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Java Message Service (JMS) is relatively new and this is the first book out on the subject. Others are in the offing. This book will be of more interest to Java programmers unfamiliar with message-oriented middleware (MOM) than to more knowledgeable programmers.

The first chapter introduces MOM. There are two models that a JMS provider might implement — point-to-point (or queue) and publish/subscribe messaging. The second chapter develops a simple pub/sub example, a chat room application. The third chapter discusses messages in some detail — headers, types, and selectors. Selectors allow a receiver to be selective about which messages it’s interested in receiving. Among other things, a selector can be used to match a reply to a request.

Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to pub/sub and point-to-point, respectively. For both, simple applications are developed for illustration. Chapter 6 discusses a variety of topics, for example, guaranteed messaging, that is, once-and-only-once delivery. Chapter 7 is devoted to deployment considerations, including performance and security. Chapter 7 discusses JMS in the context of J2EE and EJBs. Chapter 8 provides an overview of some JMS providers. One would do well to go to the Sun website instead, as it is more inclusive. There are appendices on the JMS API, message headers, and message properties.

There is the usual smattering of misprints. Then on page 112, there is a serious error. The authors say, “Unless you are doing a synchronous request-reply, you should avoid grouping a send followed by an asynchronous receive within a transaction.” Even with request-reply, you don’t want to group a send followed by a receive within a transaction. The reason is simple — deadlock. The sending application sends a request and does a receive with wait for the reply. Within a transaction, the sent request is not committed until the reply is received and so, is not visible to any potential receiving application until then. Of course, a receiving application won’t send a reply until it receives a request. The result is deadlock.
Rating: 3 / 5

The specs from Sun cover much more details and are organized in much more natural way than the book. If you are not a total Java newbie, I would suggest reading the specs. They are dry, but they are much more useful in giving you a more complete picture of JMS, in my opinion.
Rating: 1 / 5

If you’re looking to learn JMS, then this is a decently good book to get you started. One of the best things about it is that it’s not very thick and it gets to the point pretty quickly.
Rating: 3 / 5