Using JMSQueueAppender with ActiveMQ as JMS Server

Question

I was trying to find out how to use JMSQueueAppender but there were no proper instructions on how to do the same. After bit trial and error, i was able to configure the JMSQueueAppender using log4j (with my own JMSQueueAppender class).

Below is the configuration in log4j.properties file.

log4j.rootLogger=INFO, stdout, jms

## Be sure that ActiveMQ messages are not logged to 'jms' appender
log4j.logger.org.apache.activemq=INFO, stdout

log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.stdout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern=%d %-5p %c - %m%n

## Configure 'jms' appender. You'll also need jndi.properties file in order to make it work
log4j.appender.jms=com.util.JMSQueueAppender
log4j.appender.jms.initialContextFactory=org.apache.activemq.jndi.ActiveMQInitialContextFactory
log4j.appender.jms.providerUrl=tcp://localhost:61616
log4j.appender.jms.queueBindingName=myQueue
log4j.appender.jms.queueConnectionFactoryBindingName=QueueConnectionFactory

jndi.properties file should look something like as metioned below: (Please note that it should be placed in classpath , in project directory, it should be placed in src directory)

queue.myQueue=myQueue

JMSQueueAppender class looks something like below: (in this code, it is in package structure com.util)

public class JMSQueueAppender extends AppenderSkeleton {

protected QueueConnection queueConnection;
protected QueueSession queueSession;
protected QueueSender queueSender;
protected Queue queue;

String initialContextFactory;
String providerUrl;
String queueBindingName;
String queueConnectionFactoryBindingName;

public 
JMSQueueAppender() {
}


/**
 * The <b>InitialContextFactory</b> option takes a string value.
 * Its value, along with the <b>ProviderUrl</b> option will be used
 * to get the InitialContext.
 */
public void setInitialContextFactory(String initialContextFactory) {
this.initialContextFactory = initialContextFactory;
}

/**
 * Returns the value of the <b>InitialContextFactory</b> option.
 */
public String getInitialContextFactory() {
return initialContextFactory;
}

/**
 * The <b>ProviderUrl</b> option takes a string value.
 * Its value, along with the <b>InitialContextFactory</b> option will be used
 * to get the InitialContext.
 */
public void setProviderUrl(String providerUrl) {
this.providerUrl = providerUrl;
}

/**
 * Returns the value of the <b>ProviderUrl</b> option.
 */
public String getProviderUrl() {
return providerUrl;
}

/**
 * The <b>QueueConnectionFactoryBindingName</b> option takes a
 * string value. Its value will be used to lookup the appropriate
 * <code>QueueConnectionFactory</code> from the JNDI context.
 */
public void setQueueConnectionFactoryBindingName(String queueConnectionFactoryBindingName) {
this.queueConnectionFactoryBindingName = queueConnectionFactoryBindingName;
}

/**
 * Returns the value of the <b>QueueConnectionFactoryBindingName</b> option.
 */
public String getQueueConnectionFactoryBindingName() {
return queueConnectionFactoryBindingName;
}

/**
 * The <b>QueueBindingName</b> option takes a
 * string value. Its value will be used to lookup the appropriate
 * destination <code>Queue</code> from the JNDI context.
 */
public void setQueueBindingName(String queueBindingName) {
this.queueBindingName = queueBindingName;
}

/**
   Returns the value of the <b>QueueBindingName</b> option.
*/
public String getQueueBindingName() {
return queueBindingName;
}


/**
 * Overriding this method to activate the options for this class
 * i.e. Looking up the Connection factory ...
 */
public void activateOptions() {

QueueConnectionFactory queueConnectionFactory;

try {

    Context ctx = getInitialContext();      
    queueConnectionFactory = (QueueConnectionFactory) ctx.lookup(queueConnectionFactoryBindingName);
    queueConnection = queueConnectionFactory.createQueueConnection();

    queueSession = queueConnection.createQueueSession(false,
                              Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);

