A WebSphere® MQ message usually contains a message descriptor, one or more message headers, and a message payload. WebSphere MQ provides programming interfaces that can help your applications to process WebSphere MQ messages.
For more information about WebSphere MQ messages, see the WebSphere MQ documentation. For detailed information about the contents of the message descriptor and the message headers, see the WebSphere MQ Application Programming Reference.
WebSphere MQ provides a programming interface called the Message Queue Interface (MQI). This interface allows applications to process the components of a WebSphere MQ message using a variety of programming languages. WebSphere MQ also provides a JMS programming interface which allows applications to process a WebSphere MQ message as a JMS message. WebSphere MQ supports JMS by using the MQMD and the MQRFH2 to contain JMS message properties and header fields. The JMS message body is usually the WebSphere MQ message payload, but can include WebSphere MQ message headers. For details of WebSphere MQ support for JMS, including details of how WebSphere MQ stores JMS message properties and header fields in the MQMD and the MQRFH2, see the WebSphere MQ Using Java™ documentation.