WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus concepts and terminology

Learn about WebSphere® Enterprise Service Bus concepts, and their similarities and differences with IBM® Integration Bus concepts.

Message concepts

The following table lists WebSphere ESB message concepts and the equivalent IBM Integration Bus message concepts.

Table 1. Concept summary
WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus concept	IBM Integration Bus concept	Description
Business object	Message data	Use message data to pass information between applications and services.
Service message object	Message assembly	Use the message assembly to pass information inside a message flow.
Service data object	Message assembly	Use the message assembly to pass information inside a message flow.

The following table lists WebSphere ESB mediation module concepts and the equivalent IBM Integration Bus message flow concepts.

Table 2. Concept summary
WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus concept	IBM Integration Bus concept	Description
Node or primitive	Message flow node	Use nodes to receive, manipulate, enhance or return messages in a message transformation flow.
Mediation module flow	Message flow	Use flows to define the logic to transform, enhance, and route messages between different applications, services, or both.
Mediation module subflow	Subflow	Use a subflow to define the logic to transform, enhance, and route messages between different applications, services, or both. A subflow consist of a group of pre-configured nodes orchestrated to offer a common pattern or use case.