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WebSphere Message Brokers
File: ab00040_
Writer: Kate Hostler

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This build: July 31, 2007 21:16:05

Broker Application Development perspective

The Broker Application Development perspective is the default perspective that is displayed when you start the Message Broker Toolkit.

Typically, you perform the following tasks in this perspective:

The following figure shows the Broker Application Development perspective of the Message Broker Toolkit. The TextMessenger.msgflow file in the Broker Development view is open in the Message Flow editor.

A screen capture of the Broker Application Development perspective in the Message Brokers Toolkit.

The Broker Application Development perspective provides several views to navigate, browse, and update your application resources.

Broker Development view

Use the Broker Development view to navigate and browse your application resources, and to select resources for editing. You can also use this view to access the Quick Start wizards, which help you create the basic resources that are required for a Message Broker application.
At the top of the Broker Development view (on the left), you can click a down arrow down arrow to display a list containing links to the three Quick Start wizards:
  • Start from scratch
  • Start from WSDL and/or XSD files
  • Start from existing message set

The Broker Development view displays a hierarchical view of the following message flow and message set resource files:

  • Message flow projects
  • Message flows
  • ESQL files
  • Mappings files
  • Message set projects
  • Message sets
  • Message definition files

When you create resources, they are grouped together by file type in logical categories within the hierarchy, and placed in virtual folders. These virtual folders are described in Resources.

Other folders and files that are created for the Message Flow project or Message Set project are placed directly under the project folders.

You can hide the categories (virtual folders) by clicking the Hide Categories button in the Broker Development view toolbar, or by right-clicking the Message Flow project or Message Set project and then selecting Hide Categories from the menu. You can use the Hide Categories menu item or button to toggle between category mode and non-category mode.

You can also toggle between showing and hiding broker schema (in a Message Flow project) and namespaces (in a Message Set project) by right-clicking on the project and selecting Hide Namespaces from the menu. You can also do this by selecting Hide Namespaces from the view menu (shown by a down-arrow) in the Broker Development view toolbar. By default, broker schema and namespaces are shown. This option is available only in category mode.

You can toggle between showing and hiding file extensions for files that are under virtual folders, broker schema (or namespaces) and messageSet.mset. To toggle between hiding and showing the file extensions, either right-click on the file and then select Hide Categorized File Extensions from the menu, or select Hide Categorized File Extensions from view menu (shown by the down arrow) in the Broker Development view toolbar. By default, file extensions are shown. Other files and folders that are directly under the project are not affected by this option.

By default, the hierarchy view contains the resource files for all of your application projects. However, you can limit the number of resources that are displayed in the Broker Development view by organizing and displaying them in working sets. A working set is a logical collection of application projects, which makes it easier to manage and work with your application projects. For more information on working sets, see Resources or Displaying selected projects in working sets.

You use specialized editors to open and edit any of the resources in the broker development view, except project files.

Editor view

Double-click a resource in the Broker Development view to launch the associated editor in the Editor view.

The Message Broker Toolkit provides the following specialized editors by default for working with the content of message flow and message set files:

ESQL editor
For viewing and updating the ESQL statements that are associated with Compute, Database, and Filter nodes.
Message Category editor
For creating, viewing, and updating message categories that you define within the MRM domain.
Message Definition editor
For creating, viewing, and updating messages that you define within the MRM domain.
Message Flow editor
For creating, viewing, and updating message flows, and the nodes that define them.
Message Mapping editor
For defining transformations between data sources and targets, without the need for programming in XPath, XSLT, XQuery, Java, or ESQL.
Message Set editor
For creating, viewing, and updating message sets that you define within the MRM domain.

Outline view

The Outline view provides a summary of the content of the resource that is currently open in the Editor view.

Click the Overview Mode icon The Overview Mode icon to toggle to the Overview view, which provides a useful summary for large, complex message flows because it shows a small-scale version of the flow. Click the Overview Mode icon again to return to the Outline view.

Problems view

The Problems view displays any messages (information and error) that are associated with the resource that is currently open in the Editor view. For example, if you save a message flow that has an error (such as a mandatory property not set), you can check the content of the Problems view to determine any corrections that you need to make. When you double-click a Problems view entry, the appropriate editor opens the resource that contains an error, and positions the cursor at the point of the error (where possible).

Properties view

The Properties view displays the properties for the node that is selected in the Editor view. The Properties are grouped and displayed on tabs, which are listed on the left of the Properties view.

Broker Application Development perspective toolbar

A new Broker Application Development perspective toolbar displays only the icons for Get a message from a queue and Put a message to a queue, shown in the table below.
Icon Label and action
Dequeue message icon
Get a message from a queue
Enqueue message ucon
Put a message to a queue
You can add more icons to the toolbar for other actions that you might want to perform in the perspective. To add icons to the toolbar, do the following:
  1. Click Window > Customize Perspective.... The Customize Perspective dialog is displayed.
  2. Click the Commands tab. This tab displays the available command groups and their corresponding menu bar details and toolbar details.
  3. Click a command group name to display its toolbar details. The available command groups and toolbar details for the icons that you might want to use in the perspective are shown in the table below.
  4. In the broker, select the command groups that you want to add, and click OK. The toolbar displays the icons from the selected command groups.
Available command groups Toolbar details: icon Toolbar details: label and action
ESQL Actions Create new message flow ESQL file icon Generate a New Message Flow ESQL File
Mapping Actions Create new message flow mapping file icon Create a Message Map File
Message Creation Create new message set icon Create a New Message Set
Create new message definition file icon Create a New Message Definition File
Create new message category file icon Create a New Message Category File
Message Flow Element Creation Create new message flow project icon Create a New Message Flow Project
Create new broker schema icon Create a New Broker Schema
Create new message flow icon Create a New Message Flow
Message Set Generate WSDL icon Generate a Web Service Definition File
Generate HTML documentation icon Generate HTML Documentation for a Message Set
Generate XML Schema icon Generate an XML Schema from a Message Definition File
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Copyright IBM Corporation 1999, 2007Copyright IBM Corporation 1999, 2007. All Rights Reserved.
This build: July 31, 2007 21:16:05

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