Web and lotus notes adapter layers

• US 20060259548A1
• Filed: 07/14/2006
• Published: 11/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wason, James R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,856,484 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

An adapter layer architecture that provides a consistent protocol for interactions between client and server side code. The architecture, which is particularly well suited for an enterprise application development platform (EADP), isolates what function operates at what side of the request (“client” and “server”). The preferred embodiment of the invention provides a number of specific features. These include: 1. a uniform mechanism to pass data between client and server; 2. a server side mechanism to handle client requests; 3. a client side request handler; 4. a mechanism to provide interactive conversational sessions, with each client session able to maintain multiple concurrent conversations; 5. a mechanism to purge sessions; and 6. unit of work control. In addition, the adapter layer architecture of the invention allows some adjustment in practice for various implementations to meet the adapter requirements. As new external sources (for example MQ series) are encountered, they can be mapped to the adapter architecture and incorporated into EADP functions.

Claims

1-24. -24. (canceled)

25. A method for interfacing between clients and servers of a distributed processing system, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a server adapter layer to facilitate interactions between the clients and the servers, said server adapter layer including a mechanism to provide interactive conversational sessions, with each client session able to maintain multiple concurrent conversations.

26. A method according to claim 25, wherein said mechanism also provides a request document including a session key that identifies a user session, and upon receipt of the session key, one of the servers creates or finds a session.

27. A method according to claim 26, wherein within each user session, requests related to a particular set of data are kept together by placing a manager key in the request document.

28. A method according to claim 27, wherein the servers create managers to process the requests, and each of the managers has a respective manager key.

29. A method according to claim 25, wherein each of the servers is allocated a given number of sessions.

30. A method according to claim 29, wherein, for ach server, when said given number of sessions allocated to the server is exceeded, a check is made for any inactive sessions at the server, and the most inactive session at the server is discarded.

31. A method according to claim 25, wherein the conversations include transactions, the transactions are separated into series, and each of the series of the transactions is associated with a respective one unit of work, and whenever one of the transactions associated with one of the units of work is updated, all of the transactions associated with said one of the units of work are updated in the same way.

32. A system for interfacing between clients and servers of a distributed processing system, said system comprising:

a server adapter layer to facilitate interactions between the clients and the servers, said server adapter layer including a mechanism to provide interactive conversational sessions, with each client session able to maintain multiple concurrent conversations.

33. A system according to claim 32, wherein said mechanism also provides a request document including a session key that identifies a user session, and upon receipt of the session key, one of the servers creates or finds a session.

34. A system according to claim 33, wherein within each user session, requests related to a particular set of data are kept together by placing a manager key in the request document.

35. A system according to claim 34, wherein the servers create managers to process the requests, and each of the managers has a respective manager key.

36. A system according to claim 32, wherein each of the servers is allocated a given number of sessions.

37. A system according to claim 36, wherein, for each server, when said given number of sessions allocated to the server is exceeded, a check is made for any inactive sessions at the server, and the most inactive session at the server is discarded.

38. A system according to claim 32, wherein the conversations include transactions, the transactions are separated into series, and each of the series of the transactions is associated with a respective one unit of work, and whenever one of the transactions associated with one of the units of work is updated, all of the transactions associated with said one of the units of work are updated in the same way.

39. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for interfacing between clients and servers of a distributed processing system, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a server adapter layer to facilitate interactions between the clients and the servers, said server adapter layer including a mechanism to provide interactive conversational sessions, with each client session able to maintain multiple concurrent conversations.

40. A program storage device according to claim 39, wherein said mechanism also provides a request document including a session key that identifies a user session, and upon receipt of the session key, one of the servers creates or finds a session.

41. A program storage device according to claim 40, wherein within each user session, requests related to a particular set of data are kept together by placing a manager key in the request document.

42. A program storage device according to claim 41, wherein the servers create managers to process the requests, and each of the managers has a respective manager key.

43. A program storage device according to claim 39, wherein each of the servers is allocated a given number of sessions.

44. A program storage device according to claim 43, wherein, for each server, when said given number of sessions allocated to the server is exceeded, a check is made for any inactive sessions at the server, and the most inactive session at the server is discarded.

45. A program storage device according to claim 39, wherein the conversations include transactions, the transactions are separated into series, and each of the series of the transactions is associated with a respective one unit of work, and whenever one of the transactions associated with one of the units of work is updated, all of the transactions associated with said one of the units of work are updated in the same way.