Message.Priority Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.Messaging

Assembly:

System.Messaging.dll

Gets or sets the message priority, which determines where in the queue the message is placed.

C#

[System.Messaging.MessagingDescription("MsgPriority")]
public System.Messaging.MessagePriority Priority { get; set; }

Property Value

MessagePriority

One of the MessagePriority values, which represent the priority levels of non-transactional messages. The default is Normal.

Attributes

MessagingDescriptionAttribute

Exceptions

InvalidOperationException

The message queue is filtered to ignore the Priority property.

Examples

The following code example sends two messages of different priorities to the queue, and retrieves them subsequently.

C#

using System;
using System.Messaging;

namespace MyProject
{

    /// <summary>
    /// Provides a container class for the example.
    /// </summary>
    public class MyNewQueue
    {

        //**************************************************
        // Provides an entry point into the application.
        //		
        // This example sends and receives a message from
        // a queue.
        //**************************************************

        public static void Main()
        {
            // Create a new instance of the class.
            MyNewQueue myNewQueue = new MyNewQueue();

            // Send messages to a queue.
            myNewQueue.SendMessage(MessagePriority.Normal, "First Message Body.");
            myNewQueue.SendMessage(MessagePriority.Highest, "Second Message Body.");

            // Receive messages from a queue.
            myNewQueue.ReceiveMessage();
            myNewQueue.ReceiveMessage();

            return;
        }

        //**************************************************
        // Sends a string message to a queue.
        //**************************************************
        
        public void SendMessage(MessagePriority priority, string messageBody)
        {

            // Connect to a queue on the local computer.
            MessageQueue myQueue = new MessageQueue(".\\myQueue");

            // Create a new message.
            Message myMessage = new Message();

            if(priority > MessagePriority.Normal)
            {
                myMessage.Body = "High Priority: " + messageBody;
            }
            else
            {
                myMessage.Body = messageBody;
            }

            // Set the priority of the message.
            myMessage.Priority = priority;

            // Send the Order to the queue.
            myQueue.Send(myMessage);

            return;
        }

        //**************************************************
        // Receives a message.
        //**************************************************
        
        public  void ReceiveMessage()
        {
            // Connect to the a queue on the local computer.
            MessageQueue myQueue = new MessageQueue(".\\myQueue");

            // Set the queue to read the priority. By default, it
            // is not read.
            myQueue.MessageReadPropertyFilter.Priority = true;

            // Set the formatter to indicate body contains a string.
            myQueue.Formatter = new XmlMessageFormatter(new Type[]
                {typeof(string)});
            
            try
            {
                // Receive and format the message.
                Message myMessage =	myQueue.Receive();

                // Display message information.
                Console.WriteLine("Priority: " +
                    myMessage.Priority.ToString());
                Console.WriteLine("Body: " +
                    myMessage.Body.ToString());
            }
            
            catch (MessageQueueException)
            {
                // Handle Message Queuing exceptions.
            }

            // Handle invalid serialization format.
            catch (InvalidOperationException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
            }
            
            // Catch other exceptions as necessary.

            return;
        }
    }
}

Remarks

The Priority property affects how Message Queuing handles the message both while it is en route and once it reaches its destination. Higher-priority messages are given preference during routing and inserted toward the front of the destination queue. Messages with the same priority are placed in the queue according to their arrival time.

You can set a meaningful priority only for non-transactional messages. Message Queuing automatically sets the priority for transactional messages to Lowest, which causes transactional message priority to be ignored.

Applies to

See also

• MessagePriority
• MessageType
• BasePriority