JMS MessageProducer.setTimeToLive() vs. TextMessage.setJMSExpiration()

Question

Is there a difference between calling MessageProducer.setTimeToLive() vs. TextMessage.setJMSExpiration()?

I can see from the documentation that javax.jms.MessageProducer.setTimeToLive() says that it

Sets the default length of time in milliseconds from its dispatch time that a produced message should be retained by the message system.

and that javax.jms.Message.setJMSExpiration() says that it

Sets the message's expiration value.

Those sound the same to me. Should I go ahead and set both to the same value?

Answer 1

You should not set expiration settings for Message (or TextMessage, as in your example). That text from Java EE 5 Javadocs is confusing, and it was improved in recent versions:

This method is for use by JMS providers only to set this field when a message is sent. This message cannot be used by clients to configure the expiration time of the message. This method is public to allow a JMS provider to set this field when sending a message whose implementation is not its own.

That means that you should NOT use Message#setJMSExpiration() to set message expiration, since the provider will override that value when the message is sent.

You should instead use its MessageProducer to set the timeout for all messages using MessageProducer#setTimeToLive() or, if you only want to set the expiration for a particular message, do so using MessageProducer#send(Message, int, int, long) as shown in Shashi's answer. Only in this case does the "per-message" setting override the MessageProducer's setting.

Answer 2

There is a key difference, MessageProducer.setTimeToLive() sets the same message expiry time on all messages sent by that producer. On the other hand TextMessage.setJMSExpiration() sets message expiry time on a per message basis. The expiry time set on per message overrides the expiry set on MessageProducer.

JMS also specifies a way to set message expiry time when calling MessageProducer.send method.

void send(Message message, int deliveryMode,int priority, long timeToLive)

You can set message expiry on either MessageProducer or TextMessage. No need to set on both.