Securely extending data processing pipeline functionality

• US 20060075045A1
• Filed: 10/27/2004
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wang, Qiang, Sharma, Vivek, Wei, Min
• Granted Patent: US 7,627,636 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4862 the task being a mobile agent, i.e. specifically designed to migrate

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for securely and efficiently extending data processing pipeline functionality. Data processing agents register, potentially based solely on configuration data contained in the data processing agents, to manipulate data of a data processing pipeline. Configuration data can identify a specified event (e.g., an SMTP verb) the data processing agent is to hook into. Upon detection of a specified event, one or more agents that have registered for the specified event are loaded into secure zones. Process boundaries separate agents from one another and from other processes such that execution of each agent is isolated from other processes. Pipeline related data (e.g., electronic message data) is transferred to each loaded agent. Application Program Interfaces (“APIs”) can be used to transfer data between modules that implement embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having a plurality of data fields stored thereon, said plurality of data fields providing an interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for initializing an agent runtime engine, the interface comprising:

a server identifier field for storing a server identifier that specifies a server object that is to associated with the agent runtime;

a configuration file field for storing a configuration file identifier that identifies a configuration file, the configuration file including configuration options for configuring the agent runtime that is to associated with the server object identified by the server identifier in the server identifier field; and

an agent group field for storing an agent group identifier that identifies a specified section in the configuration file identified by the configuration file identifier in the configuration file field.

2. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for initializing an agent runtime engine as recited in claim 1, wherein the server identifier field for storing a server identifier comprises a server identifier field for storing a data structure having a plurality of data fields that specify a server.

3. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for initializing an agent runtime engine as recited in claim 1, wherein the configuration file field for storing a configuration file identifier comprises a configuration file field for storing a string value that identifies a configuration file.

4. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for initializing an agent runtime engine as recited in claim 1, wherein the agent group field for storing an agent group identifier comprises an agent group field for storing a string that identifies a specified section in the configuration file.

12. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 1, where the contexts field for storing a list of context values comprises a contexts field for storing a list of objects corresponding to SMTP verbs.

13. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 1, where the contexts field for storing a list of context values comprises a contexts field for storing a list of objects corresponding to SMTP keywords.

14. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 1, where the contexts field for storing a list of context values comprises a contexts field for storing an object corresponding to a user-defined event.

5. A computer-readable medium having a plurality of data fields stored thereon, said plurality of data fields providing an interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic, the interface comprising:

an execution context field for storing an execution context value that identifies an execution context object for an agent runtime;

an event topic field for storing an event topic value that represents a type of event that is to be processed by the agent runtime in the execution context object identified by the execution context value stored in the execution context field; and

a contexts field for storing a list of context values that represent a corresponding list of objects from a data processing pipeline that can be accessed from the execution context object identified by the execution context value stored in the execution context field.

6. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 5, wherein the execution context field for storing an execution context value comprises an execution context field for storing per session information related to agents.

7. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 5, wherein the event topic field for storing an event topic value comprises an event topic field for storing an event topic string that identifies a type of event.

8. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 7, wherein the event topic field for storing an event topic string that identifies a type of event comprises an event topic field for storing an event topic string that identifies an SMTP verb.

9. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 7, wherein the event topic field for storing an event topic string that identifies a type of event comprises an event topic field for storing an event topic string that identifies an SMTP keyword.

10. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 7, wherein the event topic field for storing an event topic string that identifies a type of event comprises an event topic field for storing an event topic string that identifies an event from a data processing pipeline.

11. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 7, wherein the event topic field for storing an event topic string that identifies a type of event comprises an event topic field for storing an event topic string that identifies an user-defined event for performing a specified messaging operation.

15. A computer-readable medium having a plurality of data fields stored thereon, said plurality of data fields providing an interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for asynchronously invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic, the interface comprising:

an execution context field for storing an execution context value that identifies an execution context object for an agent runtime;

an event topic field for storing an event topic value that represents a type of event that is to be processed by the agent runtime in the execution context object identified by the execution context value stored in the execution context field;

a time out field for storing a time out value that represents an amount of time after which the attempt to asynchronously invoke an agent runtime will time out;

a callback field for storing a callback value that represents an object to be called when the asynchronous invocation of the agent runtime is complete;

a state field for storing a state value that distinguishes the asynchronous invocation of the agent runtime from other invocations of the agent runtime; and

a contexts field for storing a list of context values that represent a corresponding list of objects from a data processing pipeline that can be accessed from the execution context object identified by the execution context value stored in the execution context field.

16. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for asynchronously invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 15, wherein the execution context field for storing an execution context value comprises an execution context field for storing per session information related to agents.

17. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for asynchronously invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 15, wherein the event topic field for storing an event topic value comprises an event topic field for storing an event topic string that identifies a type of event.

18. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for asynchronously invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 15, wherein the time out field for storing a time out value comprises a time out field for storing a time out value in milliseconds.

19. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for asynchronously invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 15, wherein state field for storing a state value comprises a state field for storing a user-defined object.

20. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 15, where the contexts field for storing a list of context values comprises a contexts field for storing a list of objects corresponding to SMTP verbs.

21. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 15, where the contexts field for storing a list of context values comprises a contexts field for storing a list of objects corresponding to SMTP keywords.

22. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for invoking an agent runtime to execute agent handlers with a specific topic as recited in claim 15, where the contexts field for storing a list of context values comprises a contexts field for storing an object corresponding to a user-defined event.

23. A computer-readable medium having a plurality of data fields stored thereon, said plurality of data fields providing an interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for calling an agent handler, the interface comprising:

a source field for storing a source value that identifies the source of an event in a data processing pipeline; and

an event data field for storing event data related to the source of the event identified by the source value stored in the source field.

24. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for calling an agent handler as recited in claim 23, wherein the source field for storing a source value comprises a source field for storing a source value that identifies the source of an SMTP event.

25. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for calling an agent handler as recited in claim 24, wherein the source field for storing a source value that identifies the source of an SMTP event comprises a source field for storing a source value that identifies the source of an SMPT event selected from among DATA, HELO, MAIL, NOOP, QUIT, RCPT, RSET, and VRFY SMTP verbs.

26. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for calling an agent handler as recited in claim 23, wherein the source field for storing a source value comprises a source field for storing a source value that identifies the source of an ESMTP event.

27. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for calling an agent handler as recited in claim 23, wherein the source field for storing a source value comprises a source field for storing a source value that identifies the source of a user-defined event.

28. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for calling an agent handler as recited in claim 23, wherein the event data field for storing event data related to the source of the event comprises an event data field for storing the contents of an electronic mail message.

29. The interface for transferring data to computer-executable instructions for calling an agent handler as recited in claim 23, wherein the event data field for storing event data related to the source of the event comprises an event data field for storing message related data.