Progress Software subsidiary Sonic Software has tailored its specialised Java Messaging Service (JMS) product, SonicMQ 4.0, for BEA's Weblogic application server, offering better fault-tolerance and reliability than Weblogic's own JMS implementation, according to the firm. SonicMQ can now integrate with the two best-selling enterprise application servers: IBM's WebSphere and BEA's WebLogic.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2099805,00.html.

Hmmm.

We are trying to integrate WebLogic 6.1 with SonicMQ by using a SonicMQ queue to transactionally drive an MDB. this can only be achieved using container managed transactions, yet there is no coverage in the J2EE specification for foreign providers transactionally driving MDBs and so WebLogic have exposed a propritary MDBTransaction interface to allow this.

Last count, SonicMQ declined to support this interface so I would interested to hear how they are 'integrating well' with WebLogic.

I heard the same story.

They have either back-flipped, or (the last word I heard) Sonic are providing a bridge that moves messages from their queue to Weblogic JMS queue.

I am not sure exactly how this bridge doesnt become a bottleneck though...

<quote>
They have either back-flipped, or (the last word I heard) Sonic are providing a bridge that moves messages from their queue to Weblogic JMS queue.
</quote>

As Mike said, this is impossible unless they use the (unfortunately) proprietary interface. The reason lies in the EJB specification, which says that the receipt of a message delivered to a message-driven bean must be part of the transaction, and therefore, that the JMS implementation must start (or resume) the transaction before picking it from the queue. The problem is that unless this proprietary API is used, JMS can't tell between a regular listener and a message-driven bean...

A very unfortunate oversight.

--
Cedric

When I said "they", I meant Sonic (I think you interpreted it as "BEA doing the back-flip on the API").

I know what the limitations of the spec are - and honestly, I couldnt see the problem in Sonic using the API (it makes sense - they are going to have to do a similar thing for other appservers). But for some reason, they werent too keen - and when I was speaking to some of their guys they said that they were opting for the bridge approach. I personally thought that the bridge option was a bit questionable.

So I guess that if anyone knows, you should - did they end up using the API?

-Nick

They might have done - they even communicated in public - see the newsgroup weblogic.developer.interest.jms, the thread entitled
"When does WLS invoke associateTransaction(msg) in MDBTransaction interface?"
...initiated by Kathy Guo of Sonic Software.

You can also get it on google groups - try this url (not sure if it will work - you might have to register on google)

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en&threadm=3bf290cc%241%40newsgroups.bea.com&rnum=2&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dmdbtransaction%26hl%3Den%26group%3Dweblogic.developer.interest.jms%26scoring%3Dd%26rnum%3D2%26selm%3D3bf290cc%25241%2540newsgroups.bea.com

Not that I'm suggesting anyone use a forum other than tss, of course ;)

I don't have direct word from the vendor on this. Come on, Sonic! (Will mail Kathy)

Anyone know what the score with MQSeries/WebSphereMQ wrt to WebLogic MDBTransaction is?

Jeremy.

Jeremy, I'm afraid it doesn't look good. I downloaded the "WebLogic MQSeries JMS Support" from the BEA developer site and the documentation includes, under Restrictions and Limitations: "Message Driven Beans cannot be invoked from an MQSeries destination as part of a WLS distributed transaction." For explanation it directs you at the BEA FAQ that describes the MDBTransaction interface.

Completely OT

It is interesting to research Kathy Guo's Bio on Google

We see that in 1995 she was a Chinese citizen studying for her PhD in Utah

"Visa required for Canadian PR entering US from third country ... "

She worked for OSF Research until early 1998 and Kronos Inc in MA until she moved to Sonic in 2001

It isnt likely that she is the same Kathy Guo (Kwok Jing Shun) : who in 92 because she refused to perform a nude
scene lost a role.

Is there no privacy anymore

Sonic don't need to provide the bridge, it is a pattern that can be used to get around it, but only when WebLogic JMS is an option.

We have software that must be able to plug in to any JMS provider of an existing customer so any solution that retains WebLogic JMS may be a non-starter.

Next.