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

by Hohpe Gregor

Routing—In a large enterprise with numerous applications and channels to connect them, a message may have to go through several channels to reach its final destination. The route a message must follow may be so complex that the original sender does not know what channel will get the message to the final receiver. Instead, the original sender sends the message to a Message Router (78), an application component that takes the place of a filter in the Pipes and Filters (70) architecture. The router then determines how to navigate the channel topology and directs the message to the final receiver, or at least to the next router.