Protocol agnostic request response pattern

• US 20050055398A1
• Filed: 10/21/2004
• Published: 03/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nielsen, Henrik Frystyk, Olson, Lance E., Sanders, Henry L., Firth, Richard L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,730,499 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/03 Protocol definition or specification protocol conformance testing H04L1/244
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating communications over a protocol is provided. The system includes a class factory that holds identifiers associated with determining which, if any, registered protocol object creator should be employed to create a protocol object. The protocol object implements an abstract network protocol base class. The protocol object is employed to abstract details of communicating over a protocol and to provide a byte stream interface to communications occurring over the protocol, while removing protocol specific code from an application program. The method includes creating an instance of a protocol object from a source of registered protocol handlers based on a request to communicate over a protocol and using a base class API to communicate over the protocol through the protocol object.

Claims

1-16. -16. (Cancelled)

17. A method for allowing a computer program to communicate over one of a plurality of protocols, comprising:

registering one or more protocol handlers operable to create a protocol object;

receiving a request to communicate;

creating an instance of a protocol object by employing a registered protocol handler;

returning the protocol object to an application; and

using a base class Application Programming Interface (API) to communicate through the protocol object.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

a computer program generating a request to communicate, wherein the request to communicate identifies a URI with which a communication is desired.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein creating an instance of a protocol object from a source of registered protocol handlers comprises:

selectively determining one or more protocol object creators operable to create the protocol object based, at least in part, on a portion of the URI, where the protocol object creator implements one or more creator methods defined in an abstract creator base class; and

invoking at least one of the one or more protocol object creators to create the protocol object.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein using the base class API to communicate through the protocol object comprises:

implementing one or more methods defined in the base class API in a derived class; and

employing the one or more implemented methods.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein at least one of the one or more methods can be employed to read a first data from a resource, the first data having at least one of a format specific to the protocol and one or more headers and/or footers specific to the protocol when it is read from the resource, the first data being provided to the computer program as a byte stream.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein at least one of the one or more methods can be employed to write a second data to the resource, the second data having at least one of a format specific to the protocol and one or more headers and/or footers specific to the protocol when it is written to the resource, the second data being provided to the one or more methods as a byte stream.

23. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions operable to perform the method of claim 17.

24. A computer readable medium of having computer executable instructions operable to perform the method of claim 22.

25. A data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or more computer processes, the data packet comprising:

information operable to facilitate selecting one from a plurality of protocol object creators.

26. A data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or more computer processes, the data packet comprising:

byte stream data produced by a protocol object, the byte stream data having at least one of a format specific to a protocol and one or more headers and/or footers specific to the protocol removed from a first data read from a resource.

27. The data packet of claim 26, further comprising:

a second data having at least one of a format specific to the protocol and one or more headers and/or footers specific to the protocol added to a byte stream provided by a computer program.

28. A system for simplifying application program communication over a protocol, comprising:

storing means for storing a data related to resolving a Uniform Resource Identifier;

registering means for registering a protocol object creator;

creating means for creating a protocol object;

determining means for selectively determining means for creating a protocol object;

accessing means for accessing a method in the protocol object, which method implements a method defined in a network object base class; and

communicating means for communicating with a resource, wherein the communicating means employ one or more methods in the protocol object.

29. (Cancelled)

30. A system that facilitates computer program communication over one of a plurality of protocols, comprising:

an input component that receives a communication request from an application;

an constructor component that ensures that a requested communication protocol is registered, and that generates at least one protocol object based upon a registered protocol; and

a communication component that returns the at least one generated protocol object to the application and communicates with the application through the at least one protocol object via a base class Application Programming Interface (API).

31. The system of claim 30, the communication component determines when a communication session has ended.

32. The system of claim 31, the communication component releases the protocol object upon a determination that the communication session has ended.

33. The system of claim 32, the released protocol object is destroyed upon release.

34. The system of claim 33, the released protocol object is deallocated and stored upon release for potential future reallocation.

35. The system of claim 30, the communication request comprises a uniform resource identifier that identifies a resource with which the application is requesting communication.

36. The system of claim 35, the constructor component examines the uniform resource identifier to determine which one of a plurality of constructors to employ in order to generate the at least one protocol object.

37. The system of claim 36, the uniform resource identifier identifies at least one of a hypertext transfer protocol data source, a file transfer protocol data source, and a simple mail transfer protocol data source, with which the application is requesting communication.