MESSAGE CONTRACT PROGRAMMING MODEL

• US 20070177590A1
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Published: 08/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Box, Donald F., Hill, Richard D., Swartz, Stephen T., Purdy, Douglas M., Osovetsky, Eugene, Vernal, Michael S., Pharies, Stefan H., Millet, Stephen J., Ruiz-Scougall, Jesus, DeJarnatt, Alex, Shohoud, Yasser
• Application Number:
  US11/469,446
• Publication Number:
  US 20070177590A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/461 Bridge
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/463 Naming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/06 Notations for structuring of protocol data, e.g. abstract syntax notation one [ASN.1]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/165 Combined use of TCP and UDP protocols; selection criteria therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/328 in the presentation layer [OSI layer 6]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Embodiments described herein provide for a message contract programming model, which is a mechanism for service developers to control the processing, layout, and creation of messages (e.g., SOAP) without losing the benefits of a strongly-typed data contract model. Such programming model is based on attributes, which can be used to define the action or operations, headers, and body parts components of a message. These attributes may be used on a type annotated with message contract or on a service operation to control the manner in which the message (e.g., SOAP) is constructed from a service process, process parameters, and/or return values. The use of the message contract in conjunction with a message formatter as defined herein provides for many advantageous features and embodiments described herein.

Claims

1. In a distributed messaging system, a method of formatting a layout of a message object using a message contract that maps elements to various portions thereof, the method comprising:

receiving a request to create a message object in accordance with a message contract, which includes one or more attributes corresponding to one or more elements of a message class;

parsing the message contract for identifying the one or more attributes that define what elements of the message class map to one or more portions of the message object; and

populating the one or more portions of the message object with the one or more elements in accordance with the one or more attributes defined within the message contract.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more elements include one or more of a type, struct, field, property, or operation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the message object includes an envelope comprising a header portion and a body portion, and wherein the one or more attributes define that the one or more elements be populated within either the header portion or body portion.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein populating the one or more portions of the message object with the one or more elements comprises:

receiving one or more values corresponding to the one or more elements; and

creating an instance of the message object by populating the one or more portions with the one or more values in accordance with the one or more attributes defined within the message contract.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more elements include one or more of a type, struct, field, property, or operation.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the message object includes an envelope comprising a header portion and a body portion, and wherein the one or more attributes define that the one or more values be populated within either the header portion or body portion.

7. A computer program comprising one or more computer readable media having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, can cause the distributed messaging system to perform the method of claim 4.

8. In a distributed messaging system, a message contract used in creating message objects, instances, and NPDL contracts used to communicate with a service, the message contract including:

one or more elements of a message class that correspond to one or more operations of a service; and

one or more attributes annotated to the one or more elements, which map the one or more elements to one or more portions of a message object.

9. The message contract of claim 8, wherein the one or more elements include one or more of a type, struct, field, property, or operation.

10. The message contract of claim 8, wherein the message object includes an envelope comprising a header portion and a body portion, and wherein the one or more attributes define that the one or more elements be populated within either the header portion or body portion.

11. In a distributed messaging system, a method of automatically creating one or more portions of an NPDL contract used by clients in communicating with a service, the method comprising:

receiving a request to create a NPDL contract, which defines how a client is to communicate with a service;

receiving a message contract, which includes one or more attributes corresponding to one or more elements of a message class;

based on the received message contract, creating at least a portion of the NPDL contract by specifying where and what elements should be included in a message object or instance thereof when communicating with the service.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the NPDL contract is a WSDL document.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more elements include one or more of a type, struct, field, property, or operation.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the message object or instance thereof needs to include an envelope comprising a header portion and a body portion, and wherein the one or more attributes define that the one or more elements be as populated values within either the header portion or body portion.

15. A computer program comprising one or more computer readable media having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, can cause the distributed messaging system to perform the method of claim 11.