As mentioned in the Preface, Spring Integration is an implementation of Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions (Addison Wesley Signature Series), Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf, Addison-Wesley Professional. EIP (short for Enterprise Integration Patterns) defines patterns for many integration challenges, and one of them is the exchange of messages between heterogeneous systems. In this chapter, we will explore patterns and concepts around message exchange.

Heterogeneous endpoints use messaging to communicate. There are primarily three aspects of messaging: messages being exchanged, the endpoints that participate in the communication, and the medium through which messages are delivered. In an EIP paradigm, we define them as messages, message endpoints, and message channels. Let's discuss each one at a time and then we will discuss the pattern.

What is a message? In simplest terms, messages can be understood as a piece...