What is FFMQ ?

FFMQ is a full-java, light-weight, fast JMS 1.1 queuer implementation.

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Emphasis is made on raw performance and reliability.
As a consequence, it does not provide a lot of features but it's fast, easy to configure and has reduced dependencies.

License

FFMQ is released under the GNU LGPL license in order to be used both as a standalone application and/or integrated in all kind of software.

Features

JMS 1.1 compliant (almost, see limits below)
Lightweight (full server is below 600KB)
Reduced dependencies : JRE 1.4+, JMS API, commons-logging, [optional: log4j, mx4j]
JMX monitoring support
SSL support for remote connections
Fast TCP-based network protocol
State-of-the-art asynchronous journaling persistence storage
Template-based destination definitions for easy configuration
JMS bridging support to pipe messages between destinations and/or queuers

Limits

The following required JMS operations are not yet implemented :

JMSXGroupID / JMSXGroupSeq message properties

The following optional JMS operations are not yet implemented :

ConnectionConsumers and DurableConnectionConsumers
Session MessageListener
XAConnections

Other limitations :

Durable subscriptions are lost on server restart
Because FFMQ is using a separate disk store for each queue, atomicity of transactions spanning multiple destinations cannot be fully guaranteed in case of server failure. Per-queue atomicity is guaranteed.

Performance

FFMQ is fast, real fast.

If you want to see some comparisons with other queuers see the Performance page.

Anyway, you should never trust any written performance claim.
The best way to have an exact idea is to test it by yourself ! Please give it a try, if you have a JMS compliant application or benchmark this should be pretty easy (See 'Quick Start' below).

Architecture

To get a technical insight on FFMQ 'dirty little secrets' you may want to have a look at the Technical Overview page.

Quick Start

Just unzip the server package somewhere and start the server using the ffmq-server.bat or ffmq-server.sh shell in the bin/ directory.
(If necessary you can change default listen ports and interfaces in the conf/ffmq-server.properties file)

On the client-side, you need the ffmq-core.jar in your classpath. (plus commons-logging and log4j if you don't already have them)
Here is the default JNDI configuration to use :

Naming Context Factory : net.timewalker.ffmq3.jndi.FFMQInitialContextFactory
Connection Factory JNDI Name : factory/ConnectionFactory
Provider URL : tcp://<hostname>:10002

Bug reports / Contact

If you find any bug or problem, you can send me an email to : ffmq@timewalker.net

If you use FFMQ, successfully or not, I would be glad to hear from you. Tell me what you like or dislike about this piece of software.