J2EE CONNECTOR ARCHITECTURE

• US 20040045008A1
• Filed: 02/13/2003
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: June, Deborah C., Chesebro, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 7,698,434 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/316
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0253 Garbage collection, i.e. reclamation of unreferenced memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A connector architecture implementation that is J2EE compliant and provides improved connection management capabilities. The connector architecture implementation provides a connector leak detection mechanism that detects connection leaks both automatically and manually The connector architecture implementation pre-configures and manages the growth and reduction of a connection pool. The connector architecture implementation may be pre-configured by pre-populating the connection pool. Connection pool growth may be managed by generating connections in response to connection requests. A connection pool may also be configured to reduce the number of connections in the pool. The number of connections may be reduced if the connection demand decreases. Password credentials allowing access to services are used to provide additional connection management.

Claims

1. A method of automatically detecting a connection leak in a connector architecture implementation comprising:

terminating an application component, the application component forming a connection with an enterprise information system;

calling a connection object;

determining if the connection used by an application component is closed; and

closing the connection.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein calling a connection object includes a garbage collector calling the connection object.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein calling a connection object includes the garbage collector calling a method of the connection object.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein closing the connection includes an application server automatically closing the connection.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein closing the connection includes the application server calling a method from the resource adapter.

6. A method of manually detecting a connection leak in a connector architecture implementation comprising:

determining that an application component is inactive and not actively using a connection between the application component and an enterprise information system;

receiving a connection request; and

determining whether the application component has been inactive for a first time period before said receiving a connection request.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

closing the connection if the application component has been inactive for a first time period before said receiving a connection request.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein determining whether the application component has been inactive for a certain time period includes providing a timer, the timer configured to start when the application component is determined to be inactive.

9. A method for configuring a connection pool in a connector architecture comprising:

providing an enterprise information system having a connection pool, the connection pool configured to have multiple connections; and

populating the connection pool at application pool start-up.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein populating the connection pool includes configuring a pre-population parameter, wherein the value of the pre-population parameter determines how many connections to populate the connection pool with at application start-up.

11. A method for configuring a connection pool in a connector architecture comprising:

providing an enterprise information system having a connection pool, the connection pool able to support multiple connections to the enterprise information system;

configuring the connector architecture to increment the number of connections by a first increment amount;

receiving an enterprise information system connection request by an application component through a resource adapter; and

processing the connection request.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the first increment amount is specified by a connection increment parameter, the increment parameter configured by a user.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein processing the request includes:

creating managed connections to fulfill the request, the number of connections created corresponding to the value of the connection increment parameter.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein creating managed connections includes:

determining that the request can not currently be fulfilled;

determining that creating connections can fulfill the request; and

creating managed connections.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein determining that creating connections can fulfill the request includes determining that creating connections will not create a number of connections that exceeds a maximum allowed number of connections.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein processing the connection request includes:

determining that creating connections can not fulfill the request; and

recycling current connections to fulfill the connection request.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein determining that creating connections can not fulfill the request includes determining the creating connections will create a number of connections that will exceed a maximum number of allowed connections.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein recycling current connections includes closing and restarting connections that have been determined to be inactive.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein processing the connection request includes:

determining the request can not be fulfilled; and

logging a message indicating the message can not be fulfilled.

20. A method for managing a connection pool comprising:

providing multiple connections in a connection pool to fulfill a demand for connections;

determining that the demand for connections has decreased; and

decreasing the number of connections.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein determining the demand for connections includes determining the demand for connections has decreased over a period of time, the period of time derived from a shrink pool parameter, the shrink pool parameter configurable by a user.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein decreasing the number of connections includes closing connections such that the number of available connections is the amount necessary to efficiently handle ongoing connection requests.

23. A method for monitoring connections in a connector architecture comprising:

choosing a connection to monitor, the connection associated with a connection pool of an enterprise information system; and

viewing data related to the connection, wherein viewing the data includes retrieving data from a call stack where the connection is allocated.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein choosing a connection to monitor includes choosing one of either leaked connections or idle connections.

25. The method of claim 23 further comprising deleting a connection.

26. A method of establishing credentials in a connector architecture comprising:

instantiating an enterprise information system resource object;

obtaining an initiating principal for a connection request;

obtaining credentials for the initiating principal;

instantiating a subject file; and

adding the credentials to the subject file.