Arbortext Publishing Engine ships with one Queue object, a Java object named com.arbortext.e3.ArbortextQueue. The Arbortext Queue implements an ordered container of transactions, sorted according to priority. It provides a number of features for managing transactions and determining the order in which they will execute, as specified in e3config.xml. It is possible to configure several distinct queues in e3config.xml, each accepting a different kind of transaction, and each having different behaviors.

The features in the following sections are implemented as part of the Arbortext Queue. If you implement your own queue object, you won’t get the capabilities offered by the Arbortext Queue unless you implement them in your own code. These sections will focus on the behavior of a single instance of the Arbortext Queue object.