Functional testing a Java EE application with message-driven beans and web services

I need to test a complete system that talks to the world entirely by JMS and JAX-WS. The flow, more or less, is this:

1. Triggered by a single JMS message,
2. Queries a few other external systems (via JMS or webservice).
3. Listens for the answers on queues (sometimes for 1 request there are many replies expected).
4. Processes what's needed and sends replies back (via JMS) to the calling system (also one or more replies per one triggering message).

I've been searching for a means of:

• mocking the external systems (that is, listening on other ends of queues, analyze requests and replying based on the contents of the request),
• connecting to different message brokers, Active MQ and Websphere MQ being the most wanted,
• creating test case logic,
• comparing the results with the expected behaviour.

So far, I've tried jMeter, but it lacked the ability to listen on a queue.

In the end, it seems to me I'd have to deploy a series of message-driven beans as mocks, but I want to make sure I'm not reinventing the wheel.

Finally I resorted to writing my own set of MDBs.

Cons:

• much repetitive work,
• not reusable (a dedicated solution to the project),
• missed the possibility to learn a tool that could make my life easier next time,

Pros:

• full control of the test flow,
• ability to deploy it in the target environment (WAS 7) — probably out of the question with SoapUI,
• wrote it in a way that allows developing large test sets in a fast and efficient way.

Some colleagues I asked also recommended this approach. I'm a disappointed I haven't found a better way.