Most IT development done nowadays involves development of some sort of message processing system (MPS). These MPSes can be simple and based on nothing more than message passing in the object oriented sense of the word, or they can be convoluted and even esoteric systems (ranging from SOA components included in an ESB to JMS-driven MDBs and so on). In all cases they are based around the paradigm of messaging — passing of messages from a client to an MPS and often having the MPS send a second message back in response. The MPS responds to an incoming message by doing some form of work based on the message’s contents, possibly delegating part of that work to third systems (in which case the MPS takes on an orchestrating role as well as a primary processing role). Almost any system currently being developed and maintained in the Enterprise software development sphere fits the paradigm; the business layer in the three-tier JEE model is already an example.
In this article I want to discuss some best practices when designing and developing these systems:
- Separating business logic from publishing frameworks
- Mocking backends
- Logging messages so that they will be reusable in testing and problem analysis
Probably none of these best practices will bowl you over. In fact, you’re probably underwhelmed by the list so far. So why am I going to waste an entire blog talking about these boring basics of development? Because, for some reason, most projects still seem to overlook any or all of the points mentioned above…..
Continue reading Three obvious development tips for creating message processing systems
Popular