Messaging Terminology

The following table explains terminology that is commonly used in messaging systems.

Term	Description
absolute queue name (or full queue name)	A string that fully identifies a particular queue. It includes transport type, host address, queue manager name, and queue name.
message	A data packet that includes a set of properties (the header) and a payload.
payload	The user supplied data block. Transports can have restrictions on the length of the payload.
queue	The entity to which messages are sent and from which messages are retrieved.
queue manager	A non-application process that is responsible for receiving messages from senders (local and remote) and storing them until they are retrieved by an application.
receive or get	To remove a message from a queue.
send or put	To insert a message into a queue.
system	A database server and its associated client nodes.
transport	A messaging implementation.

The queue manager can have the following additional responsibilities.

• Communicating with other queue managers

• Persistent storage of queue definitions

• Persistent storage of unprocessed messages

• Generating and sending reports about messages that have been discarded, delivered, and retrieved

• Initiating an application when a message is placed into a queue (for example, WebSphere MQ triggers)