Creating and configuring a service definition

The IBM® MQ Service Definition specification provides a standard for documenting IBM MQ applications as services, using WSDL and URIs.

Service definitions simplify the reuse of IBM MQ applications in service oriented architectures. By describing applications as services, using the same formats as traditional web services, they can be managed in the same way which promotes reuse and enabling integration with standard service tooling. The service definition wizard validates required information before producing a correctly formatted service definition, meaning you will not need to have detailed knowledge of both WSDL and the IBM MQ service definition specification which would be needed to produce service definitions manually.

Service definitions aid the cataloging and governing of IBM MQ applications by allowing the resources used by an application, such as queues and queue managers, to be easily queried and for services to be looked up dynamically at runtime. This is particularly true for customers who have unmanaged IBM MQ applications (not hosted by CICS® or an Application Server, running standalone on Windows, UNIX, System i®, or as batch mainframe applications) which have been developed over time with inconsistent documentation and no reliable inventory of applications.