Message listeners

Some applications receive many documents, such as all Sync documents. Typical examples are reporting and analysis tools.

For such applications you can create a connection point and a document flow. However, use a message listener instead. A message listener receives all documents having a specific verb, irrespective of the document type.

For example, if you define a listener to receive Sync documents, that listener receives all Sync documents. These are examples of sync documents:

  • SyncProductionOrder documents from an ERP application.
  • SyncInvoice documents from a financial application.
  • SyncMyCustomDocument from a custom application.
  • SyncPulseAlert documents from the Activities engine.

A listener uses in-box tables, it is comparable to an application connection point. A listener is not used in a document flow.

This table shows the differences between a listener and a connection point.

Listener Connection Point
Can receive documents, but cannot send documents. Can send and receive documents.
Easy to model. No data flow is required. You select whether to receive all Sync documents, all Process documents, all Confirm documents or a combination. In the data flow you select exactly which documents from which sources must be delivered to the connection point.
You cannot use any filtering or content-based routing. You can use filtering or content-based routing to limit the number of documents that are delivered to a connection point.
Behavior is flexible: when a connection point becomes active that can send a new document matching the selected verbs for a listener, that document is delivered, without having to update or reactivate the listener. The documents that are sent and received are explicitly defined and controlled. No additional documents are delivered to a connection point, unless you update the document flow.
Can be activated and deactivated. Is activated and deactivated only by activating and deactivating a data flow.