Component-based system for distributed applications

• US 20050155042A1
• Filed: 07/02/2002
• Published: 07/14/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Siemens Technology-To-Business Center LLC (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Technology-To-Business Center LLC (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Hunter, Steven, Kolb, Michael, Jones, Mason
• Application Number:
  US10/190,161
• Publication Number:
  US 20050155042A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

A framework that allows a transition from a conventional object method invocation model to a services model, where services are explicitly represented and managed before actually being invoked is described. According to one aspect of the invention, a runtime configurable component-based system is described having a plurality of services. Each service includes a set of properties describing the service. The properties include at least, a set of configuration properties to describe functionalities of the service, a lifecycle property to describe a state transition flow of the service for a specific runtime instance, a state property to describe each state in the lifecycle, and a set of dependency properties to describe inter-dependencies of the service with other services of the plurality of services while within a specific state in the lifecycle.

Claims

1. A runtime configurable component-based system comprising:

a plurality of services, each service having a set of properties describing the service, the properties including at least,

a set of configuration properties to describe functionalities of the service,

a lifecycle property to describe a state transition flow of the service for a specific runtime instance,

a state property to describe each state in the lifecycle, and

a set of dependency properties to describe inter-dependencies of the service with other services of the plurality of services while within a specific state in the lifecycle.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the services have one or more dependent services.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the specific runtime instance of the service is a peer service, the peer service being available externally to a plurality of agents to perform domain-specific tasks for a plurality of distributed business processes.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the specific runtime instance of the service is a message service, the message service to provide communication between the peer services of the plurality of agents to perform the distributed business process and to describe a specific message transport protocol.

5. A method to initiate a runtime configurable component-based system comprising:

accessing deployment information having a list of one or more services to be created; and

instantiating each service into a corresponding service instance, each service instance being configured based on the deployment information, each service having the capability to communicate with each other to perform a distributed business process.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein each service has an initiated state, wherein the initiated state is active or inactive.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

transitioning one of the services between the initiated states.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein upon transitioning, the one of the agent services sends a corresponding event to a dependent agent service.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the deployment information is to be received from a deployment file.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the deployment information includes configuration information and inter-dependency information.

11. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

halting one of the services, the service being in an inactive state prior to being halted.

12. The method of claim 5 wherein one of the services to be instantiated is a peer service.

13. The method of claim 5 wherein one of the services to be instantiated is a message service.

14. The method of claim 5 wherein one of the services to be instantiated is a communicator service.

15. The method of claim 5 wherein one of the services to be instantiated is a manager service.

16. The method of claim 5 wherein one of the services to be instantiated is a task scheduler service.

17. The method of claim 5 wherein one of the services to be instantiated is a directory service.

18. A runtime configurable component-based system framework comprising:

a plurality of peer services, each peer service being available externally to a plurality of agents to perform domain-specific tasks for a distributed business process; and

a plurality of message services, each message service to provide communication between the peer services of the plurality of agents to perform the distributed business process and to describe a specific message transport protocol.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein one of the plurality of message services is a HTTPMessageService to implement HTTP-based (Hyper Text Transport Protocol) messaging.

20. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

a communicator service to manage the plurality of message services for a specific node and to determine the message service to access based on a request received.

21. The system of claim 20 further comprising:

a manager service to manage each peer service for a specific node, upon receiving the request for a specific peer service within the specific node via the communicator service, the manager service to forward the request to the specific peer service.

22. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

a task scheduler service to handle services for the system on an execution level.

23. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

a directory service to locate peer services external to the system.

24. A runtime configurable component-based system framework comprising:

a plurality of peer services, each peer service being available externally to a plurality of agents to perform domain-specific tasks for a distributed business process;

a plurality of message services, each message service to provide communication between the peer services of the plurality of agents to perform the distributed business process and to describe a specific message transport protocol;

a communicator service to manage the plurality of message services for a specific node and to determine the message service to access based on a request received;

a manager service to manage each peer service for the specific node, upon receiving the request for a specific peer service within the specific node via the communicator service, the manager service to forward the request to the specific peer service;

a task scheduler service to handle services for the specific node on an execution level; and

a plurality of directory services, each directory service to locate peer services external to the specific node.