Message Chain

Kind: anti-pattern

Layer: Enforcement Core

Aliases: Train Wreck

Record: architecture:message-chain

Severity: discouraged

Scope: event_messaging

Formed by: Require clients to traverse a chain of objects to reach behavior or data, exposing internal object graph structure.

Canonical: Ontology

A defect in which a client navigates a chain of objects to reach the behavior it needs.

Listed in Architecture principles, after Inappropriate Intimacy and before Middle Man.

Refactored by

• Hide Delegate
• Move Behavior to Its Owner

Severity

• discouraged

Category

• Anti-patterns

Force

• Event messaging

Negated by

• Low Coupling

Linked from

• Above one tier, reduction
• Anti-patterns
• Core Modular Design
• Core Modular Design
• Severity levels
• The forces