Request–response

Request–response or request–reply is one of the basic methods computers use to communicate to each other. When using request–response, the first computer sends a request for some data and the second computer responds to the request. Usually there is a series of such interchanges until the complete message is sent. Browsing a web page is an example of request–response communication. One can think of request–response as being like a telephone call, where you call someone and they answer the call. Compare this with one-way computer communication, which is like the push-to-talk or "barge in" feature found on some phones and two-way radios, where a message is sent without waiting for a response. Sending an email is an example of one-way communication.

Technical details

Request–response, also known as request-reply, is a message exchange pattern in which a requestor sends a request message to a replier system which receives and processes the request, ultimately returning a message in response. This is a simple, but powerful messaging pattern which allows two applications to have a two-way conversation with one another over a channel. This pattern is especially common in client-server architectures.[1]

For simplicity, this pattern is typically implemented in a purely synchronous fashion, as in web service calls over HTTP, which holds a connection open and waits until the response is delivered or the timeout period expires. However, request–response may also be implemented asynchronously, with a response being returned at some unknown later time. This is often referred to as "sync over async", or "sync/async", and is common in enterprise application integration (EAI) implementations where slow aggregations, time-intensive functions, or human workflow must be performed before a response can be constructed and delivered.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hohpe, Gregor. Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions. ISBN 0-321-20068-3. p. 184

External links