Advantages
The primary advantage of a message-based communications protocol lies in its ability to store, route or transform messages in the process of delivery.
[edit] Storage
Most MOM systems provide persistent storage to back up the message transfer medium. This means that the sender and receiver do not need to connect to the network at the same time (asynchronous delivery). This becomes particularly useful when dealing with intermittent connections, such as unreliable networks, casual users or timed connections. It also means that should the receiver application fail for any reason, the senders can continue unaffected, as the messages they send will simply accumulate in the message store for later processing when the receiver restarts.
[edit] Routing
MOM delivers another important advantage through its ability to route messages within the middleware layer itself. Taking things a step further, middleware messaging can deliver a single message to more than one recipient (broadcast or multicast).
[edit] Transformation
In a message-based middleware system, the recipient's message need not replicate the sender's message exactly. A MOM system with built-in intelligence can transform messages en-route to match the requirements of the sender or of the recipient. In conjunction with the routing and broadcast/multicast facilities, one application can send a message in its own native format, and two or more other applications may each receive a copy of the message in their own native format. Many modern MOM systems provide sophisticated message transformation (or mapping) tools which allow programmers to specify transformation rules applicable to a simple GUI drag-and-drop operation.
Answered by
ani
at
8:10 PM on December 17, 2008
