Transaction processing

• US 20050166091A1
• Filed: 03/22/2005
• Published: 07/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEOS Financial Systems Limited
• Original Assignee: NEOS Financial Systems Limited
• Inventors: Connolly, Rory, Kirwan, Eoin, McCorry, Ann, Boylan, Jonathan, Molloy, Alan
• Granted Patent: US 7,752,172 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A processor (2) in a transaction processing system (1) has an event engine and a scenario engine. The event engine stores a framework (20) for each entity or type of service. The framework (20) has a parent class (21) and subsidiary classes (22-27). In real time the event engine instantiates an event object from a relevant class (22-27), giving it an effective time on a timeline of the parent class (21). The event objects many subsequently be handled as autonomous units for generation of reports or batch processing. The event engine moves the event objects between states of a finite state machine. A scenario engine also manipulates objects according to a finite state machine with future dates as the effective times. There is a state transition from the scenario environment to the event engine (live) environment.

Claims

1. A data processing system comprising:

a processor,

a data storage device,

a user interface,

a memory,

the processor comprising an event engine storing an object class for each type of transaction for an entity, and

the event engine instantiates a discrete event object from the object class for each transaction in real time.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine stores a class framework comprising a hierarchical structure of object classes including a parent class acting as a container for all event classes associated with a particular entity.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine automatically generates an effective time value for each event object as it is instantiated.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine automatically generates an effective time value for each event object as it is instantiated, and wherein said effective time value is the time for when the event first affects the associated entity.

5. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine automatically generates an effective time value for each event object as it is instantiated, and wherein the event engine automatically determines a modified effective time to ensure machine-level uniqueness of the effective times of all event objects for an entity, whereby events are executed in series.

6. A system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said modification adds an extension to an initial effective time according to an event priority value.

7. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine automatically generates an effective time value for each event object as it is instantiated, and wherein the effective time value is at the granularity of a day period.

8. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine further comprises a batch function for monitoring status of the event objects.

9. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine further comprises a batch function for monitoring status of the event objects, and wherein the batch function rolls back events by processing multiple event objects according to their effective times.

10. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine further comprises a batch function for monitoring status of the event objects, and wherein the batch function groups events according to entity.

11. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine further comprises a batch function for monitoring status of the event objects, and wherein the batch function groups events according to entity, and wherein the batch function performs rollback and rollforward by issuing rollback and rollforward instructions to event objects according to their effective times, and the instructed event objects generate outputs according to their methods in sequence.

12. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine further comprises;

a batch function for monitoring status of the event objects,

wherein the batch function groups events according to entity,

wherein the batch function performs rollback and rollforward by issuing rollback and rollforward instructions to event objects according to their effective times,

wherein the instructed event objects generate outputs according to their methods in sequence, and

wherein the batch function inserts an event object into an entity at a time earlier than the current time and determines the effect on the entity by rolling back to a time immediately before that of that event object and by rolling forward to the current time.

13. A system as claimed in claim 12, wherein the batch function classifies events as either internal or external and regenerates only internal events during a rollforward in which internal events are automatically triggered by the processor and external events are triggered by a user or external system.

14. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine automatically generates an effective time value for each event object as it is instantiated, and wherein the effective time is with respect to a timeline of a parent event object, said timeline being an attribute of the parent event object.

15. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine automatically generates an effective time value for each event object as it is instantiated, and wherein the effective time is with respect to a timeline of a parent event object, said timeline being an attribute of the parent event object, and wherein the processor further comprises a scenario engine for sequencing processing of event objects in a rollforward queue in which effective times are in the future.

16. A system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the scenario engine comprises a state machine.

17. A system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the scenario engine comprises a state machine, and wherein a transition from a pending active state of the scenario finite state machine is to an active state for a finite state machine for a live environment.

18. A system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the scenario engine comprises a state machine, and wherein the scenario state machine tags each event object having a proposed effective time so that they are kept separate from live event objects.

19. A system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the event engine state machine implements a transition from active to pending rollback states and from active to pending rollforward states.

20. A system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the event engine finite state machine implements a transition from active to inactive.

21. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event engine stores a class framework comprising a hierarchical structure of object classes including a parent class acting as a container for all event classes associated with a particular entity, and wherein the parent class includes common technical methods which are independent of transaction logic, and all other classes of an entity inherit said methods from the parent class.

22. A system as claimed in claim 21, wherein said common technical methods include a method which determines whether it is allowable to include the object in a roll forward operation, and a method which determines whether it is allowable to include the objects in a roll back operation.

23. A system as claimed in claim 21, wherein said common technical methods include a method which comprises effective dates across objects for sequential processing in a correct order in roll forward or roll back.

24. A computer program product comprising software code for implementing operations of a transaction processing system of claim 1 when executing on a digital computer.