    Queue queue = (Queue) ctx.lookup(queueBindingName);
    queueSender = queueSession.createSender(queue);

    queueConnection.start();

    ctx.close();      

} catch(Exception e) {
    errorHandler.error("Error while activating options for appender named ["+name+
               "].", e, ErrorCode.GENERIC_FAILURE);
}
}

protected InitialContext getInitialContext() throws NamingException {
try {
    Hashtable ht = new Hashtable();

    //Populate property hashtable with data to retrieve the context.
    ht.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, initialContextFactory);
    ht.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, providerUrl);

    return (new InitialContext(ht));

} catch (NamingException ne) {
    LogLog.error("Could not get initial context with ["+initialContextFactory + "] and [" + providerUrl + "]."); 
    throw ne;
}
}


protected boolean checkEntryConditions() {

String fail = null;

if(this.queueConnection == null) {
    fail = "No QueueConnection";
} else if(this.queueSession == null) {
    fail = "No QueueSession";
} else if(this.queueSender == null) {
    fail = "No QueueSender";
} 

if(fail != null) {
    errorHandler.error(fail +" for JMSQueueAppender named ["+name+"].");      
    return false;
} else {
    return true;
}
}

/**
* Close this JMSQueueAppender. Closing releases all resources used by the
* appender. A closed appender cannot be re-opened. 
*/
public synchronized // avoid concurrent append and close operations
void close() {

if(this.closed) 
    return;

LogLog.debug("Closing appender ["+name+"].");
this.closed = true;    

try {
    if(queueSession != null) 
    queueSession.close();   
    if(queueConnection != null) 
    queueConnection.close();
} catch(Exception e) {
    LogLog.error("Error while closing JMSQueueAppender ["+name+"].", e);    
}   

// Help garbage collection
queueSender = null;
queueSession = null;
queueConnection = null;
}

/**
 * This method called by {@link AppenderSkeleton#doAppend} method to
 * do most of the real appending work.  The LoggingEvent will be
 * be wrapped in an ObjectMessage to be put on the JMS queue.
 */
public void append(LoggingEvent event) {

if(!checkEntryConditions()) {
    return;
}

try {

    ObjectMessage msg = queueSession.createObjectMessage();
    msg.setObject(event);
    queueSender.send(msg);

} catch(Exception e) {
    errorHandler.error("Could not send message in JMSQueueAppender ["+name+"].", e, 
               ErrorCode.GENERIC_FAILURE);
}
}

public boolean requiresLayout() {
return false;
}  
}

Ans queue listner class looks something like below:

public class MyLogQueueListener  implements MessageListener  {
public MyLogQueueListener() throws Exception {        
    // create a logTopic topic consumer        
    ActiveMQConnectionFactory factory = new ActiveMQConnectionFactory("tcp://localhost:61616");        
    Connection conn = factory.createConnection();        
    Session sess = conn.createSession(false, Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);        
    conn.start(); 

     Destination destination = sess.createQueue("myQueue");                
     // Create a MessageConsumer from the Session to the Topic or Queue                
     MessageConsumer consumer = sess.createConsumer(destination); 
    consumer.setMessageListener(this);        
    // log a message        
    Logger log = Logger.getLogger(MyLogQueueListener.class);        
    log.info("Test log");

    // clean up        
    Thread.sleep(1000000);        
    consumer.close();        
    sess.close();        
    conn.close();        
    System.exit(1);    
}         

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {        
    new MyLogQueueListener();    

}     

public void onMessage(Message message) {        
    try {            
        // receive log event in your consumer            
        LoggingEvent event = (LoggingEvent)((ActiveMQObjectMessage)message).getObject();            
        System.out.println("Queue: Received log [" + event.getLevel() + "]: "+ event.getMessage());        
    } catch (Exception e) {            
        e.printStackTrace();        
    }    
}
}

It took 2 days for me to setup the above things and make it work. Hope this is of some help for people who intend to use JMSQueueAppender. (Special thanks to the person who posted JMSQueueAppender code on web).