- Extended platform support
- The Configuration
Manager is supported
on all the broker platforms including z/OS, UNIX, Linux,
and Windows; see Configuration Manager.
The Message
Brokers Toolkit can
be installed on Linux
(x86 platform) in
addition to Windows; see Message Brokers Toolkit.
Database support on Linux
(x86 platform) is
extended to include Oracle in addition to UDB DB2;
see Supported databases.
- Simplified installation and migration
- The installation of WebSphere Message Broker Version 6.0 is easier than that of WebSphere
Business Integration Message Broker Version 5.0 because
the number of prerequisite products has been reduced. For more information
on installation, see the Installation Guide.
Configuration
Managers no longer require a database.
A Default
Configuration wizard is provided to quickly build a full environment
for development or other simple configurations on Windows and Linux
(x86 platform). For more information on
the Default Configuration wizard, see Using the Default Configuration wizard,
and the Installation Guide.
Migration
from WebSphere MQ
Integrator Version 2.1 and WebSphere
Business Integration Message Broker Version 5.0 are
supported. Both Version
2.1 and Version 5.0 can coexist with WebSphere Message Broker Version 6.0, allowing a phased migration. In addition,
the command mqsimigratecomponents is provided to migrate
individual components from one codebase to another. For more information on
migration, see Migrating and upgrading.
The
installation of
WebSphere Message Broker for
z/OS Version 6.0 has
been simplified in the following ways:
- A single command can be used to create brokers, Configuration
Managers,
and User
Name Servers.
- All commands are JCL-based, meaning that no UNIX shell
is required.
For more information, see the
Installation Guide.
- Improved Message
Brokers Toolkit
- The Message
Brokers Toolkit is based
on the latest release of Rational Application Developer, powered
by the Eclipse open source platform. The Message
Brokers Toolkit includes
the following new features:
- Support on Linux
(x86 platform) in
addition to Windows.
- XML editors.
- Visual debugging with the following resources, which reduces
the need for Eclipse perspective switching:
- Message
flows
- ESQL
- Java™
- Graphical mappings
For more information, see Flow debugger overview.
For more information about the Message
Brokers Toolkit,
see Message Brokers Toolkit.
- Flexible transformation
- Enhanced graphical mapping
- The mapping tools support both novice and expert users, when authoring
unidirectional transformations between source and target instance data elements.
In addition to requiring less ESQL coding, the tools include the following
enhancements:
- A Message Mapping editor with
a source pane, target pane, drag and drop, spreadsheet view, expression entry
field, edit window, and marker bar with breakpoint indication for debug purposes;
see Message Mapping editor.
- An incremental builder that
validates map content and external links, and generates ESQL object code as
output for deployment to the broker.
- Support for user-defined functions written in Java and ESQL.
- The ability to split source messages into a number of output messages,
convert the message type automatically, map message headers, and map repeating
elements.
Compatibility with earlier versions is provided by automatic migration,
where existing mfmap files are rewritten in the new msgmap format. Message
flows with Mapping nodes continue to function
without change.
For more information about mapping, see Message mappings overview.
- Routing and transformation rules in Java
- You can use the JavaCompute node
to write routing and transformation logic in Java. A standard J2SE 1.4.2 environment
is provided with the standard Eclipse Java editor with color highlighting and
code assist to create the transformations. XPath helper methods are provided,
in addition to the full plug-in methods, to give easy access to message fields.
No ESQL skill or experience is required.
You can deploy Java jars
to the broker using the standard deployment facilities.
For
more information about the JavaCompute node,
see JavaCompute node.
- ESQL enhancements
- Transforming and routing messages using ESQL has been made easier by the
following enhancements:
- In-memory cache to reduce access to databases for read-only routing or
validation data.
- Improved support for creating DATETIME variables.
- Access to multiple databases from the same Compute, JavaCompute, Database, or Filter node.
- Dynamic database schemas.
- New-user defined properties that can pass parameters to ESQL to modify
standard behavior.
- Access to environment information; for example, message flow name
and broker name.
- Improved support for result sets returned by database stored procedures.
- Improved error recovery using SQL handlers.
- Multiple out terminals to combine the function of Compute and Filter nodes.
For more information, see ESQL overview.
- XSLT enhancements
- Performance of XSLT transformations is improved by the support of compiled
style sheets. The style sheets can also be deployed using the standard deployment
facilities.
For more information on XSLT transformations, see XSLTransform node.
- Improved performance and scalability
- Performance of the broker run time has been significantly improved by
the following enhancements:
- The path lengths of the major broker functions have been shortened.
- The cost of parsing and streaming messages has been reduced.
- ESQL and publish/subscribe functions have been improved.
- The aggregation nodes now use WebSphere MQ queues
to store state information instead of a database. This improves the throughput
of all requests, with the greatest improvement being gained with non-persistent
requests.
- A new in-memory cache allows more efficient message flows to
be developed.
- The storage requirements of the MRM and XML parsers have
been reduced so that larger messages can be processed.
