The BlazeDS MessageService provides a common abstraction for asynchronous messaging style communication that is ultimately agnostic to the messaging protocol being used on the server side. Messages can be passed exclusively between Flex clients, from Java POJOs to subscribed Flex clients, from Flex clients to POJO message handlers, or between just about any combination thereof. Using the Spring-managed MessageBroker enables support for using BlazeDS-native AMF messaging, JMS messaging based on Spring's proven and simple JMS abstractions, or messaging using Spring Integration's MessageChannel abstraction, all from a common programming model.

The same Consumer and Producer APIs are used to interact with message destinations from the Flex client, regardless of which underlying messaging protocol is being used on the server. As such, this chapter will focus mainly on setting up and using the various message destination types on the server side. For more details on how to use the Consumer and Producer APIs in the client, see the BlazeDS documentation.