Summary

Oracle Mediator technology is extensive and complex. It differs from BPEL in the sense that it’s faster and more lightweight, does not carry state, and is very message oriented. It implements a number of message exchange patterns, validates and transforms messages, and has (limited) capabilities to enrich the message payload. Mediators are not suitable for orchestration or to implement composite services.

SOA composite applications will usually contain a combination of components, implemented using different technologies such as BPEL, Java, Human Task, and Business Rule. Mediators will almost always be used to decouple from and to the outside world, and to mediate between components and adapter services within the composite through transformation and content-based routing.