Propagating web transaction context into common object model (COM) business logic components

• US 20050039190A1
• Filed: 08/12/2003
• Published: 02/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus LLC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Rees, Jeffrey, Bloom, Raymond M., Cleaves, Michael P., Avakian, Arra E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,437,734 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/316
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet

Abstract

A method of instrumenting a COM object is disclosed. The COM object is invoked by a client for performing a selected business logic. The method comprises intercepting a request from the client for creating the COM object. A wrapper object corresponding to the requested COM object is then generated. The wrapper object implements a universal interface having a plurality of virtual functions each indexed by a number corresponding to an index number of a method associated with an interface of the requested COM object, and the client is provided with a reference pointer to the wrapper COM object. Upon invocation of a method associated with an interface of the requested COM object by the client, a virtual function of the universal interface of the wrapper object, which is indexed by a number corresponding to an index number of the requested method, is invoked. The invoked virtual function references instructions for saving a start time marker, executing instructions corresponding to the requested method, and saving a stop time marker upon completion of execution of the instructions associated with the requested method.

Claims

1. A method of instrumenting a COM object invoked by a client for performing a selected business logic, comprising:

intercepting a request from the client for creating said COM object,

generating a wrapper object corresponding to said requested COM object, said wrapper object implementing a universal interface having a plurality of virtual functions each indexed by a number corresponding to an index number of a method associated with an interface of said requested COM object,

providing said client with a reference pointer to said wrapper COM object,

upon invocation of a method associated with an interface of the requested COM object by the client, invoking a virtual function of said universal interface of the wrapper object indexed by a number corresponding to an index number of said requested method,

wherein said invoked virtual function references instructions for saving a start time marker, executing instructions corresponding to said requested method, and saving a stop time marker upon completion of execution of said instructions associated with the requested method.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising registering said invoked method with an ARM agent upon invocation of said method by the client.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein saving a start time marker comprises invoking said ARM agent for generating a record for a transaction corresponding to invocation of said method of the requested COM object.

4. The method claim 3, wherein saving a stop time marker comprises invoking the ARM agent to generate said stop time marker.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said wrapper COM object comprises a data structure for storing a number of arguments and a type of each argument associated with each method of said requested COM object.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said wrapper object comprises a reference pointer for referring to said requested COM object.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said wrapper object comprises a reference pointer for referring to said universal interface.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising

defining a policy that indicates whether to perform said step of generating a wrapper COM object corresponding to said requested COM object.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said policy identifies a requested proxy object, a COM object belonging to an MTS package, and a COM⁺ object for wrapping.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising

storing said policy in a tabular format in a registry of a system on which said COM objects are executed.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of intercepting a request comprises

patching code associated with one or more selected system functions.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said system functions are provided in a dynamic link library.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said dynamic library is Ole32.dll and Mtxex.dll.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said selected system functions can be any of CoInitialize, CoInitializeEx, OleInitialize, CoAddRefServerProcess, CoCopyProxy, CoCreateInstance, CoCreateInstanceEx, CoGetCallContext, CoGetClassObject, CoGetInstanceFromFile, CoGetInstanceFromIStorage, CoGetInterfaceAndReleaseStream, GetObjectContext (NT only), CoGetObjectContext (W2K only), CoImpersonateClient, CoInitializeSecurity, CoMarshalInterThreadInterfaceInStream, CoMarshalInterface, CoRegisterClassObject, CoReleaseServerProcess, CoRevertToSelf, CoRevokeClassObject, CoSetProxyBlanket, CoUninitialize, CoUnmarshalInterface, OleUninitialize.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising

for each of said selected system functions, utilizing a hook associated therewith to refer to a program for patching said system function.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said hook comprises a designated string stored in system registry.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said patching of the system function comprises

replacing selected bytes in a code corresponding to said system function with a jump instruction to a code for creating said requested COM object and generating said wrapper object.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising

copying instructions in said system function code corrupted by said inserted jump instruction to an allocated data area.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising

decoding said selected bytes prior to their replacement by said jump instruction to determine a total number of bytes corresponding to instructions corrupted by said inserted jump instruction.

20. A system for monitoring a response time of a transaction performed by one or more COM objects executing on one or more platforms, comprising

one or more monitoring agents deployed on selected ones of said platforms, each monitoring agent intercepting a request for creating at least one of said COM objects and generating a wrapper object corresponding to said requested COM object,

wherein said wrapper object implements a universal interface having a plurality of virtual functions each indexed by a number corresponding to an index number of a method associated with an interface of said requested COM object.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising

an ARM agent in communication with said monitoring agent.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein each of said virtual functions refers to a code having instructions for invoking said ARM agent prior to execution of an invoked method of a wrapped COM object to save a start time marker, executing said invoked method, and invoking said ARM agent subsequent to completion of execution of said invoked method to save a stop time marker.

23. A computer readable medium storing instructions for performing a method of instrumenting a COM object invoked by a client comprising intercepting a request from the client for creating said COM object, generating a wrapper object corresponding to said requested COM object, said wrapper object implementing a universal interface having a plurality of virtual functions each indexed by a number corresponding to an index number of a method associated with an interface of said requested COM object, and providing said client with a reference pointer to said wrapper COM object,