Connection options

Programmable options allow WebSphere MQ Java to connect to WebSphere MQ in either of the following ways:

As a WebSphere MQ client using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
In bindings mode, connecting directly to WebSphere MQ

Table 1 shows which of these connection modes can be used for each platform.

In addition, WebSphere MQ JMS publish/subscribe applications can connect directly across TCP/IP to the IBM WebSphere MQ Event Broker program. For more information about this connection see Chapter 11, Programming publish/subscribe applications.

Table 1. Platforms and connection modes

Server platform	Standard Client	Bindings
Windows NT^(R)	yes	yes
Windows^(R) 2000	yes	yes
AIX^(R)	yes	yes
Sun Solaris (v2.6, v2.8, V7, or SunOS v5.6, v5.7)	yes	yes
OS/400^(R)	yes	yes
HP-UX	yes	yes
OS/390 and z/OS^(TM)	no	yes
Linux on Intel	yes	yes
Linux on zSeries^(TM)	yes	no

Notes:

HP-UX Java bindings support is available only for HP-UXv11 systems running the POSIX draft 10 pthreaded version of WebSphere MQ.
On Linux on zSeries and Windows 98, only TCP/IP client connectivity is supported.

The following sections describe these options in more detail.

Client connection

To use WebSphere MQ Java as a WebSphere MQ client, you can install it either on the WebSphere MQ server machine, which may also contain a Web server, or on a separate machine. If you install WebSphere MQ Java on the same machine as a Web server, an advantage is that you can download and run WebSphere MQ client applications on machines that do not have WebSphere MQ Java installed locally.

Wherever you choose to install the client, you can run it in three different modes:

From within any Java-enabled Web browser: In this mode, the locations of the WebSphere MQ queue managers that can be accessed may be constrained by the security restrictions of the browser that is used.
Using an appletviewer: To use this method, you must have the Java Development Kit (JDK^(TM)) or Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on the client machine.
As a standalone Java program or in a Web application server: To use this method, you must have the Java Development Kit (JDK) or Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on the client machine.

Bindings connection

When used in bindings mode, WebSphere MQ Java uses the Java Native Interface (JNI) to call directly into the existing queue manager API, rather than communicating through a network. This provides better performance for WebSphere MQ applications than using network connections. Unlike the client mode, applications that are written using the bindings mode cannot be downloaded as applets.

To use the bindings connection, WebSphere MQ Java must be installed on the WebSphere MQ server.