EventBridge:Terms

CloudEvents 1.0

An open source specification that describes event data in a standard way. It simplifies event declaration and message delivery across services and platforms.

The following terms are used in CloudEvents 1.0. For more information, see CloudEvents 1.0.

• occurrence

  • A record of activity collected while a software system is running. An event can occur when a system signal is received, a monitored signal is triggered, or a change in status or time occurs. For example, a device may enter an alert status because its battery level is low, or a virtual machine is scheduled to restart.

• producer

  • A specific instance, process, or device that generates a data structure describing a CloudEvent.

• consumer

  • A component that receives an event and performs an operation on it. A consumer executes logic based on the event's context and data to generate new events.

• Middleware

  • A component that receives a message that contains an event and forwards the event to the next receiver. The next receiver can be a consumer or another intermediary. A typical task for an intermediary is to route an event to a consumer based on information in the context.

• Content

  • Tools and application code can use the information in the context to identify the relationship of an event to the system or to other events.

• data

  • Domain-specific information about an occurrence. This can include a detailed description of data changes or other information about the occurrence.

• event format

  • The specification for how to serialize a CloudEvent into a byte format. Standalone event formats, such as JSON, can be serialized independent of any protocol or storage medium. Protocol bindings can define protocol-dependent formats.

• message

  • An event is transmitted from an event source to an event target through a message.

    • structured message

      A message where the event is fully encoded using a standalone event format. The event data is stored in the message body.

    • binary message

      A message where event attributes are stored in the message metadata. The event data is stored in the message body.

Event-driven architecture

You can understand event-driven architecture from the following perspectives:

• It focuses on asynchronous communication based on event production and consumption. This contrasts with traditional, thread-based synchronous systems.

• It is centered around events, including their production, discovery, consumption, and response.

For more information, see Event-driven architecture.

Event

A data record that indicates a change in state.

For more information, see Event overview.

Event source

The source that produces an event. Event sources include the following types:

• Alibaba Cloud service event source: An Alibaba Cloud service that connects to EventBridge as an event source.

  Note

  For more information about the Alibaba Cloud service event sources that EventBridge supports, see Alibaba Cloud service event sources.

• Custom event source: Custom applications or existing message data serve as event sources that actively pull events into a custom event bus.

For more information, see Event source overview.

Event bus

For more information, see Event bus overview.

Event rule

For more information, see Event rule overview.

Event pattern

A component that filters events. An event pattern can filter all fields of a CloudEvent, including the data field. The event pattern is described in JSON format. Event patterns include the following types:

• For Alibaba Cloud service event sources: You can quickly define an event pattern using predefined event sources and event types. This method is suitable for scenarios where you use simple matching rules to filter events from the default event bus.

• For custom event sources: You can customize an event pattern based on the matching rules that the event pattern supports. This method is suitable for scenarios where you use complex matching rules to filter events from a custom event bus.

For more information, see Event patterns.

Event transformer

A component that transforms the content of an event before it is routed to an event target. Event transformers support the following types:

• Complete event: Routes the entire event content to the target.

• Partial event: Extracts data from the event using JSONPath and routes the specified event content to the target.

• Constant: Routes a constant to the target, regardless of the event content.

• Template: A template that you can customize with required variables. Data is extracted from the event using JSONPath and transformed according to the template.

For more information, see Event content transformation.

Event target

For more information, see Event target overview.

Schema

A schema defines the data format of an event body to enable reliable data exchange across heterogeneous systems.

For more information, see Schema overview.

Event stream

An event stream is a lightweight, real-time, end-to-end channel for streaming events. It processes end-to-end streaming data by extracting, transforming, and analyzing events from the source in real time, and then delivering them to the target.

For more information, see Event stream overview.

Event Warehouse

EventHouse is a next-generation, cloud-native event lakehouse from Alibaba Cloud EventBridge.

Traditional event buses primarily address the routing and distribution of events. EventHouse, in contrast, is designed to handle the storage, administration, and intelligent analysis of event data. It adopts the advanced architectural concepts of a data lakehouse. It unifies high-throughput message queues (MQ), structured databases (DB), and unstructured Object Storage Service (OSS) into a standard event data model.

For more information, see EventHouse.