Message formats The WebSphere MQ connectors support two message formats: • Text messages • Binary messages WebSphere MQ input connectors read both binary messages and text messages, and writes the data to the input queue. WebSphere MQ output connectors need to be configured to send data as text or as binary data. It is possible to send text data in a binary message, but the WebSphere MQ will not transform the data. It is not possible to send binary data in a text message without corrupting the information. Text messages In text messages, the content is treated as text and is automatically converted by WebSphere MQ if the message passes between two environments where the text encoding is not the same. For example, a message sent from a Windows environment can be read on a Main Frame computer with native methods. Binary messages In binary messages, the content is not altered by transmission. The sequence of bytes that are sent are received in the same way in the other end. There is no encoding connected to the message. Binary messages are slightly more efficient since no transformation is involved.