The simplest way to embed HornetQ is to use the embedded wrapper classes and configure HornetQ through its configuration files. There are two different helper classes for this depending on whether your using the HornetQ Core API or JMS.

import org.hornetq.core.server.embedded.EmbeddedHornetQ;

...

EmbeddedHornetQ embedded = new EmbeddedHornetQ();
embedded.start();

ClientSessionFactory nettyFactory =  HornetQClient.createClientSessionFactory(
                                        new TransportConfiguration(
                                           InVMConnectorFactory.class.getName()));

ClientSession session = factory.createSession();

session.createQueue("example", "example", true);

ClientProducer producer = session.createProducer("example");

ClientMessage message = session.createMessage(true);

message.getBody().writeString("Hello");

producer.send(message);

session.start();

ClientConsumer consumer = session.createConsumer("example");

ClientMessage msgReceived = consumer.receive();

System.out.println("message = " + msgReceived.getBody().readString());

session.close();

import org.hornetq.jms.server.embedded.EmbeddedJMS;

...

EmbeddedJMS jms = new EmbeddedJMS();
jms.start();

// This assumes we have configured hornetq-jms.xml with the appropriate config information
ConnectionFactory connectionFactory = jms.lookup("ConnectionFactory");
Destination destination = jms.lookup("/example/queue");

... regular JMS code ...

You can follow this step-by-step guide to programmatically embed the core, non-JMS HornetQ Server instance:

Create the configuration object - this contains configuration information for a HornetQ instance. The setter methods of this class allow you to programmitcally set configuration options as describe in the Section 48.1, “Server Configuration” section.

The acceptors are configured through ConfigurationImpl. Just add the NettyAcceptorFactory on the transports the same way you would through the main configuration file.

import org.hornetq.core.config.Configuration;
import org.hornetq.core.config.impl.ConfigurationImpl;

...

Configuration config = new ConfigurationImpl();
HashSet<TransportConfiguration> transports = new HashSet<TransportConfiguration>();
      
transports.add(new TransportConfiguration(NettyAcceptorFactory.class.getName()));
transports.add(new TransportConfiguration(InVMAcceptorFactory.class.getName()));

config.setAcceptorConfigurations(transports);

You need to instantiate an instance of org.hornetq.api.core.server.embedded.EmbeddedHornetQ and add the configuration object to it.

import org.hornetq.api.core.server.HornetQ;
import org.hornetq.core.server.embedded.EmbeddedHornetQ;

...

EmbeddedHornetQ server = new EmbeddedHornetQ();
server.setConfiguration(config);

server.start();

You also have the option of instantiating HornetQServerImpl directly:

HornetQServer server = 
        new HornetQServerImpl(config);
server.start();

For JMS POJO instantiation, you work with the EmbeddedJMS class instead as described earlier. First you define the configuration programmatically for your ConnectionFactory and Destination objects, then set the JmsConfiguration property of the EmbeddedJMS class. Here is an example of this:

// Step 1. Create HornetQ core configuration, and set the properties accordingly
Configuration configuration = new ConfigurationImpl();
configuration.setPersistenceEnabled(false);
configuration.setSecurityEnabled(false);
configuration.getAcceptorConfigurations()
         .add(new TransportConfiguration(NettyAcceptorFactory.class.getName()));

// Step 2. Create the JMS configuration
JMSConfiguration jmsConfig = new JMSConfigurationImpl();

// Step 3. Configure the JMS ConnectionFactory
TransportConfiguration connectorConfig = new TransportConfiguration(NettyConnectorFactory.class.getName());
ConnectionFactoryConfiguration cfConfig = new ConnectionFactoryConfigurationImpl("cf", connectorConfig, "/cf");
jmsConfig.getConnectionFactoryConfigurations().add(cfConfig);

// Step 4. Configure the JMS Queue
JMSQueueConfiguration queueConfig = new JMSQueueConfigurationImpl("queue1", null, false, "/queue/queue1");
jmsConfig.getQueueConfigurations().add(queueConfig);

// Step 5. Start the JMS Server using the HornetQ core server and the JMS configuration
EmbeddedJMS jmsServer = new EmbeddedJMS();
jmsServer.setConfiguration(configuration);
jmsServer.setJmsConfiguration(jmsConfig);
jmsServer.start();

Please see Section 11.1.19, “Embedded” for an example which shows how to setup and run HornetQ embedded with JMS.

You may also choose to use a dependency injection framework such as JBoss Micro Container™ or Spring Framework™. See Chapter 44, Spring Integration for more details on Spring and HornetQ, but here's how you would do things with the JBoss Micro Contaier.

HornetQ standalone uses JBoss Micro Container as the injection framework. HornetQBootstrapServer and hornetq-beans.xml which are part of the HornetQ distribution provide a very complete implementation of what's needed to bootstrap the server using JBoss Micro Container.

When using JBoss Micro Container, you need to provide an XML file declaring the HornetQServer and Configuration object, you can also inject a security manager and a MBean server if you want, but those are optional.

A very basic XML Bean declaration for the JBoss Micro Container would be:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<deployment xmlns="urn:jboss:bean-deployer:2.0">
   
   <!-- The core configuration -->
   <bean name="Configuration" 
         class="org.hornetq.core.config.impl.FileConfiguration">
   </bean>

   	<!-- The core server -->
   <bean name="HornetQServer" 
         class="org.hornetq.core.server.impl.HornetQServerImpl">      
      <constructor>
         <parameter>
            <inject bean="Configuration"/>
         </parameter>            
      </constructor>         
   </bean>
   </deployment>

HornetQBootstrapServer provides an easy encapsulation of JBoss Micro Container.

HornetQBootstrapServer bootStrap = 
        new HornetQBootstrapServer(new String[] {"hornetq-beans.xml"});
        bootStrap.run(