Using Salesforce Outbound Messages for Integrations is part of the  is part of the blog post series: Integrating Salesforce With Other Apps – A Series! 

An outbound message sends information in XML format using SOAP to a specific URL endpoint. The information contains the fields specified when the outbound message is created.

The outbound message is sent as part of a Workflow Rule when you choose the outbound message action. Once the endpoint receives the message it needs to process the information using the outbound messaging wsdl.

Why Use Outbound messages

Outbound messaging allows you to specify that changes to fields within Salesforce can cause messages with field values to be sent to designated external servers.

One of the beautiful things about outbound messaging is that it’s truly enterprise ready. It keeps trying if it fails and slowly backs itself off and will stop trying after 24 hours.

How Outbound Messaging Works

Outbound messaging is a Remote Process Invocation – Fire and Forget. The remote process receives the notification from Salesforce and acknowledges the request.

Outbound messaging uses what’s known as the notifications call to send a SOAP message over HTTP to the endpoint you have designated in your workflow rule.