METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTING DATA EVENTS OVER AN INFORMATION BUS

• US 20030163598A1
• Filed: 12/29/1998
• Published: 08/28/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: WILSON, DOUGLASS J., COLAN, MARK T.
• Granted Patent: US 6,704,803 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A group of protocols is described that establish an information bus. The protocols allow various applications and components to plug into the information bus. As a member of the bus, each application or component can exchange information with any other application or component in a structured way. The information bus is especially useful in interconnecting Java beans and applets in a Java virtual machine and in a distributive computer environment. An object oriented computer system having multiple participants is disclosed that utilizes a communications bus for sharing data between the multiple participants. The communications bus comprises membership generator logic, data event builder logic, data notification logic, and data control logic. The membership generator logic is configured to grant each requesting participant membership to the communications bus. The data event builder logic is configured to prepare data events occurring the computer system. The data notification logic is responsive to the data event builder logic and is configured to notify all participant members of the data events generated by the data event builder logic. The data control logic, which is coupled to the data notification logic, is configured to prioritize the notification of data events to the multiple participants of the communications bus. The data event can serve to announce the availability of a new data element, to request a given data element located in one of the member participants, or to announce a changed data element in one of the member participants. The data control logic can be configured to prioritize the notification of data events to selected groups of the multiple participants and it can be configured to provide selected grouping of the multiple participants. In addition, the data control logic may be configured to establish a virtual machine bridge between a first data controller and a first virtual machine and a second data controller and a second virtual machine. In addition, the membership generator logic generates a list of registered applications.

Claims

5-1. The method according to claim 5 further comprising the step of:

F) establishing an order of priority to notify each application assigned to each data controller of the data events.

10. In an object-oriented computer system having multiple participants, a communications bus for sharing data between the multiple participants comprising:

membership generator logic configured to grant each requesting participant membership to the communications bus;

data event builder logic configured to prepare data events occurring on the computer system;

data notification logic, responsive to the data event builder logic, configured to notify all participant members of the data events generated by the data event builder logic; and

data control logic, coupled to the data notification logic, configured to prioritize the notification of data events to the multiple participants of the communication bus.

11. The communications bus of claim 10 wherein a data event serves to announce the availability of a new data element.

12. The communications bus according to claim 10 wherein a data event serves to request a given data element located in one of the member participants.

13. The communications bus according to claim 10 wherein a data event serves to announce a changed data element in one of the member participants.

14. The communications bus according to claim 10 wherein the data control logic is configured to prioritize the notification of data events to selected groups of the multiple participants.

15. The communications bus according to claim 10 wherein the data control logic is configured to provide selected grouping of the multiple of participants.

16. The communications bus according to claim 14 wherein the data control logic is configured to establish a virtual machine (VM) bridge between a first data controller in a first VM and a second data controller in a second VM.

17-2. The computer program product according to claim 20 wherein the data event is an announcement of an available data element.

18-3. The computer program product of claim 20 wherein the data event is an announcement of a changed data element.

20. The computer program product according to claim 20 wherein the data event is a request for a data element found within one of the member applications.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the data event is a request for a data element found within one of the applications.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the data event is an announcement of an available data element.

17. The communications bus according to claim 10 wherein the membership generator logic generates a list of registered applications.

18. A computer program product for use within a computer system to provide data event notification among participating applications, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied on the medium for enabling data to be accessed across the computer system, the medium further comprising:

program code to establish a communications bus over the computer system;

program code to register each application with the communications bus;

program code to assign each application to a selected data controller;

program code to communicate data events to the data controller;

program code to forward the data events to each application assigned to the data controller.

19. The computer program product according to claim 20 wherein each data element is associated with at least one of the applications.

23. The computer program product according to claim 20 further comprising program code to establish an order of priority to notify each data controller of data events.

24. The computer program product according to claim 20 further comprising program code to establish an order of priority to notify each application assigned to each data controller of the data events.

25. The computer program product according to claim 20 further comprising program code to add each registered application to a list of members.

26. The computer program product according to claim 26 further comprising program code to establish a virtual machine (VM) bridge between a first data controller in a first VM and a second data controller in a second VM.