Java EE MDB Send Example


This example shows you how to send a message to an MDB that returns a reply using the same XA transaction

The example will send deploy a simple MDB and demonstrate sending a message and the MDB consuming it

JBoss AS configuration

Please refer to HornetQ Quickstart guide to install it in JBoss AS 5

Example step-by-step

To deploy and start the server, simply type ant deploy from the example directory

To run the example, simply type ant from the example directory

To remove the example profile, simply type ant undeploy from the example directory

** make sure that JBOSS_HOME is set to the Jboss installation directory


  1. First we need to get an initial context so we can look-up the JMS connection factory and destination objects from JNDI. This initial context will get it's properties from the jndi.properties file in the directory config
    2.            initialContext = new InitialContext();
  2. We look up the JMS queue object from JNDI
    3.            Queue queue = (Queue) initialContext.lookup("/queue/testQueue");
  3. We look up the JMS connection factory object from JNDI
    4.            ConnectionFactory cf = (ConnectionFactory) initialContext.lookup("/ConnectionFactory");
  4. We create a JMS connection
    5.            connection = cf.createConnection();
  5. We create a JMS session. The session is created as non transacted and will auto acknowledge messages.
    6.            Session session = connection.createSession(false, Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);
  6. We create a JMS message producer on the session. This will be used to send the messages.
    7.           MessageProducer messageProducer = session.createProducer(queue);
  7. We create a JMS text messages that we are going to send.
    8.             TextMessage message = session.createTextMessage("This is a text message");
  8. We send messages to the queue
    9.            messageProducer.send(message);
  9. The MDB receives the message
    We know the message is a TextMessage so we cast to it. 
    10.            TextMessage tm = (TextMessage)message;
  10. The MDB gets the text and prints it 
    11.             String text = tm.getText();
            System.out.println("message " + text + " received");
  11. The MDB creates a JMS connection 
    12.             conn = connectionFactory.createConnection();
  12. The MDB creates a JMS session 
    13.             Session sess = conn.createSession(false, Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);
  13. The MDB creates a JMS message producer 
    14.             MessageProducer producer = sess.createProducer(replyQueue);
  14. The MDB creates a text message and sends it to the reply queue 
    15.             producer.send(sess.createTextMessage("this is a reply"));
  15. The Client looks up the reply queue 
    16.             queue = (Queue) initialContext.lookup("/queue/replyQueue");
  16. The Client creates a JMS message consumer 
    17.             MessageConsumer messageConsumer = session.createConsumer(queue);
  17. The Client starts the connection so it can receive messages 
    18.             connection.start();
  18. The Client receives the reply and prints it out 
    19.             message = (TextMessage) messageConsumer.receive(5000);

            System.out.println("message.getText() = " + message.getText());
  19. And finally, always remember to close your JMS connections and resources after use, in a finally block. Closing a JMS connection will automatically close all of its sessions, consumers, producer and browser objects
    20.            finally
           {
              if (initialContext != null)
              {
                initialContext.close();
              }
              if (connection != null)
              {
                 connection.close();
              }
           }