Service Architecture

This section describes the database objects that specify the basic design of an application that

uses Service Broker.

At design time, Service Broker applications specify the following objects:

: Define the names of the messages exchanged between applications.

Optionally provide validation for the messages.

: Specify the direction and type of messages in a given conversation.

: Store messages. This storage mechanism allows for asynchronous

communication between services. Service Broker queues provide additional benefits, such

as automatically locking messages in the same conversation group.

: Are addressable endpoints for conversations. Service Broker messages are sent

from one service to another service. A service specifies a queue to hold messages, and

specifies the contracts for which the service can be the target. A contract provides a

service with a well-defined set of message types.

A Service Broker application uses the SQL Server objects in the preceding list to conduct a

conversation. Any program that can run Transact-SQL statements in SQL Server can use Service

Broker. Applications can be stored procedures written in Transact-SQL or a CLR-compliant

language, or they can be external programs that connect to an instance of SQL Server.

The following diagram shows a Service Broker service: