MPX is a framework for publish/subscribe messaging that improves the performance of the clients and extends the scalability of server configurations. It contains both common and application-specific components that together provide advanced messaging capabilities.
With MPX, changes to the server configuration’s repository are broadcast in an encrypted format to StarTeam clients and MPX Cache Agents through a publish/subscribe channel. For example, the MPX Event Transmitter broadcasts encrypted messages about changes to objects, such as change requests, and the MPX File Transmitter broadcasts archive files. Caching modules automatically capture events that a client subscribes to. This reduces the client’s need to send refresh requests to the server and improves client response times for the user.
MPX Cache Agents can be installed and configured to cache both item properties and file contents. This speeds up data access by placing the data in locations that are network near to the members of globally distributed teams. While MPX Cache Agents rely on messages and data transmitted by the MPX Event Transmitter and the MPX File Transmitter, they also serve other MPX clients, such as the StarTeam Cross-Platform Client , which retrieve data from the MPX Cache Agent instead of StarTeam Server itself. MPX Cache Agents are available only with StarTeam Enterprise Advantage.
StarTeam 15 introduces a new technology for messaging, ActiveMQ MPX, using the open source Apache ActiveMQ™. The legacy StarTeamMPX, using SmartSockets technology, is also supported.
By default, StarTeam Server is installed with support for both type of Message Brokers. The custom install option of the StarTeam Server can be used to install Message Brokers separately by checking the desired option: StarTeamMPX Message Broker or ActiveMQ MPX Message Broker.