Method and system for dynamic configuration of interceptors in a client-server environment

• US 20040060055A1
• Filed: 10/10/2003
• Published: 03/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus IP Development Ltd. (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Iona Technologies Limited (Progress Software Corporation)
• Inventors: Craig, Ryan Andrew, Mihic, Mathew A., Kukura, Robert A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,415,713 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/316
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10015 Access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. using brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A computer implemented method/system of creating and managing one or more interceptors. The method comprises the steps of intrinsically chaining the interceptors, and storing state information, in at least one of the chained interceptors, directed to a reference to the next interceptor. A server computer in a client-sever environment that includes a processor configured to generate one or more interceptors and to intrinsically chain the interceptors, and a memory associated with at least one of the chained interceptors and configured to store state information directed to a reference to the next interceptor thereof. The method/system, in various embodiments, includes dissimilar interceptors, callbacks, and flyweight pattern weighting.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, comprising:

intrinsically chaining said interceptors, said interceptor chains made up of dissimilar types of interceptors,

storing state information, in at least one of the chained interceptors, directed to a reference to a next interceptor, and

providing a unified binding mechanism across request level Object Request Broker (ORB) services, message level ORB services, and transports.

2. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 1, wherein said chained interceptors are contiguous or split.

3. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 2, further comprising:

splitting, in a sever, the chained interceptors into first and second interceptor chains.

4. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 3, wherein said first interceptor chain is a per-client interceptor chain.

5. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 3, wherein the second interceptor chain is one of a per-endpoint and a per-object interceptor chain.

6. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, comprising:

intrinsically chaining said interceptors, storing state information, in at least one of the chained interceptors, directed to a reference to a next interceptor,

providing callbacks within said interceptor chain, and

whereby a request only has to traverse said chain once while allowing interceptors that need to intercept processing at additional points to do so by wrapping a callback interface.

7. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 6, wherein wrapper server request callback implementations passed along by intermediate server request interceptors perform their own processing as well as delegate operations back to encapsulated server request callback instances.

8. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 6, wherein an ORB service'"'"'s implementation of a server request callback interface allows it to intercept, observe, or influence outcomes of the requests before delegating back to the server request callback instance that it wraps.

9. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 6, wherein wrapper server request callback implementations passed along by intermediate server request interceptors perform their own processing as well as delegate the operations back to encapsulated server request callback instances.

10. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 6, wherein server request callback implementations provided by orb services delegate read inputs operations back to the server request callback instances they wrap, unless they are causing an exception to be returned.

11. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 6, wherein server request callback implementations provided by orb services delegate write output operations back to the server request callback instances they wrap.

12. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, comprising:

intrinsically chaining said interceptors into one or more chains, storing state information, in at least one of the chained interceptors, directed to a reference to a next interceptor, applying a flyweight pattern to an Interoperable Object Reference (IOR) representation, said flyweight pattern implementing policies which control which chain of interceptors to use at invocation.

13. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 12, wherein said IOR representation comprises any of:

IORs, IOR profiles, and IOR components, and a binding mechanism hashes and compares IORs, IOR profiles, and IOR components using their pointers instead of their content.

14. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 12, wherein said flyweight pattern is applied to multiple IOR interfaces.

15. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 12, wherein for each implementation of said IOR interfaces, no more than a single instance with a particular value is instantiated at a time.

16. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 12, wherein when an IOR is demarshaled multiple times, a single instance is shared.

17. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 12, wherein when an item being demarshaled is instantiated, no heap allocation is required.

18. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 12, wherein when said flyweight pattern is applied, a map of values currently instantiated is maintained.

19. A computer implemented method of creating and managing one or more interceptors, as per claim 12, wherein when said flyweight pattern is applied, scalability is insured by insuring that redundant copies of any of:

individual components, profiles, and IORs are not stored in memory.