Unique features of WMQTool:

 

Security:

 
  1. SSL Support.
  2. Use of Security Exit provided to secure queue managers from all type of access. This exit can be WMQTool’s standard security exit or user defined exit.
  3. User to user, queue manager to queue manager and upto mq objects, authorities can be assigned.
  4. You can track down activities of users which change properties of any mq object in the network. These activities are stored in an audit file.

 

Queue Manager:

 
  1. No limit of number of queue managers. You can add two same named queue managers to connect and work on. Only restriction is, there cannot be more than one same hostname + port no combination on the queue manager tree.
  2. Queue managers can be categorized in colorful categories.
  3. You can see what WMQ version and platform the queue manager is on.
  4. You can work with queue managers having different CCSID.
  5. Authority files can be shared among different groups of users.
  6. It can find out if command server is running.
  7. It can find out all the queue managers in your entire network automatically.
  8. Allows to use RUNMQSC commands.
  9. You can save all the queue manager objects definitions and use it to recreate them when required. You can also pick individual objects to store the definitions and use them to recreate.
  10. Export all the connection information in XML format and import from it later. You can create a text file manually containing similar XML to import all the connection information at once.
  11. You can see how many queue managers are defined under each category. You can also see number of queues, channels etc when a queue manager is connected.
  12. Remote administration of a Remote Queue Manager is possible. You can connect to an authorized queue manager and setup required channels on that queue manager with the remote queue manager. Then WMQTool will allow  you to administer the remote queue manager connecting the authorized queue manager.

 

Queues and Channels:

 
  1. Sorting of views on all the columns.
  2. Filtering the objects view depending upon initial letters with an ‘*’. This new feature makes the queue manager connects very fast, particularly when there are  very high number of queues/channels.
  3. Filtering mq objects possible individually, without any criteria, by marking desired objects only.
  4. You can view all properties and/or status (all connected applications) of a queue or a channel in one window, with a single mouse click.
  5. Channels can be Reset instantly. The CurrentSequenceNumber will be instantly reset, no need to wait until a message passes thru the channel.
  6. Visual queue full indication for visual alerts.
  7. Special option for setting triggering on and off to facilitate application programmers.

 

Message Browsing, Handling and MQMD:

 
  1. Header and message data are separated for viewing. Practically, all types of messages like messages on Transmission Queue, Dead Letter Header queue can be viewed with header and data separate. Message data can be viewed in different formats like text, hexa-decimal, EBCDIC, xml.
  2. Edit the data of a message, may or may not be having header in it.
  3. Filtering messages allow you to send messages to a queue, send messages to a file or delete messages selectively by setting your own criteria to filter out.
  4. Messages can be sent to any queue of any queue manager in the network. These messages can be stripped off for Dead Letter Headers or Transmission Headers.
  5. Messages can be stored/backed up on the hard drive and restored back to queue in original form. These messages, if stored in text format, can be retrieved with different MQMD properties but the same data.
  6. Message data can be stored in a file in plain text format, eliminating any header.
  7. Message data can be viewed for exact locations of bytes.
  8. Selectively delete the messages on a queue.
  9. Unlimited number of messages can be viewed/copied/deleted/sent on a queue.
  10. You can make a bunch of messages stored as members of a group while restoring.
  11. Message data can be edited in hexa-decimal numbers.
  12. Finding a string in the message data.

 

Some of the features available in WMQTool ....

 

WMQTool 7.0

 

    MQ V7 features

 

    WMQTool includes WebSphere MQ V7 features now.

 

 

WMQTool 6.6

 

    Internationalization:

 

    WMQTool provides option to view all the displayed text in virtually any language of the world provided computer fonts are available.

 

 

    Internationalization:

 

    WMQTool provides option to view all the displayed text in virtually any language of the world provided computer fonts are available.

 

 

WMQTool 6.5

 

    Remote queue manager administration:

 

    You can work with a queue manager to which you do not have direct permissions to connect. This you can achieve by setting up the queue manager connection via another authorized queue manager. You need to setup channels between the two qeue managers..

 

 

WMQTool 6.4

 

    CCSID for queue manager:

 

    You can work with a queue manager with different CodedCharacterSetID. Provide the CCSID of the queue manager in the queue manager definition.

 

 

WMQTool 6.3

 

    Publish Subscribe

 

    Applications are required to Publish or Subscribe topics for WebSphere Business

    Integrator. WMQTool provides you with an easy way to perform any of these functions.

 

 

    Auto Refresh

 

You may want to watch a queue being emptied when an application processes a huge number of messages. In this situation, normally you would frequently click on 'Refresh Queue' option to refresh the queue. To do this automatically, you can set the queue for Auto Refresh.

 

 

WMQTool 6.2

 

    Objects Filter

 

    For those having hundreds of queues in their queue manager, now it is very easy to work with them. WMQTool provides you a filter using wild card '*' to view queues starting with certain letters only. This makes it possible to view queues very fast even in Refresh.

 

 

    Group Userid

 

    You can set a group userid to authorize certain group of users for use of WMQTool. This eliminates the need of creating individual key file or adding individual user to a shared file.

 

 

WMQTool 6.1

 

    SSL Support

 

    You can use Digital Certificates with WMQTool to connect any queue manager secured with SSL.

 

 

    Advanced MQMD attributes and message properties handling

 

    Use WMQTool to create/edit messages on the queue. Apply MQMD properties values the way you want.

 

 

    Enter/Edit the data in hex numbers

 

    You can enter hexa decimal numbers to enter/edit data.

 

 

WMQTool 6.0

 

    New fields of MQ V6 can be viewed/edited

 

    You can view/edit new fields of MQ V6 of queue manager, queues and channels.

 

 

    View all properties and status of a queue or a channel

 

    You can view all properties and status of a queue or a channel in a side/bottom window. This particularly helpful when you have not defined a column of property in view and you want to instantly see it. In status window, you can see multiple entries of status of a queue or a channel.

 

 

    Know how many queue managers you have defined with how many queues and channels

 

    You can see how many queue managers you have defined under each category making a total at the parent and grand total at the root. You can also know how many queues or channels are defined in the queue manager.

 

    Provide password along with userid in queue manager connection info

 

    You can provide password along with userid in queue manager info panel.

 

 

    Use CTRL key with your left mouse button to replace for right mouse button

 

    Those systems which do not have right mouse button, can now use CTRL key and left mouse button for the use of right mouse button.

 

WMQTool 5.3

 

    Find particular string or numbers in message data

 

    You can find particular bytes of a string or numbers into message data. This is particularly helpful when you want to locate the position of particular bytes of string or numbers in message data. You can also locate hex numbers.

 

 

    Moving a queue manager entry under a different category made easier

 

    Now you can easily move a queue manager entry from one category to another.

 

 

WMQTool 5.2

 

    User defined Client Security exit and User Id

 

    Now you can write your own Client Security exit in Java and set it with WMQTool. You can also provide a userid to be used to connect a queue manager thru Client/Server Connect Channel.

 

 

    Export and Import of Queue Manager Connection Information

 

    You can export your curren queue manager connection information to an XML file. You can also import this saved XML file or any other created by you so that you do not have to define all the queue manager connection information manually.

 

    Set a queue manager to connect at startup of WMQTool

 

    While defining queue manager connection information, you can set this queue manager to connect automatically everytime you start WMQTool.

 

WMQTool 5.1

 

    Saving Queue Manager definitions enhanced

 

    Now you can selectively exclude queue manager defintion, System Objects definitions and all other definitions while saving Queue Manager definitions. You can also select particular objects of any queue manager to save the definitions.

 

 

    Local Queue Managers

 

    Queue managers defined in your computer are local queue managers. To connect them, you do not require any other information except queue manager name. Local queue manager is connected in binding mode.

 

 

    Advanced Data View improved

 

    Header section in Advanced Data View is improved to include all the header values for RFH2 headers. The header values are displayed in formatted XML.

 

    Retrieving Queue Managers from network - Report generated

 

    After finishing 'Retrieving Queue Managers from the network', WMQTool generates a report in a text file containing the list of retrieved queue managers and connections failed. You can also 'Test Connection' after you add a queue manager while creating a shared file.

 

WMQTool 5.0

 

    Filtering Messages

 

    You can filter messages by setting your own expression involving any of the message properties including message data. You can also combine more than one condition forming a complex expression. It is very useful to extract desired messages from a bunch of messages.

 

 

    Saving Definitions

 

    You may want to save definitions of queue manager objects for various purposes like taking backup, recreating queue manager etc. One advantage using this feature is, you do not need to log in to MQ Server to execute the commands listed in a file with WebSphere MQ control command 'runmqsc'. WMQTool can execute that file for you!

 

 

    Audit File

 

    WMQTool logs all the changes in the properties of queue manager objects performed by users in the network in an audit file. This helps you to know who did, what did and when did.

 

    Make a group while restoring messages

 

    You can make a group of messages while restoring messages on a queue from a file.

 

    Automatic searching of queue managers in the network (Upgrade).

 

    All queue managers, mainframe and distributed, are searched by automatic search feature.

