Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Fowler))

by Hohpe Gregor

A common use of the Dynamic Router is dynamic service discovery in service-oriented architectures. If a client application wants to access a service, it sends a message containing the name of the service to the Dynamic Router. The Dynamic Router maintains a service directory, a list of all services with their name and the channel they listen on. The router builds this directory based on control messages from each service provider. When a service request arrives, the Dynamic Router uses the service directory to look up the service by name, then routes the message to the correct channel. This setup allows the client application to send command messages to a single channel without having to worry about the nature or location of the specified service provider, even if the provider changes.