Wednesday, July 05, 2006

AMQP and XMPP

When I started reading it , it felt 'familiar' ... was not able to put my finger on it , but now I think I know what it is - it is describing things which are similar to what pubsub JEP (this and related specs : refer for full list here) in xmpp space tries to solve.
Ofcourse , as things stand right now , XMPP 'seems' to be implemented and used more in IM type of applications , while AMQP is envisioned to be a means of achieving application integration.

One of the things I like about XMPP is that it has tremendous potential - you can extend it in a variety of ways ... it is a pity that people do not do so - fix a few more things to it (added for those who claim there are things to be fixed yet :-) ) , and I guess you could use it as a authenticated native xml stream for a wide variety of purposes - including a reliable message bus. And best part is , federation is a first class citizen of the protocol : not an afterthought.

To say one is the subset of another would be gross simplification and trivialization of both protocols ! I do not understand AMQP well enough to hazard a claim like that - and I would not try to do that ... all I can say is , XMPP could be used (or fixed in case it is not good enough) much more easily than come up with a new protocol - a new protocol will require a new eco-system of developer groups , support groups , libraries , clients/servers , etc ... acceptance might be a tad bit slower.

But yes , compared to the current methods of achieving application integration using WS-* , etc ... I will definitely welcome AMQP - in case XMPP cannot fill the space (for whatever reasons : including political ones !)

*Update*
Found a blog here which seems to echo my thoughts in much more detail and clarity ...

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