Book excerpt: Java Message Service (JMS) represents a powerful solution for communicating between Java enterprise applications, software components, and legacy systems. In this authoritative tutorial and comprehensive reference, Sun's Java Message Service architects offer start-to-finish coverage of peer-to-peer JMS development with Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition, Release 1.3. JMS is now fully integrated into the J2EE platform -- and this is the first book to show how to make the most of JMS in the context of sophisticated J2EE application development. The authors begin by introducing the JMS API to developers who are new to it. Then, with the help of extensive programming examples, they demonstrate key JMS techniques for enabling applications to create, send, receive, and read messages, and for integrating with existing back office and enterprise systems. Coverage includes: consuming messages asynchronously with message-driven beans; producing messages from application clients; accessing entity beans from message-driven bean; producing messages from session beans; and much more. For all Java developers building applications that must communicate and share information.