Virtual Presence Server

• US 20100077018A1
• Filed: 09/19/2008
• Published: 03/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dasgupta, Koustuv, Wright, Charles P., Acharya, Arup, Wang, Xiping, Chakraborty, Dipanjan, Misra, Archan, Banerjee, Nilanjan
• Granted Patent: US 8,447,808 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for generating and managing presentities in accordance with a virtual presence server. By way of example, a method for requesting information from at least one server comprises the following steps. A client request, which expresses a request that can not be satisfied by a single existing presentity, is obtained at an intermediate server, wherein the intermediate server operates as a virtual presence server. The virtual presence server (i.e., intermediate server) creates a set of software objects for a virtual presentity, the set of objects embodying logic to combine presence information from one or more of existing presentities and external information sources, in accordance with at least one existing presence server. The virtual presence server creates an association between the request of the client and the created virtual presentity that allows the presence information to be propagated back to the client.

Claims

1. A method of requesting information from at least one server, comprising the steps of:

obtaining at an intermediate server a client request which expresses a request that can not be satisfied by a single existing presentity, wherein the intermediate server operates as a virtual presence server;

creating at the virtual presence server a set of software objects for a virtual presentity, the set of software objects embodying logic to combine presence information from one or more of existing presentities and external information sources, in accordance with at least one existing presence server; and

creating at the virtual presence server an association between the request of the client and the created virtual presentity that allows the presence information to be propagated back to the client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the virtual presence server:

obtaining a query from the client for requested information;

instantiating processing logic to create the information requested and associating a dynamic presentity uniform resource identifier (URI) to identify the presentity whose attributes contain the created information;

causing the created information to be published as a presence state for the dynamic presentity URI to the at least one existing presence server; and

redirecting the client to the dynamic presentity URI such that the client subscribes to the dynamic presentity URI and receives presence state information for the created presentity from the at least one existing presence server.

3. The method of claim 2, where the step of instantiating processing logic further comprises:

the virtual presence server determining if there already exists a virtual presentity with a query logic identical to the query logic of the client; and

if the query logic is identical, then returning the URI identifying the virtual presentity previously created.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the virtual presence server instantiates the processing logic by directly executing appropriate logic.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the virtual presence server instantiates the processing logic by communicating the processing logic to another system which then publishes the computed attributes of the virtual presentity to the at least one existing presence server.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the virtual presence server continuously updating an answer to the request.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the virtual presence server:

obtaining a query from the client for requested information;

instantiating processing logic to create the information requested and associating a dynamic presentity uniform resource identifier (URI) to represent the created information;

causing the created information to be published as a presence state for the dynamic presentity URI to the at least one existing presence server; and

proxying the request to the dynamic presentity URI.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual presence server instantiates processing logic by:

issuing at least one subscription request for a set of presentities to the at least one existing presence server;

receiving notifications on dynamic attributes of the subscribed presentities; and

recomputing the dynamic attributes of the associated presentity.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein issuing subscription requests further comprises the virtual presence server triggering a set of external publish agents to publish the presence status of the set of presentities to the at least one existing presence server.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the virtual presence server:

obtaining a query from the client for requested information;

instantiating processing logic to create the information requested and associating a dynamic presentity uniform resource identifier (URI) to represent the created information; and

causing the created information to be notified, along with the information of the dynamic presentity URI, to the client issuing the query.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating at the virtual presence server a set of software objects for a virtual presentity further comprises the virtual presence server issuing a set of requests and creating dynamic presentities to support these requests, thereby recursively creating a hierarchy of virtual presentities.

12. Apparatus for requesting information from at least one server, the apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

obtain a client request which expresses a request that can not be satisfied by a single existing presentity;

create a set of software objects for a virtual presentity, the set of software objects embodying logic to combine presence information from one or more of existing presentities and external information sources, in accordance with at least one existing presence server; and

create an association between the request of the client and the created virtual presentity that allows the presence information to be propagated back to the client.

13. An article of manufacture for requesting information from at least one server, the article of manufacture comprising a computer readable storage medium including one or more programs which when executed by a computer system implement the steps of:

obtaining at an intermediate server a client request which expresses a request that can not be satisfied by a single existing presentity, wherein the intermediate server operates as a virtual presence server;

creating at the virtual presence server a set of software objects for a virtual presentity, the set of software objects embodying logic to combine presence information from one or more of existing presentities and external information sources, in accordance with at least one existing presence server; and

creating at the virtual presence server an association between the request of the client and the created virtual presentity that allows the presence information to be propagated back to the client.

14. A virtual presence server, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

obtain a client request which expresses a request that can not be satisfied by a single existing presentity;

create a set of software objects for a virtual presentity, the set of software objects embodying logic to combine presence information from one or more of existing presentities and external information sources, in accordance with at least one existing presence server; and

create an association between the request of the client and the created virtual presentity that allows the presence information to be propagated back to the client.

15. The virtual presence server of claim 14, further comprising the virtual presence server:

obtaining a query from the client for requested information;

instantiating processing logic to create the information requested and associating a dynamic presentity uniform resource identifier (URI) to identify the presentity whose attributes contain the created information;

causing the created information to be published as a presence state for the dynamic presentity URI to the at least one existing presence server; and

redirecting the client to the dynamic presentity URI such that the client subscribes to the dynamic presentity URI and receives presence state information for the created presentity from the at least one existing presence server.

16. The virtual presence server of claim 15, where the step of instantiating processing logic further comprises:

the virtual presence server determining if there already exists a virtual presentity with a query logic identical to the query logic of the client; and

if the query logic is identical, then returning the URI identifying the virtual presentity previously created.

17. The virtual presence server of claim 15, wherein the virtual presence server instantiates the processing logic by directly executing appropriate logic.

18. The virtual presence server of claim 15, wherein the virtual presence server instantiates the processing logic by communicating the processing logic to another system which then publishes the computed attributes of the virtual presentity to the at least one existing presence server.

19. The virtual presence server of claim 14, further comprising the virtual presence server continuously updating an answer to the request.

20. The virtual presence server of claim 14, further comprising the virtual presence server:

obtaining a query from the client for requested information;

instantiating processing logic to create the information requested and associating a dynamic presentity uniform resource identifier (URI) to represent the created information;

causing the created information to be published as a presence state for the dynamic presentity URI to the at least one existing presence server; and

proxying the request to the dynamic presentity URI.

21. The virtual presence server of claim 14, wherein the virtual presence server instantiates processing logic by:

issuing at least one subscription request for a set of presentities to the at least one existing presence server;

receiving notifications on dynamic attributes of the subscribed presentities; and

recomputing the dynamic attributes of the associated presentity.

22. The virtual presence server of claim 21, wherein issuing subscription requests further comprises the virtual presence server triggering a set of external publish agents to publish the presence status of the set of presentities to the at least one existing presence server.

23. The virtual presence server of claim 14, further comprising the virtual presence server:

obtaining a query from the client for requested information;

instantiating processing logic to create the information requested and associating a dynamic presentity uniform resource identifier (URI) to represent the created information; and

causing the created information to be notified, along with the information of the dynamic presentity URI, to the client issuing the query.

24. The virtual presence server of claim 14, wherein the step of creating at the virtual presence server a set of software objects for a virtual presentity further comprises the virtual presence server issuing a set of requests and creating dynamic presentities to support these requests, thereby recursively creating a hierarchy of virtual presentities.