com.smartgwt.client.docs

## Interface Messaging

-     public interface Messaging

  ### Real-Time Messaging

  The optional Real-Time Messaging (RTM) module for Smart GWT allows browser-based web applications to:
  - publish and subscribe to HTTP messaging channels
  - send and receive messages via server push, for "real-time" updates without polling
  For examples of publish and subscribe messaging, see: @see Portfolio Grid and @see Stock Chart

  This functionality is currently supported for deployment on Java server platforms only, and requires a Power license or better as well as purchase of the Real-Time Messaging module. See http://smartclient.com/product for details, and see `LoadingOptionalModules` for instructions on setting up the Messaging module.

  ### Usage Summary

  Messaging works in terms of channels. A channel is an abitrary identifier for a destination for a message. When messages are sent to a channel, anyone subscribed to that channel receives the message.

  The same concept appears in JMS (Java Message Service), where the equivalent term to channel is "topic".

  Messages can be sent to a channel from either the client-side ( Messaging.send()) or server-side (ISCMessageDispatcher.send(), or equivalent JMS APIs to send a message to a Topic).

  You can subscribe to a channel from either the client-side ( Messaging.subscribe()) or server-side (ISCMessageDispatcher.register(), or equivalent JMS APIs to subscribe to a Topic).

  Channels can be used in any way the application needs. For example, a chat application similar to IRC would typically create a new channel every time 2 or more people want to talk to one another.

  ### Server API summary

  Server-side RTM interfaces are provided by the following classes in com.isomorphic.messaging:

  ISCMessageDispatcher
  Abstract class; use to obtain a concrete message dispatcher class.
  instance() returns a concrete ISCMessageDispatcher class capable of delivering responses within the JVM
  instance(RequestContext context) returns a concrete ISCMessageDispatcher class capable of delivering responses to web browsers
  send(ISCMessage msg) send a message
  register(ISubscriber subscriber) register this subscriber
  unregister(ISubscriber subscriber) unregister this subscriber
  subscribe(ISubscriber subscriber, String channel) subscribe a given subscriber to a given channel
  unsubscribe(ISubscriber subscriber, String channel) unsubscribe a given subscriber from a given channel
  boolean isSubscribed(ISubscriber subscriber, String channel) check to see if a given subscriber is subscribed to a given channel
  ISCMessage
  Message object.
  ISCMessage(String channel, Object data)
  ISCMessage(List channels, Object data) create a message bound for the specified channel(s) with the specified data payload
  ISubscriber
  Simple interface for a message subscriber. Required methods are:
  public void send(ISCMessage msg) throws Exception;
  public ISCMessage nextMessage(long timeout) throws Exception;
  ISCSubscriber Simple concrete implementation of ISubscriber. send() adds message to a queue and nextMessage() retrieves them.

  ### Configuration

  The Smart GWT message dispatcher can operate in simple mode or enterprise mode:

  - Simple mode uses an in-memory messaging delivery system with no message persistence, and can operate only in the context of a single JVM
  - Enterprise mode uses Java Message Service (JMS) as the messaging backend, and can operate in a clustered environment
  The default settings will use the Simple Mode (no JMS). To use JMS, set the following in `server.properties`:

        # Use com.isomorphic.messaging.JMSMessageDispatcher for JMS-backed messaging
        messaging.dispatcherImplementer: com.isomorphic.messaging.JMSMessageDispatcher

  #### JMS configuration: setting JNDI properties

  There are two styles of configuring JNDI and configuring Smart GWT Messaging to find a JMS Topic Connection Factory:

  1. Configure JNDI in your servlet engine

  In this case, you would set JNDI properties (java.naming.* properties) via your application's jndi.properties file.

  2. Configure JNDI via server.properties

  If you set `messaging.jms.context` to a string such as "mySettings", it tells Smart GWT to refer to several other properties in the `server.properties` file, prefixed with "jndi" + the value of `messaging.jms.context`. For example:

        messaging.jms.context: mySettings
       jndi.mySettings.java.naming.factory.initial:
       org.jboss.naming.remote.client.InitialContextFactory
        jndi.mySettings.java.naming.provider.url: remote://localhost:4447
        jndi.mySettings.java.naming.factory.url.pkgs: org.jboss.naming:org.jnp.interfaces
        jndi.mySettings.java.naming.security.authentication: simple
        jndi.mySettings.java.naming.security.principal: admin
        jndi.mySettings.java.naming.security.credentials: admin

  The configuration above means that, when the Messaging system uses JNDI to look up ConnectionFactory instances, the Hashtable of environment information passed to `new InitialContext()` will contain entries such as `java.naming.provider.url = remote://localhost:4447` and the various other `java.naming.*` JNDI properties shown above.

