Mediation flows

As discussed in the previous chapters, Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is a fundamental building block for an SOA. ESB is an architectural integration pattern that provides a flexible infrastructure that enables dynamic and adaptable service integration. In the heart of this infrastructure is the mediation flow component, which provides the mediation logic applied to a message as it flows from a service consumer to a provider. The mediation flows help achieve the service virtualization and connectivity necessary in interactions between service consumer and providers. A mediation flow basically receives an inbound request message from a service consumer. It then operates and processes the message and sends an outbound request message to the service provider. For example, if an order management system (the service provider) requires a specific format for sales order message (say OM-1), and the order entry system (the service consumer) uses a different order message (say OM-2)...