tothenetworkonly

Tothenetworkonly is a term used in software engineering to describe a mode or flag that directs data flow strictly to network destinations. It is not tied to a specific product; rather, it represents a design choice for controlling where data is delivered, stored, or processed.

Definition and scope: In a system that supports multiple transport targets, tothenetworkonly signals that operations should bypass local persistence, caches, or offline processing and instead forward data to remote endpoints or services. The exact behavior depends on the implementation, but the common intent is to limit data handling to network-based channels.

Common usage and semantics: The mode is often applied in data synchronization, event streaming, or file transfer workflows. When enabled, the transport layer prioritizes network delivery and may skip writing to local storage, skip durable queues, or skip index updates. Retries, ordering guarantees, and failure handling are typically governed by the network path rather than local persistence.

Implications and trade-offs: Advantages include reduced local storage use and a clearer separation of concerns, ensuring data is delivered to external services. Trade-offs involve higher risk of data loss during network outages, lack of offline accessibility, and the need for robust network failure handling and idempotent operations.

Examples: In a hypothetical data pipeline, a producer might specify mode: 'tothenetworkonly' to ensure events are sent to a streaming service without writing to a local queue. In client libraries, a transport option with this flag directs requests exclusively to remote endpoints.

See also: offline-first, network-first, data synchronization, transport layer.