Edit MSMQ messages in a queue

Question

I need to be able to edit messages in my error queue (so that they can be resent to the actual queue for reprocessing).

I would like to make my own custom tool to do this (because my messages require specific formatting to make them easily readable by support personnel).

I know that this is possible because the application "QueueExplorer" does this.

Does anyone know how I can load an MSMQ message (that is not the first one in the queue), edit it, and save it back to the queue?

Hydrated

As a side note: I would normally just buy QueueExplorer, but it does not allow my messages to be formatted in a way that is useable to my users. I also need to integrate the feature of returning the message back to the original queue. And lastly QueueExplorer is insanely slow for very simple tasks. – Hydrated

This probably won't be very popular, but if QueueExplorer is written in .NET (which it appears it is) why not just run it through a decompiler to see how they do it? – Cultivated

@Hydrated QueueExplorer says When you load, copy, drag&drop or edit message it will go to the end of queue. (see cogin.com/mq/qelimitations.php) so basically they load the message, and after editing they delete original and enqueue the edited messages. They don't do "in-place-editing" if that is what you are after... – Roark

@Roark - that is what I wanted... looks as if it may not be possible :( – Hydrated

@Hydrated You could just write a tool that dequeues the message from error queue, "processes" it by presenting it to a user who edits it and then enqueues it into the "actual processing queue"... wouldn't need "in-place-editing" and wouldn't need to access messages that are not the first one... won't that do what you need ? – Roark

Answer 1

Iterate through the messages, using something like this:

List<Message> msgList = new List<Message>();

using (MessageEnumerator me = queue.GetMessageEnumerator2())
{
  while (me.MoveNext(new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0)))
  {
     Message message = me.Current;
     msgList.Add(message)
  }
}

You can then iterate through the list, processing each message. Create a new message, based on the original. Then remove the existing message, and add the new one.

foreach (Message message in msgList)
{
  //Create a new message as required, add it, then remove the old message
  MessageQueue.ReceiveById(message.MessageId);
}

Delacruz

Answer 2

MSMQ messages are supposed to be immutable. The best you can do is read the message and send an edited copy of the message back to the queue.

Mission