  This is an alternative to using `jndi.properties` or other means provided by your servlet engine for JNDI setup. If you use this mechanism, the JNDI properties shown above will be used only when Messaging looks up JMS resources, and not for any other JNDI lookups.

  #### JMS configuration: JNDI path to find ConnectionFactory instances

  When using JNDI "lookup()" calls to find your JMS ConnectionFactory instances, Smart GWT using the following properties from server.properties (shown below with their default values):

               messaging.jms.jndiPrefix: jms
               messaging.jms.topicConnectionFactory: TopicConnectionFactory

  Smart GWT will first call the JNDI API `context.lookup()` with the `jndiPrefix` property shown above, then with the `topicConnectionFactory` property.

  Note that there is horrible confusion and inconsistency across servlet engines as to how JNDI paths are handled when looking up JMS resources:

  - you may need to specify the prefix "java:comp/env" as part of the `messaging.jms.jndiPrefix` property, or it may be considered implicit
  - when defining the "name" attribute on the JNDI <Resource> tag for your ConnectionFactory or a specific Topic, you may need to use the prefix "jms/" in the "name" attribute, and if you don't, your Resource may be unable to be found. So for example, if you meant to name a Topic "MyTopic" the name may need to be "jms/MyTopic". Alternatively, adding the "jms/" prefix may mean that the path to lookup the resource is now "jms/jms/MyTopic" or that it cannot be found at all.
  - whether or not you used the prefix "jms" in the "name" attribute of your <Resource>, it may be required as part of the `messaging.jms.jndiPrefix` property.
  So for example, if you have Topic ConnectionFactory named either "jms/MyFactory" or just "MyFactory", any of the following settings may work:

               messaging.jms.jndiPrefix: java:comp/env
               messaging.jms.topicConnectionFactory: jms/MyFactory

               messaging.jms.jndiPrefix:
               messaging.jms.topicConnectionFactory: jms/MyFactory

               messaging.jms.jndiPrefix:
               messaging.jms.topicConnectionFactory: MyFactory

               messaging.jms.jndiPrefix: java:comp/env
               messaging.jms.topicConnectionFactory: MyFactory

  Example configurations for various popular JMS engines (ActiveMQ, JBoss, etc) can be found on the Isomorphic Public Wiki. Try searching for "messaging" or "jms" or the name of the engine you are trying to configure.

  ### Other Messaging properties

  The following properties that control Messaging can also be set via server.properties. Generally, do not adjust these properties unless you are extremely familiar with how web-based streaming works and with the specific details of your network topology.

        # how often do we send keepalives to the client (ms)
               messaging.keepaliveInterval: 3000

        # how long the client waits after the keepaliveInterval before re-establishing
        # the connection (ms)
               messaging.keepaliveReestablishDelay: 1000

        # how long the client waits for the connect handshake to complete before
        # retrying (ms)
               messaging.connectTimeout: 4000

        # connection time to live - the maximum amount of time a persistent connection
        # is allowed to stay open before being re-established (ms).  Connections are re-created
        # every 2 minutes by default because intervening firewalls or web proxies will often sever
        # connections that have been open too long, as will the browser itself.
               messaging.connectionTTL: 120000

        # total response size to pad out to in order to defeat bufferring by intervening proxies
        # (in bytes).  Set higher if you see data leaving the server, but it never arrives at the
        # client machine.  With older legacy proxies, values as high as 256k may be required.
               messaging.flushBufferSize: 8096

        # dispatcher to use for user registration/message queueing
        # com.isomorphic.messaging.LocalMessageDispatcher for simple one-jvm messaging
        # com.isomorphic.messaging.JMSMessageDispatcher for JMS-backed messaging
               messaging.dispatcherImplementer: com.isomorphic.messaging.LocalMessageDispatcher

        # jms configuration - for JMSMessageDispatcher only
               messaging.jms.context: _container_
               messaging.jms.jndiPrefix: jms
               messaging.jms.topicConnectionFactory: TopicConnectionFactory

  ### Tips

  - For best performance on legacy browsers (Internet Explorer pre-8.0), we recommend forwarding the messaging connections to an HTTP 1.0 server. Otherwise, because older Internet Explorer browsers use no more than 2 concurrent connections to the same web server, with the Messaging connection open, all other connections will execute serially. This means that something like a data fetch might be held up until all images on the page have finished loading.