Message brokering

• US 20030126077A1
• Filed: 08/15/2002
• Published: 07/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Patterson, Andrew, Sadler, Andrew, Turvey, David, Kantor, Jiri, McMillan, Craig, Bevis, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,523,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments

Abstract

Disclosed is a message brokering mechanism (120, 220) for a transaction processing system (100, 200), comprising first and second stages operable to exchange message requests and responses, wherein the first stage is operable to receive a message request from a message source (110) and to check whether there is an existing first stage response to the message request and, conditional on there being an existing first stage response, to dispatch the existing first stage response to the message source.

Claims

1. A message brokering mechanism for an automated transaction processing system, comprising first and second stages operable to exchange message requests and responses, wherein the first stage is operable to receive a message request from a message source and to check whether there is an existing first stage response to the message request and, conditional on there being an existing first stage response, to dispatch the existing first stage response to the message source.

2. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the first stage is further operable to determine whether the message request has been dispatched previously to the second stage, conditional on there being no existing first stage response, and where the message request has not been dispatched previously to the second stage, to dispatch the message request to the second stage.

3. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the first stage is further operable to dispatch a message indicating that a response to the request is not ready for transmission to the message source, conditional on there being no existing first stage response and the message request having been dispatched previously to the second stage.

4. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the second stage is operable to check whether there is an existing second stage response to the message request and, conditional on there being an existing second stage response, to dispatch the existing second stage response to the first stage.

5. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the second stage comprises a message queue mechanism.

6. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the second stage is operable to check whether the message request has been dispatched previously to a message processor and, where the message request has not been dispatched previously to the message processor, to dispatch the message request to the message processor.

7. The message brokering mechanism of claim 6, wherein the second stage is further operable to check that an actioned response has been dispatched from the message processor in response to the message request.

8. The message brokering mechanism of claim 7, wherein the second stage is operable to check that any said actioned response has been dispatched from the message processor in response to the message request after the elapse of a predetermined time period.

9. The message brokering mechanism of claim 6, wherein the message processor and the second stage are operable to communicate using query messages implemented according to a query protocol.

10. The message brokering mechanism of claim 9, wherein the query messages indicate one or more of the following:

a) that the message processor has processed the message request;

b) the result of processing the message request;

c) that the message processor is currently processing the message request;

d) that the second stage is to await the result of processing the message request; and

e) that the second stage is to re-dispatch the message request to the message processor.

11. The message brokering mechanism of claim 6, wherein the second stage is further operable to dispatch a message indicating that a response to the request is not ready for transmission to the first stage, conditional on there being no existing second stage response and the message request having been dispatched previously to the message processor.

12. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second stages is operable to record the identities of dispatched message requests.

13. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second stages is operable to record responses generated in response to message requests.

14. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein message requests and responses are dispatched between the first and second stages by a transaction control mechanism.

15. The message brokering mechanism of claim 14, wherein the transaction control mechanism comprises a transaction server operable to dispatch message requests and responses over a network.

16. A transaction processing system comprising the message brokering mechanism of claim 1.

32. A program element comprising program code operable to provide the message brokering mechanism according to claims 1.

33. The program element of claim 32 on a carrier medium.

17. A method of brokering messages, comprising:

receiving a message request from a message source at a first stage;

checking whether there is an existing first stage response to the message request; and

dispatching the existing first stage response to the message source, conditional on there being an existing first stage response.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

determining whether the message request has been dispatched previously to a second stage; and

dispatching the message request to the second stage conditional on the message request not having been dispatched previously to the second stage.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising dispatching a message indicating that a response to the request is not ready for transmission from the first stage to the message source, conditional on there being no existing first stage response.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising checking whether there is an existing second stage response to the message request at the second stage and, conditional on there being an existing second stage response, dispatching the existing second stage response to the first stage.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising checking whether the message request has been dispatched previously from the second stage to a message processor and, where the message request has not been dispatched previously to the message processor, dispatching the message request to the message processor.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising checking that an actioned response has been dispatched from the message processor in response to the message request.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising checking that any said actioned response has been dispatched from the message processor in response to the message request after the elapse of a predetermined time period.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising the message processor and the second stage communicating using query messages implemented according to a query protocol.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising dispatching a message indicating that a response to the request is not ready for transmission from the second stage to the first stage, conditional on there being no existing second stage response and the message request having been dispatched previously to the message processor.

26. The method of claim 17, further comprising operating at least one of the first and second stages to record the identities of dispatched message requests.

27. The method of claim 17, further comprising operating at least one of the first and second stages to record responses generated in response to message requests.

28. A first stage logic module operable to carry out the method of claim 17.

29. A program element comprising program code operable to provide the first stage logic module according to claim 28.

30. A second stage logic module operable to carryout the method of claim 20.

31. A program element comprising program code operable to provide the second stage logic module according to claim 30.

36. A computer program product for providing a message brokering mechanism comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied in said computer usable medium, said computer readable program code comprising computer readable program code for causing at least one computer to implement the method of claim 17.

37. The computer program product of claim 36 wherein the computer usable medium comprises one of the following set of media:

a signal, a magnetic disk or tape, solid-state memory, a compact disk and a digital versatile disk.

34. A transaction processing system, comprising:

at least one request generating apparatus operably coupled to a first network;

a first stage operably coupled to the first network to receive message requests from and to dispatch message responses corresponding to respective processed message requests to the at least one request generating apparatus through the first network;

a transaction controller server operably coupled to the first stage to receive message requests therefrom and to dispatch message responses thereto;

a second stage operably coupled to the transaction controller server to receive message requests therefrom and to dispatch message responses thereto; and

a transaction processing apparatus coupled to the second stage to process requests received therefrom and dispatch message responses corresponding to respective processed message requests thereto;

wherein the transaction processing system is operable to inhibit the transaction processing apparatus from receiving duplicate message requests from said at least one request generating apparatus.

35. The transaction processing system of claim 34, wherein the transaction controller server is operatively coupled to the second stage through a second network.