Application messaging system with flexible message header structure

• US 20020186692A1
• Filed: 07/30/2001
• Published: 12/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Wells, John R., Felts, Stephen, Chang, Shean-Guang
• Granted Patent: US 7,185,105 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The Flexible Message Header (FMH) is a typed modular message structure comprising one or more Typed Container Modules (TCM)—stateful message modules with a compact header (Typed Container Header, TCH), a user definable payload (Typed Container Body, TCB), and a set of payload-specific callback to handle the lifecycle of the module at the different state such as creation, preparation, manipulation, resizing, transferring, and deletion. A single message comprises a small header with various numbers of TCMs. The integrity of the entire message is not affected by dynamically modifying, adding or removing TCM from the message. Major message content change can be achieved by either adding a TCM or swapping the TCM with different TCM. Minor message content change can be achieved by either modifying or expanding the TCM directly within the message. New features can be supported by adding new TCM and new code to process the new TCM.

Claims

1. A system for passing messages from a first application to a second application in a distributed application server comprising:

a message modulator at a first entity for modulating a message, each modulated message having a flexible message header and a plurality of typed container modules; and

,

a message receiver at a second entity for demodulating said typed container modules to regenerate said message.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said typed container modules include a typed container header portion defining the type and length of the typed container module header;

and,

a typed container body portion containing a portion of said message header information.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein one of said typed container modules includes a user data portion.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said message receiver demodulates only a subset of said typed container modules to create said message.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said typed container modules are linked to each other by pointers.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said typed container modules are linked to said flexible message header by pointers.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the message header part of the flexible message header comprises an attachment unit for linking to said typed container modules.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said message modulator operates in an edit mode for editing and modulating a message, and a storage mode for storing a message, wherein in said edit mode, each typed container module, except those containing user data, is prefixed with an attachment unit which comprises pointers to point to the next typed container module and the the previous typed container modules, and wherein in the said storage mode the attachment unit is removed from the typed container modules.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein in said storage mode, the message is stored in one continuous memory space and all of the typed container modules stored without their pointer set.

10. A method of messaging between applications in a distributed application system, comprising the steps of

modulating a message, each modulated message having a flexible message header and a plurality of typed container modules;

and,

demodulating said typed container modules to create a message.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said typed container modules include

a typed container header portion defining the type and length of the typed container module header;

and,

a typed container body portion containing a portion of said message header information.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein one of said typed container modules includes a user data portion.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein said message receiver demodulates only a subset of said typed container modules to create said message.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein said typed container modules are linked to each other by pointers.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein said typed container modules are linked to said flexible message header by pointers.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the message header part of the flexible message header comprises an attachment unit for linking to said typed container modules.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein said message modulator operates in an edit mode for editing and modulating a message, and a storage mode for storing a message, wherein in said edit mode, each typed container module, except those containing user data, is prefixed with an attachment unit which comprises pointers to point to the next typed container module and the the previous typed container modules, and wherein in the said storage mode the attachment unit is removed from the typed container modules.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein in said storage mode, the message is stored in one continuous memory space and all of the typed container modules stored without their pointer set.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the message includes a user data portion.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising the step of:

placing said user data portion into a user data module and linking said user data module to said flexible message header.

19. A method for messaging between applications in a distributed application system, comprising the steps of:

generating a message at a first application, together with message header information and body information;

segmenting the header information and body information into container modules;

creating a flexible message header;

attaching to each container module an attachment unit containing pointers linking the container module to the flexible message header and to each successive container module;

sending the message as a series of typed container modules to a second application; and

,

selecting at said second application certain of the container modules and reconstructing the message.