 

WMQTool 4.0

 

    User defined Server Connection channel for queue manager connection.

 

    To connect to a queue manager, you can define your own server connection channel. If you do not define it, WMQTool will try to connect thru the server connection channel that of queue manager name and if it fails, then by SYSTEM.ADMIN.SVRCONN. SYSTEM.DEF.SVRCONN channel, the default server connection channel is no longer used for queue manager connection purposes from this release in WMQTool.

 

    Dumping of message data in a text file and reloading with user defined headers

 

    Dump the data portion of a message in ASCII form in a text file. You may want to load this data to any queue with or without RFH/RFH2 header. You may want to put all these messages in a single group by simply checking a checkbox.

 

    Run MQSC commands

 

    Enter any MQSC command in the window and get the response from the queue manager instantly.

 

 

    Suspend/Resume a queue manager from Cluster

 

    Queue managers in a cluster can be Suspended or Resumed from the culster.

 

WMQTool 3.3

 

    SSL Properties included

 

    Queue manager and Channel properties related to SSL are included.

 

 

    Colorful categories

 

    You can visually distinguish different categories with different colors.

 

 

    Suspend and Resume Cluster Membership

 

    You can suspend or resume a queue manager from the Cluster membership.

 

    User security by login password

 

    Now all users will have to sign-in by entering their password when they start WMQTool using a shared file.

 

WMQTool 3.2

 

    Shared file for authorities to users

 

    You can create a shared file to authorize all users in your organization. WMQTool allows you to authorize any user with different authorities on different queue managers and its objects.

 

 

    Auto Search of Queue Manager Connection Informations

 

    WMQTool searches for all queue managers connection informations in your network.

 

 

 

 WMQTool 3.11

 

 A fix for z/OS queue managers. 

 

 WMQTool 3.1

 

    Mainframe and OS/390 Support

 

    Now you can administer virtually all the queue managers in your entire network including queue managers on Mainframe and OS/390 making WMQTool as a single point of contact.

 

 

 

    View data of a message on Transmission Queue

 

    You can view all the headers and data in a message sitting on a Transmission Queue. This will help you to find more information about the message data very easily and clearly.

 

 

 

    Command Server status

 

    WMQTool automatically detects the status of the Command server and informs you to start it, if it is not running.

 

 

WMQTool 3.0

 

    Security

 

    Now you can have your MQSeries objets secured in more precise way. WMQTool 3.0 allows you to selective assign authorities to other users for specific tasks only! A key file is generated per user having all the information about that particular user. This information is encrypted using Java's cryptography and converted into writable Base64 format.

 

 

    Cluster queues

 

    WMQTool 3.0 displays cluster queues along with other queues in Queue View. Queue manager properties have two more tab pages with information about clusters.

 

    WebSphere MQ 5.3 features

 

    Some of the  new features of WebSphere MQ 5.3 are included in WMQTool 3.0. Three new columns are added in Queue View. They are Hosting Queue Manger name, Applications name having input handles and Applications name having output handles. Looking at these columns, you can easily find out which applications are currently having Input/Output handles for this queue. It also provides you the userid who executed that application and process id of that application on that server.

 

 

 

    Setting Trigger ON/OFF

 

    Now you can easily set Trigger ON/OFF without going into queue properties change. A special option is provided to let application programmer change the Trigger Setting ON/OFF while debugging their applications. Previously, you had to do this by selecting Properties of a queue. This may have risk of changing other queue properties accidentally or intentionally.

 

 

    Transmission Header

 

    When you Send Messages to A Queue, WMQTool 3.0 optionally removes Transmission Header, in addition to Dead Letter Header, whatever the case may be.

 

 

    Visual Queue Full Indication

 

    CurrentQDepth column in Queue View will indicate you with the red colored in background. The zero depth will be having white color as background. As the queue gets depth, the background color will change to more and more red. When the depth will reach to the MaxQDepth, the background will turn to complete dark red.

 

 

    Filter setting

 

    Now you can have queue type in Queue Filter Setting and Channely Type in Channel Filter Setting. This way you can easily identify the queues and channels you want to filter. Look at the previous image.

 

    Version and Platform Information

 

    A line of information about MQSeries/WebSphere MQ version and its Operating System is displayed on the info panel at the bottom right corner. Look at the previous image.

 

WMQTool 2.1

 

    Upon special request, WMQTool now comes with self-expiry after 3 months. This is just to enforce users to have the latest version of WMQTool which provides with more features and bugs fixed.

