message driven vs. event driven approaches to application integration

Question

I was wondering if there is a clear distinction between message driven and event driven environments when we refer to SOA or middleware and generally in cases of application and enterprise integration. I understand that a user interface resembles an event driven model where our system intercepts action by the user.

Also it is clear that messaging supports systems based on publish/subscribe, sychronous or asynchronous communication, transactions etc.

But is there a difference in the middleware/soa/application intergration context? (architecture level). I am trying to consult sources such wikipedia (here, and here), but I am still somewhat confused. When should a developer prefer one solution over the other?

Are there examples or cases where one approach makes more sense than the other? Or any comprehensive resources and guides to implementing each one?

Many thanks for any insight.

Answer 1

Here is a Typesafe/Reactive point of view on the question from Jonas Bonér. From the third paragraph of this blog post:

The difference being that messages are directed, events are not — a message has a clear addressable recipient while an event just happen for others (0-N) to observe it.