Prerequisites for triggering

Before your application can take advantage of triggering, follow the steps below:

1. Either:
   1. Create an initiation queue for your application queue. For example:

         DEFINE QLOCAL (initiation.queue) REPLACE      +
                LIKE (SYSTEM.DEFAULT.LOCAL.QUEUE)      +
                DESCR ('initiation queue description')
      

      or

   2. Determine the name of a local queue that already exists and can be used by your application (usually this is SYSTEM.DEFAULT.INITIATION.QUEUE or, if you are starting channels with triggers, SYSTEM.CHANNEL.INITQ), and specify its name in the InitiationQName field of the application queue.
2. Associate the initiation queue with the application queue. A queue manager can own more than one initiation queue. You may want some of your application queues to be served by different programs, in which case you could use one initiation queue for each serving program, although you do not have to. Here is an example of how to create an application queue:

      DEFINE QLOCAL (application.queue) REPLACE   +
      LIKE (SYSTEM.DEFAULT.LOCAL.QUEUE)           +
      DESCR ('appl queue description')    +
      INITQ ('initiation.queue')          +
      PROCESS ('process.name')            +
      TRIGGER                                     +
      TRIGTYPE (FIRST)
   

   Here is an extract from a CL program for WebSphere MQ for iSeries that creates an initiation queue:

    /*   Queue used by AMQSINQA                                       */
                CRTMQMQ     QNAME('SYSTEM.SAMPLE.INQ')                  +
                            QTYPE(*LCL)  REPLACE(*YES)                  +
                            MQMNAME                                     +
                            TEXT('queue for AMQSINQA')                  +
                            SHARE(*YES)                /* Shareable   */+
                            DFTMSGPST(*YES)/* Persistent messages OK  */+
                                                                        +
                            TRGENBL(*YES)  /* Trigger control on      */+
                            TRGTYPE(*FIRST)/* Trigger on first message*/+
                            PRCNAME('SYSTEM.SAMPLE.INQPROCESS')         +
                            INITQNAME('SYSTEM.SAMPLE.TRIGGER')
    
   

3. If you are triggering an application, create a process definition object to contain information relating to the application that is to serve your application queue. For example, to trigger-start a CICS payroll transaction called PAYR:

      DEFINE PROCESS (process.name) +
             REPLACE +
             DESCR ('process description') +
             APPLTYPE ('CICS') +
             APPLICID ('PAYR') +
             USERDATA ('Payroll data')
   

   Here is an extract from a CL program for WebSphere MQ for iSeries that creates a process definition object:

    /*   Process definition                                           */
                CRTMQMPRC   PRCNAME('SYSTEM.SAMPLE.INQPROCESS')         +
                            REPLACE(*YES)                               +
                            MQMNAME                                     +
                            TEXT('trigger process for AMQSINQA')        +
                            ENVDATA('JOBPTY(3)') /* Submit parameter  */+
                            APPID('AMQSINQA')    /* Program name      */
   

   When the queue manager creates a trigger message, it copies information from the attributes of the process definition object into the trigger message.
   

   Platform	To create a process definition object
   UNIX systems, Compaq OpenVMS Alpha, Windows systems	Use DEFINE PROCESS or use SYSTEM.DEFAULT.PROCESS and modify using ALTER PROCESS
   z/OS	Use DEFINE PROCESS (see sample code in step 3), or use the operations and control panels.
   OS/400	Use a CL program containing code as in step 3.

4. You need to create a process definition if you want to trigger a channel and you are using a Version 2 MQSeries product. Otherwise, you can create a transmission queue definition and use blanks for the ProcessName attribute.

   The TrigData attribute can contain the name of the channel to be triggered or it can be left blank. Except on WebSphere MQ for z/OS, if it is left blank, the channel initiator searches the channel definition files until it finds a channel that is associated with the named transmission queue. When the queue manager creates a trigger message, it copies information from the TrigData attribute of the transmission queue definition into the trigger message.

5. If you have created a process definition object to specify properties of the application that is to serve your application queue, associate the process object with your application queue by naming it in the ProcessName attribute of the queue.
   

   Platform	Use commands
   UNIX systems, Compaq OpenVMS Alpha, OS/2, Windows systems	ALTER QLOCAL
   z/OS	ALTER QLOCAL
   OS/400	CHGMQMQ

6. Start instances of the trigger monitors (or trigger servers in WebSphere MQ for iSeries) that are to serve the initiation queues you have defined. See Trigger monitors for more information.

If you wish to be aware of any undelivered trigger messages, make sure your queue manager has a dead-letter (undelivered-message) queue defined. Specify the name of the queue in the DeadLetterQName queue manager field.

You can then set the trigger conditions you require, using the attributes of the queue object that defines your application queue. For more information on this, see Controlling trigger events.