waiting to be sent, and incoming queues for messages waiting to be received. Queues&emdash;like dams&emdash;guarantee nice and controlled flow of information, even when the network is congested or suffers frequent disconnects. Moreover, queues are a very natural programming metaphor. Most people would agree that working from a queue of to-do tasks is more effective than responding to requests on the spot. The same is true for computer programs. Programs that process queues of incoming messages tend to be simpler and more efficient than programs acting on interrupts. The availability of powerful, yet simple, MOMs like MSMQ on millions of desktops and servers have changed the way programmers design and write distributed applications. The simple concepts of queue and message&emdash;along with powerful features like quality of service, transactions, and security&emdash;have enabled a new breed of distributed applications in a wide range of industries. In addition, MSMQ provides an excellent solution for integrating existing applications&emdash;for the Internet or for enterprise-wide systems like ERP.