Patent ID: 8223785

Claim:
A messaging network including a plurality of message queuing systems communicating with one another via communication links, each message queuing system comprising: a queue manager for queuing messages it receives onto an appropriate queue, and retrieving the messages in response to an application request or a message queuing request; at least one queue for queuing the messages; a message trace queue for storing message trace information for incoming and outgoing messages, a message tracking component for receiving the message trace information from the queue manager and storing the message trace information in the message trace queue; and a message search component for receiving message search requests including at least a content key to be searched for, searching for the content key in the message trace information stored in the message trace queue, wherein the content key is application and message specific, and has at least one label with its assigned values, where the label identifies a specific data element derived from the message body or from the message descriptor, and providing a search result, wherein the message trace queue comprises: a message trace table in a database for recording each operation performed on a message within the message queuing system as a message trace entry in the message trace table wherein each message trace entry includes a message id, the content key of the message, an operation performed on the message, an identifier of a source queue within the message queuing system, identifiers of a target queuing system and a target queue within the target queuing system, and a time stamp of the message trace entry, wherein an operation performed on a message includes one of a message-receive-operation, a message-put-operation, a message-get-operation, and a message-send-operation; and a message content table in the database, the message content table stores a message ID only once for each message, and a label with its assigned value.