System and method for caching type information for un-typed web service requests

• US 20040221008A1
• Filed: 05/01/2003
• Published: 11/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Kunisetty, Sunil
• Granted Patent: US 7,664,826 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and method for caching type information for parts (e.g., parameters) of an operation passed in a web service request. When an untyped request (i.e., a request in which the data types of operation parts are omitted) is received at a web service server from a client, a cache is examined to determine if type information for the requested operation'"'"'s parts exists. If not, a cache entry specific to that operation is created and populate with the necessary type information (e.g., from a WSDL document corresponding to the web service). The type information for the operation, and any global type information (i.e., for data types global to the web service), is merged for use in unmarshalling the untyped request. The operation is invoked, and any results are returned to the client.

Claims

1. A method of caching data type information for parts of a web service operation, comprising:

receiving a web service request, said web service request identifying a first web service operation and one or more parts associated with said first operation, wherein data type information of the one or more parts is omitted from said web service request;

identifying said first operation;

determining whether said data type information is cached;

retrieving said data type information from a description document configured to describe the web service;

caching said data type information in a first local registry;

un-marshalling said web service request; and

executing said first operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first local registry is configured to store only data type information associated with the one or more parts of said first operation.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

creating said first local registry only after said web service request is received.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each of a plurality of web service operations other than said first operation, creating a local registry for storing data type information of parts of said operations.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a global registry configured to cache data type information for global data types is null.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

if said global registry is not null, merging the contents of said global registry and said first local registry; and

using said merged contents to generate one or more programming objects to facilitate said execution of said first operation.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said merging comprises creating a merged registry.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

verifying said first operation against the description document.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second web service request for said first web service operation;

retrieving said data type information from said first local registry; and

using said retrieved data type information to facilitate execution of said first operation for said second web service request.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said using said retrieved data type information comprises generating programming objects for the one or more parts without retrieving data type information from the description document.

11. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of caching data type information for parts of a web service operation, the method comprising:

receiving a web service request, said web service request identifying a first web service operation and one or more parts associated with said first operation, wherein data type information of the one or more parts is omitted from said web service request;

identifying said first operation;

determining whether said data type information is cached;

retrieving said data type information from a description document configured to describe the web service;

caching said data type information in a first local registry;

un-marshalling said web service request; and

executing said first operation.

12. A web server for storing data type information for untyped web service requests, comprising:

a receiver module configured to receive an untyped request for a web service from a client;

a request parser configured to parse said untyped request to identify a first operation of the web service;

a cache configured to store a local registry for each of one or more operations of the web service, including a first local registry corresponding to said first operation, wherein each said local registry is configured to store data type information for parts of the corresponding operation.

13. The web server of claim 12, further comprising:

a global registry configured to store data type information for data structures used in multiple operations of the web service.

14. The web server of claim 13, further comprising:

a merged registry comprising contents of said global registry and contents of one local registry.

15. The web server of claim 12, further comprising an un-marshaller configured to:

un-marshal said untyped request;

match parts of said first operation with said corresponding data type information; and

generate programming objects corresponding to said parts.

16. The web server of claim 12, wherein said first local registry is created only after said receiver module receives said untyped request.

17. A computer readable storage medium containing a data structure configured for storing data type information of parameters of web service operations, the data structure comprising:

for each of a plurality of web service operations, a corresponding entry comprising data type information for a set of parameters local to the web service operation; and

an index of said entries;

wherein each said entry is created only after a request is received for said corresponding web service operation.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein said data structure further comprises:

a global cache configured to store data type information for a set of global parameters usable for more than one of the web service operations.