MSMQ try-out

MSMQ (Microsoft Message Queuing) seems like a powerful thing:

• Transactional
• Robust
• Works with both COM (vb6!) and .NET

So I decided I should at least know how it works and how I can use it in a project. There are nice .NET wrappers around it, abstracting it away, like NServiceBus, but I should know how it works anyway before using any framework.

Step 1: try out an example from The Bathroom Wall Of Code

Failed. "MSMQ is not installed on this machine". It needs an install of an extra windows component! FAIL! How can I ever use this on my server that is managed by Mordac? Note to self: try out Ayende's Rhino Queues, xcopy install, with no dependency on MSMQ.

Step 2: install MSMQ

Software > Add Windows Component > MSMQ > Installation failed for unclear reasons. Some searching revealed that I had to reset the Distributed Transaction Log by some obscure command. Should of course have thought of that before trying the install. Retry install: fail again. This component has been registered for removal. Ok. Restart machine. Retry again. Now it installs.
Update: John Breakwell blogged about the details and solution of this problem here.

Step 3: Make the queue

MessageQueue q = MessageQueue.Create(@".\Private$\TestQueue");

Step 4: create and configure the queue in 2 applications

MessageQueue q = new MessageQueue(@".\Private$\TestQueue");

q.Formatter = new XmlMessageFormatter(new Type[] { typeof(String) });

Step 5: send message from application 1

q.Send("hi!", "message");

Step 6: receive the message in application 2

Console.WriteLine((string)q.Receive().Body);

Step 7: Watch it work.