This topic explains how to use the Queue Browser view, which allows you to see the contents of queues deployed on Websphere MQ, Websphere Application Server, Tibco EMS, Sonic MQ, ActiveMQ, and any other JMS provider.

Sections include:

About the Queue Browser

The Queue Browser allows you to connect to a JMS broker to retrieve the list of queues provided by that broker and show the messages currently sitting on each queue. You can see the headers as well as the message contents. The Queue Browser also lets you delete messages off the queues. This feature provides visibility into (and control over) the messages present on queues—which is helpful when analyzing the interaction between the test scenarios and the system under test.

You can:

• View queues
• View messages
• View message contents
• Delete messages

Supported JMS Providers

The following JMS providers are supported:

• IBM WebSphere MQ JMS — see below for prerequisites
• IBM WebSphere Application Server JMS
• Tibco EMS JMS  — see below for prerequisites
• Progress Sonic MQ/ESB
• ActiveMQ JMS
• JBoss JMS

WebSphere MQ Prerequisites

The Queue Browser can be configured to display the available MQ queues and show the messages available within them—similar to the WebSphere MQ Browser tool from IBM.

To configure the view for this, add the WebSphere MQ jars for JMS messaging and configure the browser view following the JMS instructions described in IBM WebSphere MQ (MQ Series).

Once this configuration is completed, MQ Messages that are generated via the MQ native API might appear in a hexadecimal encoded (non-readable) format in the Queue Browser view. A hexadecimal decoding tool can be used to convert text/XML messages to a human readable format. Such tools are available online; for example, see http://www.string-functions.com/hex-string.aspx.

Tibco Prerequisites

In order to automatically see queues on Tibco, you need to:

• Specify the Tibco admin jar tibjmsadmin.jar in the System Properties preferences (see System Properties Settings).
• Provide an administrator username and password (because Tibco requires admin access in order to automatically get the list of queues).

Browsing a Queue

To browse a queue:

1. If you have not already done so, add the jar files required for the JMS implementation you are going to be accessing (see Adding Required jar Files for details).
2. Choose Parasoft> Show View> Queue Browser.
3. Click the Open JMS Settings button at the top right of the Queue Browser view.
   
   
   
   
4. In the JMS Provider Settings dialog that opens,
   1. In the Provider tab, select your JMS provider. If your provider is not listed (e.g., JBoss JMS), choose Other JMS Provider.

   2. Specify the connection settings needed to access your JMS provider.

      Completing the Connection Factory Field

      In many cases you can leave the Connection Factory field at the default value.  In some cases, you need to fill it out.  For WebSphere MQ, use the name of whatever queue manager holds the queues you are connecting to.  For WebSphere Default JMS, use the name of the connection factory that was created on WebSphere Application Server.
   3. (Optional) If you want to specify queues manually, open the Queues tab, then specify which of the available queues you want shown. This is useful if your JMS provider does not allow the browser to automatically retrieve the list of queues, if you are using Tibco but do not have access to an admin account, or if you simply want to focus on a subset of all the available queues.
   4. Click OK.
5. Click the Refresh JMS Provider button at the top right of the Queue Browser view.
   
   
   
   

You can explore the queue as follows: