Methods, apparatus and computer programs for processing alerts and auditing in a publish/subscribe system

• US 20060056628A1
• Filed: 07/30/2003
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Todd, Stephen James
• Granted Patent: US 7,487,550 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/233
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

A message broker receives a published message from a publisher program. Responsive to identification of one or more subscriber programs subscribing to messages of the type of the received message, the broker forwards the received message to the one or more subscriber programs. Matcher components compares the received message with stored subscriptions to identify subscriber programs, generates an alert when an alert condition is satisfied, and compares the generated alert with stored subscriptions to identify subscriber programs subscribing to the alert. The alert is then forwarded to the subscriber program subscribing to the alert.

Claims

1. A method for processing messages in a publish/subscribe message dissemination system, wherein one or more alert conditions are defined for the system, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a message;

comparing the message with stored message subscriptions to determine required dissemination of the message;

generating an alert when an alert condition is satisfied;

comparing the alert with stored alert subscriptions to determine required dissemination of the alert; and

controlling dissemination of the message and the alert in accordance with their respective required dissemination.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein a matching component of the message dissemination system performs the comparison of the message with stored message subscriptions and determines when an alert condition is satisfied, and wherein the generated alert is input to the same matching component to perform the comparison of the alert with stored alert subscriptions to determine required dissemination of the alert.

3. A method according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein rules for generating and determining required dissemination of alerts are stored in association with message topic information in a storage area of the message dissemination system, and wherein the step of comparing the generated alert with stored alert subscriptions comprises a matching component of the message dissemination system using the stored rules to determine whether the alerts match any stored alert subscriptions.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the rules and subscriptions for generating and determining required dissemination of alerts and subscriptions for determining required dissemination of the received message are retrieved from the storage area in a single scan of the storage area.

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the alert comprises an identification of the original message which resulted in the alert condition and an identification of the publisher and/or message subscriber or message subscribers relevant to the alert condition.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the alert further comprises an identification of the message topic of the original message.

7. A method according to claim 5, wherein the alert further comprises an identification of the alert condition.

8. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a first alert condition is receipt of a message for which message subscribers are to be charged for the dissemination of the message, and wherein the alert is forwarded to a subscribing charging process.

9. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a second alert condition is receipt of a message for which auditing of message dissemination is required, and wherein the alert is forwarded to a subscribing audit process.

10. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the step of comparing the message with stored message subscriptions includes comparing with stored authorization information.

11. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein message and alert subscriptions are stored in association with message topic information in a storage area of the message dissemination system, and wherein comparing the message with stored subscriptions comprises a matching component of the message dissemination system identifying matches between stored message topics and message topics of received messages.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein a first matching component of the message dissemination system performs the comparison of the message with stored message subscriptions and determines when an alert condition is satisfied, and wherein the generated alert is input to a second matching component of the message dissemination system to perform the comparison of the alert with stored alert subscriptions to determine required dissemination of the alert.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the first and second matching components are located at different computers of a distributed message dissemination system.

18. A computer program product, comprising program code recorded on a recording medium, for controlling the operation of a data processing apparatus on which the program code executes to perform a method of generating and disseminating alerts in a publish/subscribe message dissemination system, as claimed in any of claims 1 to 13.

14. A data processing apparatus for providing a publish/subscribe message dissemination service on behalf of publisher and subscriber programs comprising:

means for receiving a published message from a publisher program;

means, responsive to identification of one or more message subscriber programs subscribing to messages of the type of the received message, for forwarding the received message to the one or more message subscriber programs; and

one or more matcher components for;

comparing the received message with stored message subscriptions to identify the one or more message subscriber programs;

generating an alert when an alert condition is satisfied; and

comparing the generated alert with stored alert subscriptions to identify one or more subscriber programs subscribing to the alert; and

means for forwarding the alert to the one or more subscriber programs subscribing to the alert.

15. A data processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the message and alert subscriptions are stored in data storage in association with message topic information, the one or more matcher components including means for retrieving stored subscription information by reference to message topic information of a received message.

16. A data processing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein rules procedures for generating and determining required dissemination of alerts are stored in association with the message topic information, wherein the one or more matcher components are adapted to identify a relevant rules procedure by reference to the message topic information and to forward to the identified rules procedure:

a message subscription list;

a list of authorized recipients; and

an identification of one or more subscribers for alerts;

thereby to enable generation and determination of required dissemination of an alert.

17. A data processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the one or more matcher components includes:

means for performing an authorization check to identify a subset of the identified one or more message subscriber programs which subset of programs is authorized to receive the message; and

means for generating an alert when the authorization check identifies an unauthorized message subscriber.