We discussed message transformation in the last chapter. After transformation has been taken care of, there can be additional tasks before it can be delivered to the next in the chain. For example, messages might need some chunking, or they might be incomplete and need some temporary storage or sequencing. In this chapter, we will explore the out-of-the-box capabilities that the Spring Integration framework provides for a seamless flow of messages across heterogeneous components. We will cover the following topics in this chapter: