A quick start with C# and Websphere MQ

Introduction

This article is trying to help the developers who want to start integrating .NET applications with Websphere MQ. Here we are going to start with the simplest Queue process of putting a message to a queue and getting the same message back.

Installation

We can get Demo version of Websphere MQ 6.0 form IBM's site for our quick start project and installed. We can start with simple installation choosing the default options.

Installing the WebSphere MQ Server/Client

We can install the Server and client in both machine, but in my case I install them in separate machines.

Creating Queue Manager, Queue and Channel

Open the Websphere MQ Explorer:
  Click start->Programs->Websphere MQ

 

Creating Queue Manager:
  Right click on the Queue manager option
  New->Queue manager...

Creating Queue:
  Expand the Queue manager
  Right click on the Queue option
  New->Local Queue...

Creating Channel:
  Expand the Queue manager
  Right click on the Channels option
  New->Server-connection Channel...

The Project

Open the Visual Studio and create a C# windows application project by clicking New Project->Visual C# Project->Windows Application. Name it MQExample.

The Client:

• Add a Class MQTest with Connect, Write and Read methods for the MQ operation.
• Add a form that represents the GUI.
• Add a reference of the amqmdnet.dll (check on the install folder of MQ)

On the MQ Server:

Create a Queue Manager  : QM_TEST 
    : select the create Server connection option
    : put 1421 on listen on port field (a free port)

Create a local Queue  : QM_TEST.LOCAL.ONE

Create a Channel  : QM_TEST.SVRCONN
    : select the Server connection channel option

The class

MQTest contains three public methods ConnectMQ, WriteMsg and ReadMsg. The ConnectMQ is call for connecting to a particular QueManager according to the parameter supply. WriteMsg is used for putting the message into a queue while ReadMsg gets the message from the queue.

using System;

using IBM.WMQ;

namespace MQExample

{

    public class MQTest

    {

        MQQueueManager queueManager;

        MQQueue queue;

        MQMessage queueMessage;

        MQPutMessageOptions queuePutMessageOptions;

        MQGetMessageOptions queueGetMessageOptions;

 

        static string QueueName;

        static string QueueManagerName;

        static string ChannelInfo;

        string channelName;

        string transportType;

        string connectionName;

        string message;

 

        public MQTest()

        {

            //Initialisation

            /*

            QueueManagerName = "QM_TEST";

            QueueName = " QM_TEST.LOCAL.ONE";

            ChannelInfo = "QM._TEST.SVRCONN/TCP/psingh(1421)";

            */

         }

        public string ConnectMQ(string strQueueManagerName, string strQueueName,

        string strChannelInfo)

        {

            //

            QueueManagerName = strQueueManagerName;

            QueueName = strQueueName;

            ChannelInfo = strChannelInfo;

            //

            char[] separator = {'/'};

            string[] ChannelParams;

            ChannelParams = ChannelInfo.Split( separator );

            channelName = ChannelParams[0];

            transportType = ChannelParams[1];

            connectionName = ChannelParams[2];

            String strReturn = "";

            try

            {

                queueManager = new MQQueueManager( QueueManagerName,

                channelName, connectionName );

                strReturn = "Connected Successfully";

             }

             catch(MQException exp)

            {

 

                strReturn = "Exception: " + exp.Message ;

            }

                return strReturn;

            }

 

    public string WriteMsg(string strInputMsg)

    {

         string strReturn = "";

         try

         {

            queue = queueManager.AccessQueue( QueueName,

            MQC.MQOO_OUTPUT + MQC.MQOO_FAIL_IF_QUIESCING );

            message = strInputMsg;

            queueMessage = new MQMessage();

            queueMessage.WriteString( message );

            queueMessage.Format = MQC.MQFMT_STRING;

            queuePutMessageOptions = new MQPutMessageOptions();

            queue.Put( queueMessage, queuePutMessageOptions );

            strReturn = "Message sent to the queue successfully";

         }

        catch(MQException MQexp)

        {

            strReturn = "Exception: " + MQexp.Message ;

        }

        catch(Exception exp)

        {

            strReturn = "Exception: " + exp.Message ;

        }

            return strReturn;

        }

 

    public string ReadMsg()

    {

        String strReturn = "";

        try

        {

            queue = queueManager.AccessQueue( QueueName,

            MQC.MQOO_INPUT_AS_Q_DEF + MQC.MQOO_FAIL_IF_QUIESCING );

            queueMessage = new MQMessage();

            queueMessage.Format = MQC.MQFMT_STRING;

            queueGetMessageOptions = new MQGetMessageOptions();

            queue.Get( queueMessage, queueGetMessageOptions );

            strReturn =

            queueMessage.ReadString(queueMessage.MessageLength);

         }

        catch (MQException MQexp)

         {

             strReturn = "Exception : " + MQexp.Message ;

        }

        catch(Exception exp)

        {

            strReturn = "Exception: " + exp.Message ;

        }

            return strReturn;

        }

    }

}

  

The GUI

Add the following components to form as follows. (in the input box, I put the default values)

TextBox:

• txtQueueManagerName
• txtQueueName
• txtChannelInfo
• txtPUT
• txtGET

Buttons:

• btnConnect  (Connect)
• btnWriteMsg (Write Message)
• btnReadMsg (Read Message)

Levels:

• label1 (QueueManagerName:) 
• label2 (QueueName:)
• label3 (QueueName:)
• lblConnect (Fillup the Fields and click Connect/Connection Status)

The btnConnect_Click Method:

private void btnConnect_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

    string strQueueManagerName;

    string strQueueName;

    string strChannelInfo;

 

    //TODO

    //PUT Valication Code Here

 

    strQueueManagerName =txtQueueManagerName.Text;

    strQueueName =txtQueueName.Text;

    strChannelInfo = txtChannelInfo.Text;

    lblConnect.Text = myMQ.ConnectMQ(strQueueManagerName, strQueueName, strChannelInfo);
}

Call the ConnectMQ method for connecting to the define Queue of the MQ Server.

The btnWriteMsg_Click Method:

 

private void btnWriteMsg_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

      txtPUT.Text = myMQ.WriteMsg(txtPUT.Text.ToString());

}

This method for sends the input message  to the define Queue of the MQ Server.

The btnReadMsg_Click Method:

private void btnReadMsg_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    txtGET.Text = myMQ.ReadMsg();
} 

This method returns the massage/error from the Queue of the MQ Server.

Running Application

• Run the project
• Enter the Detail of Sever, Queue Manager, Queue and Channel to respective input boxes
• Click the connect button.
• Write some message and click Write Message Button
• Click Read Message Button
• You will get the same message you sent.

The view of the project:

Always respect the QUEUE and enjoy the life.