Their features, and the similarities in messaging system' design and architecture, are together conceived as enterprise integration patterns. These patterns include the concept of messaging channels, validation filters, routing components, transformers, and adapters, as shown in the following diagram:

From the set of patterns defined for each requirement, a user can choose a pattern that meets most of their requirements and incorporate it in their application. The following diagram shows the integration of two applications using enterprise integration patterns for each of their requirements (messaging endpoint, message construction, messaging channels, message routing, message transformation, and system monitoring):

While there are quite a few proprietary and open source implementations of enterprise integration patterns, the Spring Integration framework is the most relevant and consistent framework based on enterprise integration patterns. I strongly recommend that you learn these patterns and at least one good implementation of it, such as Spring Integration, which closely adopts most enterprise integration patterns. Do this if you would like to upgrade your enterprise integration skills.