System and method for tracking notifications in a publish subscribe system

• US 20060106840A1
• Filed: 11/04/2004
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rooney, Sean G.
• Application Number:
  US10/981,184
• Publication Number:
  US 20060106840A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

A system and method are provided for tracking notification messages from a message publisher to a message subscriber. The system includes a plurality of entities that are operatively coupled to one another via an electronic network, and each entity includes at least one processor configured as a message publisher, a channel and/or a message subscriber. According to the invention, at least one entity is configured as a channel, which is assigned to the function of acting as a meta-channel and comprises (i) means for receiving one or more channel descriptions; and (ii) means for publishing a digest of one or more channel descriptions and/or message transformations to facilitate tracking of message transformations from raw forms to processed forms. The system may have more than one meta-channel, and the meta-channels may subscribe to or publish to each other.

Claims

1. A method for tracking notification messages from a message publisher to a message subscriber, in a publish/subscribe system having one or more entities each configured as one or more of a message publisher, a channel and a message subscriber, the method comprising:

subscribing to a meta-channel; and

receiving a digest comprising one or more channel descriptions from the meta-channel to facilitate tracking of message transformations from raw forms to processed forms.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving one or more transformation description messages.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

subscribing to a first channel in response to the tracking of message transformations; and

dropping a subscription to a second channel in response to determining that the first channel publishes one or more notifications in a more processed form than a notification from the second channel.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the message transformations in processed form comprise aggregations of messages in raw form.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the message transformations in processed form comprise transformations of messages in raw form.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising publishing aggregated notifications.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising publishing transformed notifications.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the message transformations are formatted in accordance with XML specifications.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more channel descriptions describe one or more of a channel and the meta-channel.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more channel descriptions comprises one or more of:

the publish/subscribe system'"'"'s type;

information needed to connect to a channel associated with the channel description;

one or more message types that is accepted by the channel associated with the channel description; and

one or more message types that is currently being published or subscribed to by the channel associated with the channel description.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more channel descriptions comprises load information pertaining to the channel associated with the channel description.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the load information, discriminating between first and second channels offering similar functionality.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

subscribing to the first channel in response to determining that the second channel is overloaded.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

publishing to the first channel in response to determining that the second channel is overloaded.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more channel descriptions comprises information pertaining to a refresh period between a publication of a first channel description and a publication of a second channel description.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

in response to the information pertaining to the refresh period, and in response to nonreception of a second channel description after a time period proportional to the refresh period, determining that a channel has stopped publishing notifications.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising adjusting a refresh period for a channel in response to information pertaining to a refresh period for the meta-channel.

18. The method of claim 2, wherein the transformation description message pertaining to an entity comprises one or more of:

information identifying a set of channels and message types for messages that the entity is reading;

information identifying a set of channels and message types for messages that the entity is writing; and

a refresh period.

19. A publish/subscribe system for tracking notification messages from a message publisher to a message subscriber, wherein a plurality of entities are operatively coupled to one another via an electronic network, each entity including at least one processor configured as one or more of a message publisher, a channel and a message subscriber, wherein at least one entity configured as a channel is assigned to the function of acting as a meta-channel and comprises (i) means for receiving one or more channel descriptions;

and (ii) means for publishing a digest of one or more channel descriptions to facilitate tracking of message transformations from raw forms to processed forms.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for receiving one or more transformation descriptions.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for publishing one or more transformation descriptions.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein at least one additional entity configured as a channel is assigned to the function of acting as one or more additional meta-channels.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the meta-channel subscribes to the one or more additional meta-channels.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the meta-channel is adapted to publish a refresh rate to facilitate controlling the load on the meta-channel.

25. The system of claim 19, wherein at least one of the channel descriptions comprises aggregated or transformed data.

26. An apparatus for tracking notification messages from a message publisher to a message subscriber, the apparatus comprising:

at least one processor operative to;

(i) subscribe to a first message publisher to receive a digest of channel descriptions;

(ii) determine whether a second message publisher publishes one or more notifications in an aggregated form;

wherein if the second message publisher publishes the one or more notifications in a more aggregated form, the processor is operative to subscribe to the second message publisher.