 

WMQTool 2.0

 

    Categorise queue managers

 

    Now you can have Categories to differentiate amongst Development, Staging, Test and Production queue managers. Or you can have different categories for different regions. It becomes very convenient to group related queue managers into one category.

 

 

    Advanced Data View

 

    It was very difficult to analyze bytes of data in a message. Advanced Data View feature has made it very easy. Now you can visually see all the bytes and their position in a message data. You can also see all headers and data separately. You may edit the data also.

 

 

    Filtering objects

 

    You can filter all objects. If you have a large number of queues created in a queue manager, it becomes little difficult to locate a particular queue. You may want to view only those queues which are frequently used by you. To achieve this, you may filter queues. Select only queues you want to view. All other queues will be hidden. You can store this setting permanently too. This feature is also available for channels, process definitions, client connections and namelists.

 

 

    Send messages to another queue

 

    You may want to send messages from one queue to another local queue or local queue of a remote queue manager. This is possible now. Optionally, you may want to strip off Dead Letter Header from the messages on a Dead Letter Header queue. This you can do just by selecting a check box.

 

 

WMQTool 1.2

 

    Progress bar in long running processes.

 

    All the long running processes when tool screen was used to freeze, are provided with a progress bar at the bottom left of the screen. This will provide visual indication of the progress of the process.

 

 

    Security Exit  implementation.

 

    If you have implemented a Security Exit in your WebSphere MQ implementation, this is must. Earlier release 1.1 wouldn’t work as there was no Security Exit provided with the tool.

 

 

    WMQTool 1.2 provides Security Exit without encrypting the user ids of users. If your WebSphere MQ setup is implemented with Security Exit and user ids are expected in some proprietory encryption, this tool will fail to connect the queue manager with Security Error. In that case, to make this tool working, I have to encrypt the user ids with the same encryption formula that your WebSphere MQ Setup (Server Connection channel Security Exit) is using. If you provide it to me, I will do it for you.

    If you have not implemented any Security Exit, it does not have any effect and WMQTool  works ABSOLUTELY fine.

 

    Well formatted XML in Text view of data of a message.

 

    Now you can view any XML data properly alligned in Text view of data of a message.

 

WMQTool 1.1

 

    Inline documentation.

 

    Now you can view all documentation about the WMQTool while you are working on it. Just click on Help/WMQTool Help from menu!

 

    Sorting of rows in ascending as well as descending order in views of Queues, Channels, Process Definitions, Client Connections and Namelists.

 

    Now you can sort columns of WMQTool objects in descending order too. Clicking on any column header for the first time will sort all rows in ascending order of that column and clicking second time will sort on descending order. It is a toggling switch.

 

WMQTool 1.0 (First Release)

 
  • You may administer as many queue managers as you want simultaneously. Queue managers having same name but different host name can also be administered. These queue managers are automatically arranged alphabetically in the tree structure which helps to find desired queue manager very easily.
  • All the WMQ objects are viewed in browse style with their properties. To distinguish between different types of objects, specific icons are provided.
  • To filter queues and channels depending upon their types instantly, a set of toggling buttons is provided in the tool bar.
  • Views of queues, channels, process definitions, client connections, namelists and messages are provided with Column Selection facility. These selected columns views can be saved permanently.
  • Views of all the WMQ objects can be sorted on any of the columns by clicking on header of that column.
  • Any number of messages can be viewed depending upon the availability of your system resources. There is no restriction for only first 200 messages. You may view all or only a range of messages if the number of messages are more than 200.
  • You may selectively delete the messages by providing a range.
  • You can view a message in 4 different ways: Hexadecimal and Text, Only Text, EBCDIC and Text, and XML tree.
  • You can view only data portion of any RFH or RFH2 header containing message in the data section. This helps you view the data and header separately as well as select that data to copy and paste elsewhere.
  • You can edit the data of any message in ‘Text’ format and save it back to the queue.
  • You can put a new message directly on the queue by WMQTool. You can also add RFH or RFH2 header in it.
  • Like views of all WMQ objects, messages view also can be sorted on any selected column.
  • All the messages can be stored/backed-up in files on your local drive. These messages can be very easily restored onto any queue.
  • You can send a message from one queue directly to another queue, may be of a remote queue manager.
  • In channel views, all channel status properties can be viewed along with the normal channel properties. You don’t need to select another option for viewing channel status properties.
  • Channels can be Reset instantly. The CurrentSequenceNumber will be instantly reset, no need to wait until a message passes thru the channel.
  • Channels can be resolved.

 

 

Copy Right Notice:

WebSphere Business Integrator, WebSphere MQ and MQSeries are trademarks of IBM Corporation. Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc.