MESSAGING TRACKING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20100042633A1
• Filed: 08/13/2008
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HBC Solutions Incorporated (AEG Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: HBC Solutions Incorporated (AEG Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Klingensmith, Joseph F, GOTLIEB, ADAM B, Chin, Fee Ling, Mocko, Ryan P., Guda, Kavith
• Granted Patent: US 8,549,090 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

One embodiment of the invention includes a message tracking system. The system comprises a message agent programmed to detect messages transmitted from one application to at least one other application. The system also comprises a detector programmed to determine a protocol that is associated with a given message of the messages detected by the message agent. The system further comprises a tracking manager programmed to generate tracking information for the given message based on the protocol determined by the detector and to store the tracking information in memory.

Claims

1. A message tracking system comprising:

a message agent programmed to detect messages transmitted from one application to at least one other application;

a detector programmed to determine a protocol that is associated with a given message of the messages detected by the message agent; and

a tracking manager programmed to generate tracking information for the given message based on the protocol determined by the detector and to store the tracking information in memory.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the detector is programmed to extract metadata from each of the messages, the extracted metadata comprising at least a protocol identifier for the given message, the tracking manager providing the tracking information for the given message based on the at least the protocol identifier of the extracted metadata.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the extracted metadata also comprises at least one of a message category and a routing direction for the given message, the tracking manager further comprising a flight plan generator programmed to generate a flight plan for the given message based on the extracted metadata that defines the protocol and the at least one of the message category and the routing direction for the given message, the flight plan defining the tracking information for the given message.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a flight plan template registrar programmed to store a plurality of flight plan templates, the flight plan generator being programmed to instantiate a selected one of the plurality of flight plan templates according to at least one of the protocol, the message category, and the routing direction associated with the given message.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein each of the flight plan templates is programmed to represent a sequence of steps for a complete message transaction that vary according to at least one of the protocol, the message category, and the routing direction of a respective message.

6. The system of claim 3, further comprising a protocol registrar that comprises protocol registration data that identifies a set of registered protocols, the protocol registration data comprising message query data to provide a set of at least one query statement for each of the registered protocols, the detector employing the message query data to extract the metadata from the messages.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the metadata comprises a behavior associated with the given message, the system further comprising a message category registrar that comprises message category registration data that corresponds to a set of registered message categories, the detector being programmed to determine the message category for the given message based on a comparison of the behavior associated with the given message relative to the message category registration data.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the flight plan generator is programmed to select one of a plurality of pre-programmed flight plan templates based on the protocol, the message category, and the routing direction of the given message, the selected one of the plurality of pre-programmed flight plan templates being instantiated for the given message to define a flight plan instance for the flight plan.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the flight plan instance further comprises message transaction information defined for each of the at least one other application that is associated with the given message and an application that initiated the given message, the at least one other application being dynamically determined based at least in part on subscription information.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein the flight plan generated for the given message further comprises a data structure that includes a sequence of sub-transaction fields associated with the given message, the sequence of sub-transaction fields characterizing a set of related message transactions responsive to the given message for which the flight plan has been generated.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the sequence of sub-transactions in the flight plan further comprises data fields indicating message characteristics selected from a set comprising:

a transfer of the given message from the one application to the at least one other application, a receipt of the given message by the at least one other application, and a transfer of at least one of an acknowledgement and a reply by the at least one other application to the one application.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the tracking manager further comprises an update component programmed to update a status of each of the sub-transaction fields of the flight plan generated for the given message based on each of the set of related message transactions that is detected by the message agent.

13. The system of claim 3, wherein the flight plan generated for the given message further comprises a message identifier that is set to uniquely identify a set of related messages that are transmitted in response to and directly related to the given message.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the one application is configured to publish the messages onto an associated network for the at least one other application to subscribe to the messages, the tracking information for the given message being associated with publication of and subscription to messages that are responsive to the given message that collectively characterize a complete message transaction between the one application and the at least one other application.

15. A network system comprising the message tracking system of claim 1, the network system being configured to support a plurality of protocols, the plurality of protocols comprising at least one version of Broadcast Exchange Format (BXF).

16. A method for tracking messages, the method comprising:

receiving a first message that has been published by a first application at a message tracking system;

determining a protocol according to which the first message is configured;

generating tracking information associated with the first message based on the determined protocol;

storing the tracking information onto a computer readable medium;

receiving at least one related message that is responsive to the first message at the message tracking system; and

updating the tracking information based on the at least one related message.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

extracting message identification (ID) data and original message ID data from the at least one related message; and

correlating the at least one related message as being responsive to the first message based on the extracted message ID data and the original message ID data.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein updating the tracking information comprises updating each of a sequence of sub-transaction steps that collectively define a complete message transaction.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising extracting at least one of routing data and message category data from the first message in response to detecting that the determined protocol is a registered protocol, wherein generating the tracking information comprises generating a flight plan based on the determined protocol and the at least one of the routing data and the message category data.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining direction data for the first message based on the routing data;

selecting a flight plan template according to the determined protocol and the at least one of the direction data and the message category data; and

instantiating the selected flight plan template to define an instance of the flight plan.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein extracting the at least one of the routing data and the message category data comprises extracting origin data, destination data, and message behavior data from the first message, the method further comprising:

ascertaining routing destination data associated with the first message based on the origin data and the destination data; and

ascertaining message category data based on the message behavior data.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

accessing message query data associated with the determined protocol; and

querying the first message based on the message query data to extract the at least one of the routing data and the message category data from the first message.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein accessing message query data comprises accessing a plurality of predefined statements associated with the determined protocol, and wherein querying the first message comprises interrogating the first message with the predefined statements to ascertain the at least one of the routing data and the message category data.

24. A system comprising:

a publishing application programmed to publish messages within a network;

at least one subscribing application configured to subscribe to the messages published within the network;

a detector programmed to determine a protocol associated with a given one of the messages;

a tracking manager programmed to generate tracking information for the given one of the messages based on the determined protocol; and

a graphical user interface (GUI) for providing user access to the tracking information.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the detector further comprises a message query component programmed to extract at least message behavior information and routing information from the messages sent within the network.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the tracking manager comprises a flight plan generator configured to generate a flight plan instance that defines the tracking information for the given one of the messages based on the protocol associated with the given one of the messages and based on the message behavior information and the routing information extracted from the given one of the messages, the flight plan instance representing a complete transaction for the given one of the messages as a sequence of sub-transactions associated with the given one of the messages.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising a protocol registrar programmed to store at least one configuration file that includes query statements programmed to extract selected information from messages published according to each of a plurality of protocols, the message query component being further configured to interrogate the messages published in the network based on the configuration files for extracting the message behavior information and the routing information associated with such messages.

28. The system of claim 26, further comprising a flight plan template registrar programmed to store a plurality of flight plan templates, the flight plan generator being further programmed to instantiate a selected flight plan template from the flight plan template registrar to define the flight plan instance for the given one of the messages, the flight plan generator selecting the selected flight template based on the protocol, the message behavior information, and the routing information associated with the given one of the messages.