One of key benefits of a message-based systems is the loose coupling between participants; the message sender and recipient make no (or few) assumptions about each other's identity. If a message recipient retrieves a message from a message channel, it generally does not know nor care which application put the message on the channel. The message is by definition self-contained and is not associated with a specific sender. This is one of the architectural strengths of message-based systems.

However, the same property can make debugging and analyzing dependencies very difficult. If we are not sure where a message goes, how can we assess the impact of a change in the message format? Likewise, if we don't know which application published a message it is difficult to correct a problem with the message.

How can we effectively analyze and debug the flow of messages in a loosely coupled system?

Therefore, attach a Message History to the message. The Message History is a list of all applications that the message passed through since its origination.

The Message History maintains a list of all components that the message passed through. Every component that processes the message (including the originator) adds one entry to the list. The Message History should be part of the message header because it contains system-specific control information. Keeping this information in the header separates it from the message body that contains application specific data.

Related patterns: Aggregator, Control Bus, Message Router, Message Store, Process Manager, Publish-Subscribe Channel, Recipient List

Integration Pattern Language

Message Construct.

Message

Command Message

Document Message

Event Message

Request-Reply

Return Address

Correlation Identifier

Message Sequence

Message Expiration

Format Indicator

Message Routing

Pipes-and-Filters

Message Router

Content-based Router

Message Filter

Dynamic Router

Recipient List

Splitter

Aggregator

Resequencer

Composed Msg. Processor

Scatter-Gather

Routing Slip

Process Manager

Message Broker

Message
Transformation

Message Translator

Envelope Wrapper

Content Enricher

Content Filter

Claim Check

Normalizer

Canonical Data Model

Messaging Endpoints

Message Endpoint

Messaging Gateway

Messaging Mapper

Transactional Client

Polling Consumer

Event-driven Consumer

Competing Consumers

Message Dispatcher

Selective Consumer

Durable Subscriber

Idempotent Receiver

Service Activator

Messaging Channels

Message Channel

Point-to-Point Channel

Publish-Subscr. Channel

Datatype Channel

Invalid Message Channel

Dead Letter Channel

Guaranteed Delivery

Channel Adapter

Messaging Bridge

Message Bus

Systems Mgmt.

Control Bus

Detour

Wire Tap

Message History

Message Store

Smart Proxy

Test Message

Channel Purger