BEA Weblogic Interview Question:

Which of the following are the benefits of MDB (Message Driven Beans) over standard JMS consumers?

Submitted by: Administrator

a. In case of a MDB, developer needs to create a MessageListener class that utilizes a server-wide session pool.
b. WebLogic Server container provides standard EJB services to MDBs.
c. MDBs benefit from the write-once, deploy-anywhere paradigm of EJBs.
d. MDBs can be associated with multiple Messaging Queues or Topics unlike standard JMS.


Choices B and C are correct. A message-driven bean is a special kind of EJB that acts as a message consumer in the WebLogic JMS messaging system. As with standard JMS message consumers, message-driven beans receive messages from a JMS Queue or Topic, and perform business logic based on the message contents. EJB deployers create listeners to a Queue or Topic at deployment time, and WebLogic Server automatically creates and removes message-driven bean instances as needed to process incoming messages.
Because message-driven beans are implemented as EJBs, they benefit from several key services that are not available to standard JMS consumers. Most importantly, message-driven bean instances are wholly managed by the WebLogic Server EJB container. Using a single message-driven bean class, WebLogic Server creates multiple EJB instances as necessary to process large volumes of messages concurrently. This stands in contrast to a standard JMS messaging system, where the developer must create a MessageListener class that utilizes a server-wide session pool. Thus choice A is incorrect.
WebLogic Server provides standard EJB services to MDBs, such as security services and automatic transaction management. Thus choice B is correct.
Being implemented as EJBs, MDBS benefit from the write-once, deploy-anywhere quality of EJBs. Whereas a JMS MessageListener is tied to specific session pools, Queues, or Topics, message-driven beans can be developed independently of available server resources. Thus Choice C is also correct.
Its not that MDBs are always advantageous as compared to standard JMS consumers. One limitation of MDBs compared to standard JMS listeners is that a given MDB deployment can be associated with only one Queue or Topic. If your application requires a single JMS consumer to service messages from multiple Queues or Topics, you must use a standard JMS consumer, or deploy multiple message-driven bean classes. Thus Choice D is incorrect.
Submitted by: Administrator