A message channel is a logical channel in a messaging system. That is, sending messages to different message channels provides an elementary way of sorting messages into different message types. Message queues and message topics are examples of message channels. You should remember that a logical channel is not the same as a physical channel. There can be several different ways of physically realizing a logical channel.

In Fuse Mediation Router, a message channel is represented by an endpoint URI of a message-oriented component as shown in Figure 4.2.

Figure 4.2. Message Channel Pattern

The following message-oriented components in Fuse Mediation Router support the notion of a message channel:

In ActiveMQ, message channels are represented by queues or topics. The endpoint URI for a specific queue, QueueName, has the following format:

activemq:QueueName

The endpoint URI for a specific topic, TopicName, has the following format:

activemq:topic:TopicName

For example, to send messages to the queue, Foo.Bar, use the following endpoint URI:

activemq:Foo.Bar

See ActiveMQ in EIP Component Reference for more details and instructions on setting up the ActiveMQ component.

The Java Messaging Service (JMS) is a generic wrapper layer that is used to access many different kinds of message systems (for example, you can use it to wrap ActiveMQ, MQSeries, Tibco, BEA, Sonic, and others). In JMS, message channels are represented by queues, or topics. The endpoint URI for a specific queue, QueueName, has the following format:

jms:QueueName

The endpoint URI for a specific topic, TopicName, has the following format:

jms:topic:TopicName

See JMS in EIP Component Reference for more details and instructions on setting up the JMS component.

The Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) technology is a queuing system that runs on Windows Server machines (see Microsoft Message Queuing). In MSMQ, you can access queues using an endpoint URI with the following format:

msmq:MSMQueueName

Where the MSMQueueName is a queue reference, defined according to the rules of MSMQ. You can reference a queue using any of the approaches described in Referencing a Queue.

See ???? for more details.

In AMQP, message channels are represented by queues, or topics. The endpoint URI for a specific queue, QueueName, has the following format:

amqp:QueueName

The endpoint URI for a specific topic, TopicName, has the following format:

amqp:topic:TopicName

See AMQP in EIP Component Reference for more details and instructions on setting up the AMQP component.