- Coexistence
- WebSphere Message Broker Version 6.0 can coexist with either a Version
2.1 or
a Version 5.0 product on the same computer. You
can install WebSphere Message Broker Version 6.0 in a different location on the same computer,
migrate your components and resources to WebSphere Message Broker Version 6.0, and uninstall the Version
2.1 or Version 5.0 product later when you are sure that
you no longer need it.
- With some restrictions, all Version 5.0 components
can participate in a Version 6.0 broker domain,
and all Version 6.0 components can participate
in a Version 5.0 broker domain. A Version
2.1 broker
is the only Version
2.1 component that can take
part in a Version 6.0 broker domain.
For more
information about coexistence, see Coexistence with previous versions and other products.
- Enhanced support for Web services
- Web services support has been extended in the following ways:
- SOAP 1.2 is supported.
- HTTP 1.1 is supported.
- SOAP schemas are provided; using SOAP schemas can help simplify the modeling
and transformation of SOAP messages; see SOAP applications.
- WSDL definitions can be imported using the new WSDL importer; see Importing from WSDL files to create message definitions.
- The WSDL generator has been improved; see Generating a WSDL definition from a message set.
- Imported and generated WSDL is validated for compliance with the Web Services
Interoperability (WS-I) Basic Profile 1.0.
- The HTTP transport has been extended to provide HTTPS support, which provides
added privacy and security.
- Driving message flows
- Message
flows can be driven by JMS transports.
Supported JMS providers include the embedded JMS provider in WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0; see WebSphere Broker JMS Transport.
New TimeoutControl and TimeoutNotification nodes allow message flows to be driven periodically rather
than by an external event; see TimeoutControl node and TimeoutNotification node.
A new MQGet node
allows messages to be retrieved midway through a message flow,
not only at the beginning of the message flow.
Groups of messages can be dealt with together, and queues can be used to save
temporary state information; see MQGet node.
- Enhanced message parsing
- The performance of both parsing and writing messages has been significantly
improved to allow greater throughput, especially of large messages.
A new
WSDL importer is provided to create message models from WSDL files, simplifying
the integration of Web Services.
A new MIME parser is provided to allow
the parsing of multipart MIME messages such as SOAP with Attachments and RosettaNet;
see MIME parser and domain.
Message models for industry
standard message definitions, such as SOAP envelope, MIME headers, and SAP
IDoc segments, are supplied for inclusion in your own message sets.
Support
has been added for XML Schema list and union simple types, xsi:type attributes,
and XML version 1.1.
Unbounded repeats are supported for all kinds of
message including binary and formatted text.
Enhanced support is provided
for COBOL messages that use OCCURS DEPENDING ON.
The following runtime
validation improvements are provided:
- Validation options on more nodes.
- A new Validate node to validate
a message in the middle of a message flow.
- The ability to detect all validation failures in a message, before throwing
an exception.
- The ability to force a complete parse of a message independently of runtime
validation.
- Improved management
- Runtime versioning
- The enhanced versioning capabilities that were introduced to the development
environment in the last release have been extended to the runtime environment.
All deployed resources can be tagged with version, author, and other useful
information in addition to the standard compiled time and deployment time
attributes. The new information is displayed in the administration interface,
making it easy to see which resources have been deployed. For more information
on runtime versioning, see Message flow version and keywords.
- More automation
- New and extended command line utilities are provided to allow full automation
of the deployment to production environments of new resources.
The Configuration Manager Proxy (CMP) Java API is a new systems management application
interface that is provided to allow WebSphere Message Broker to
be fully managed by products and utilities other than the Message
Brokers Toolkit and
the command-line interface. For more information on the CMP, see Developing applications that use the Configuration Manager Proxy Java API.
- Improved security
- The HTTP transport has been extended to provide HTTPS
support, which provides added privacy and security.
Communication between
the Message
Brokers Toolkit and a Configuration
Manager has been extended to allow the
use of SSL for added security.
- License management
- WebSphere Message Broker supports a new form of license
management using IBM® Tivoli® License Manager (ITLM), Version 2.1, across
all the WebSphere Message Broker platforms except z/OS. Implementing ITLM allows sub-capacity
pricing for eBusiness On Demand.
For more information on ITLM, see Installing Tivoli License Manager.
- Code page conversion
- The set of code page converters that are used by WebSphere Message Broker has
been updated and is now comprised of code page converters from the International
Components for Unicode (ICU) libraries for Unicode, Version 3.2. For the list
of code page converters that are included in the set, see Supported code pages.
For
information on how to add additional code page converters to the set, see Generating a new code page converter.
- WebSphere MQ as a transaction
manager
- When using WebSphere MQ Version 6.0 as a
transaction manager in a 64-bit environment, data sources in coordinated message
flows cannot connect to 32-bit DB2 instances.
If data sources in your coordinated message flows connect to DB2,
ensure that they only connect to 64-bit DB2 instances.