Exchanging electronic messages between a host computer system and a distributed computer system

• US 20040153511A1
• Filed: 01/02/2002
• Published: 08/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Delta Air Lines Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Delta Air Lines Incorporated
• Inventors: Maynard, Tony, Whitney, Mark M., Gosline, Scott P., Tsang, Paulus, Pina, Gustavo, Grosskurth, David, Virmani, Rajiv, Lawhorn, Richard Lowell Jr., Amin, Dick
• Application Number:
  US10/038,528
• Publication Number:
  US 20040153511A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Exchanging electronic messages between an online transaction processing host computer system and a distributed computer system. This communication exchange encompasses both guaranteed delivery of electronic messages and non-guaranteed delivery of native terminal screen and printer messages, utilizing a message queuing facility. A two-tier architecture is used for all message translations, blocking and reassembling, queuing, acknowledgments and retransmissions, generally reducing necessary message processing and reducing use of system resources.

Claims

1. A message processing system for transmitting and receiving messages between a host computer system application and a distributed computer system application, the message processing system comprising:

a distributed message transmission application associated with the distributed computer system application operative to process a message generated by the distributed computer system application, and to transmit the message to the host computer system application over the communication network;

a host system message transmission application associated with a host application and operative to process a message received from the distributed message transmission application; and

a distributed computer program interface functionally connected to the distributed computer system application and to the distributed message transmission application and operative to configure the message for transmission over a communication network.

2. The message processing system of claim 1, wherein the configuration of the message for transmission over the communication network comprises associating a transmission profile with the message.

3. The message processing system of claim 2, further comprising a distributed computer program interface that is operative to associate the message with a transmission profile stored in a profile database.

4. The message processing system of claim 3, wherein the distributed computer program interface comprises a profile manager operative to examine at least one characteristic of the message to determine the transmission profile to be associated with the message.

5. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the message characteristic is an application identifier.

6. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the message characteristic is a serial number.

7. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the message characteristic is a record sequence indicator.

8. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the message characteristic is an application data.

9. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the message characteristic is a command character.

10. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the communication network is a peer-to-peer network.

11. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the communication network is a client-server network.

12. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the communication network is a wide area client-server network.

13. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the message is a request reply message.

14. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the message is a send-and-forget message.

15. The message processing system of claim 4, wherein the message is a broadcast message.

16. The message processing system of claim 15, wherein the broadcast message is generated by a publishing service application and wherein the broadcast message is received by a subscribing network element.

17. A method for processing a message between a first application running on a first network element and a second application running on a second network element of a communication network, the method comprising the steps of:

generating the message in the first network element;

configuring the message for transmission over the communication network;

transmitting the message over the communication network; and

delivering the message to the second network element;

wherein the step of configuring the message for transmission comprises translating the message into a format associated with the second application.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of configuring the message for transmission over the communication network comprises associating a transmission profile with the message.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of configuring the message for transmission over the communication network comprises accessing a profile database to associate the transmission profile with the message.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of configuring the message for transmission over the communication network comprises associating the transmission profile with the message, based on at least one message characteristic.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the message characteristic is an application identifier

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the message characteristic is a serial number

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the message characteristic is a record sequence indicator

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the message characteristic is a application data

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the message characteristic is a command character

26. The method of claim 18, wherein the transmission profile comprises a transport identifier operative to associate the message with a transport to be used to transmit the message over the communication network.

27. The method of claim 18, wherein the transmission profile comprises a service identifier operative to associate the message with a message format to be used to transmit the message over the communication network.