diff --git a/spring-integration-http/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/http/HttpRequestHandlingEndpointSupport.java b/spring-integration-http/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/http/HttpRequestHandlingEndpointSupport.java
index 47db8eaefd..52f96ef5c9 100644
--- a/spring-integration-http/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/http/HttpRequestHandlingEndpointSupport.java
+++ b/spring-integration-http/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/http/HttpRequestHandlingEndpointSupport.java
@@ -54,6 +54,29 @@ import org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet;
 
 /**
  * Base class for HTTP request handling endpoints.
+ * <p/>
+ * By default GET and POST requests are accepted, but the 'supportedMethods'
+ * property may be set to include others or limit the options (e.g. POST only).
+ * A GET request will generate a payload containing its 'parameterMap' while
+ * a POST request will be converted to a Message payload according to
+ * the registered {@link HttpMessageConverter}s. Several are registered
+ * by default, but the list can be explicitly set via {@link #setMessageConverters(List)}.
+ * <p/>
+ * To customize the mapping of request headers to the MessageHeaders, provide
+ * a reference to a {@link HeaderMapper HeaderMapper<HttpHeaders>} implementation
+ * to the {@link #setHeaderMapper(HeaderMapper)} method.
+ * <p/>
+ * The behavior is "request/reply" by default. Pass <code>false</code>
+ * to the constructor to force send-only as opposed to sendAndReceive.
+ * Send-only means that as soon as the Message is created and passed to the
+ * {@link #setRequestChannel(org.springframework.integration.core.MessageChannel) request channel},
+ * a response will be generated. Subclasses determine how that response is
+ * generated (e.g. simple status response or rendering a View).
+ * <p/>
+ * In a request-reply scenario, the reply Message's payload will be
+ * extracted prior to generating a response by default. To have the entire
+ * serialized Message available for the response, switch the
+ * {@link #extractReplyPayload} value to <code>false</code>.
  * 
  * @author Mark Fisher
  * @since 2.0
@@ -71,10 +94,10 @@ abstract class HttpRequestHandlingEndpointSupport extends AbstractMessagingGatew
 			ClassUtils.isPresent("com.sun.syndication.feed.WireFeed", HttpRequestHandlingEndpointSupport.class.getClassLoader());
 
 
-	private volatile Class<?> conversionTargetType = null;
-
 	private volatile List<HttpMethod> supportedMethods = Arrays.asList(HttpMethod.GET, HttpMethod.POST);
 
+	private volatile Class<?> requestPayloadType = null;
+
 	private volatile List<HttpMessageConverter<?>> messageConverters = new ArrayList<HttpMessageConverter<?>>();
 
 	private volatile HeaderMapper<HttpHeaders> headerMapper = new DefaultHttpHeaderMapper();
@@ -162,8 +185,8 @@ abstract class HttpRequestHandlingEndpointSupport extends AbstractMessagingGatew
 	 * means at runtime any "text" Content-Type will result in String while all others
 	 * default to <code>byte[].class</code>.
 	 */
-	public void setConversionTargetType(Class<?> conversionTargetType) {
-		this.conversionTargetType = conversionTargetType;
+	public void setRequestPayloadType(Class<?> requestPayloadType) {
+		this.requestPayloadType = requestPayloadType;
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -322,17 +345,17 @@ abstract class HttpRequestHandlingEndpointSupport extends AbstractMessagingGatew
 	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
 	private Object generatePayloadFromRequestBody(ServletServerHttpRequest request) throws IOException {
 		MediaType contentType = request.getHeaders().getContentType();
-		Class<?> targetType = this.conversionTargetType;
-		if (targetType == null) {
-			targetType = ("text".equals(contentType.getType())) ? String.class : byte[].class;
+		Class<?> expectedType = this.requestPayloadType;
+		if (expectedType == null) {
+			expectedType = ("text".equals(contentType.getType())) ? String.class : byte[].class;
 		}
 		for (HttpMessageConverter<?> converter : this.messageConverters) {
-			if (converter.canRead(targetType, contentType)) {
-				return converter.read((Class) targetType, request);
+			if (converter.canRead(expectedType, contentType)) {
+				return converter.read((Class) expectedType, request);
 			}
 		}
 		throw new MessagingException("Could not convert request: no suitable HttpMessageConverter found for expected type [" +
-				targetType.getName() + "] and content type [" + contentType + "]");
+				expectedType.getName() + "] and content type [" + contentType + "]");
 	}
 
 }
diff --git a/spring-integration-http/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/http/config/HttpInboundEndpointParser.java b/spring-integration-http/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/http/config/HttpInboundEndpointParser.java
index 8054f54db1..51a30cdb32 100644
--- a/spring-integration-http/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/http/config/HttpInboundEndpointParser.java
+++ b/spring-integration-http/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/http/config/HttpInboundEndpointParser.java
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ public class HttpInboundEndpointParser extends AbstractSingleBeanDefinitionParse
 					builder, element, "send-timeout", "requestTimeout");
 		}
 		IntegrationNamespaceUtils.setValueIfAttributeDefined(builder, element, "supported-methods", "supportedMethodNames");
-		IntegrationNamespaceUtils.setValueIfAttributeDefined(builder, element, "conversion-target-type");
+		IntegrationNamespaceUtils.setValueIfAttributeDefined(builder, element, "request-payload-type");
 		IntegrationNamespaceUtils.setValueIfAttributeDefined(builder, element, "view-name");
 		IntegrationNamespaceUtils.setReferenceIfAttributeDefined(builder, element, "message-converters");
 		IntegrationNamespaceUtils.setReferenceIfAttributeDefined(builder, element, "header-mapper");
diff --git a/spring-integration-http/src/main/resources/org/springframework/integration/http/config/spring-integration-http-2.0.xsd b/spring-integration-http/src/main/resources/org/springframework/integration/http/config/spring-integration-http-2.0.xsd
index 78ee5fac5b..8887c95731 100644
--- a/spring-integration-http/src/main/resources/org/springframework/integration/http/config/spring-integration-http-2.0.xsd
+++ b/spring-integration-http/src/main/resources/org/springframework/integration/http/config/spring-integration-http-2.0.xsd
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 					</xsd:appinfo>
 				</xsd:annotation>
 			</xsd:attribute>
-			<xsd:attribute name="conversion-target-type" type="xsd:string">
+			<xsd:attribute name="request-payload-type" type="xsd:string">
 				<xsd:annotation>
 					<xsd:documentation>
 						Target type for payload that is the conversion result of the request.
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@
 							</xsd:documentation>
 						</xsd:annotation>
 					</xsd:attribute>
-					<xsd:attribute name="conversion-target-type" type="xsd:string">
+					<xsd:attribute name="request-payload-type" type="xsd:string">
 						<xsd:annotation>
 							<xsd:documentation>
 								Target type for payload that is the conversion result of the request.