An enterprise has two separate applications that are communicating via Messaging, using a Message Channel that connects them.
How can two applications connected by a message channel exchange a piece of information?
Package the information into a Message, a data record that the messaging system can transmit through a message channel.
Thus any data that is to be transmitted via a messaging system must be converted into one or more messages that can be sent through messaging channels.
A message consists of two basic parts:
- Header – Information used by the messaging system that describes the data being transmitted, its origin, its destination, and so on.
- Body – The data being transmitted; generally ignored by the messaging system and simply transmitted as-is.
... Read the entire pattern in the book Enterprise Integration Patterns
Related patterns:
Canonical Data Model, Command Message, Document Message, Event Message, Message Channel, Message Expiration, Message Sequence, Messaging, Request-Reply