DISPATCH MECHANISM FOR COORDINATING APPLICATION AND COMMUNICATION MEDIUM STATE

• US 20100107177A1
• Filed: 10/23/2009
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Allen, Nicholas A., Wolf, Kenneth D., Pinto, Edmund Samuel Victor, Raman, Karthik
• Granted Patent: US 8,719,841 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/314
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for coordinating application state and communication medium state. Embodiments of the invention provide mechanisms by which a dispatcher can enable application code to coordinate changes in application state with the consumption of messages from a communication medium. The coordination can be automatic where the dispatcher performs the coordination, or manual, where the coordination is performed more expressly by application code. Embodiments also include mechanisms by which applications targeting an execution (e.g., continuation based) runtime may compose alternative state transitions in the application with a peek lock protocol.

Claims

1. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, the computer system also including a communication medium, a dispatcher, and an application, the dispatcher and the communication medium supporting a state coordination pattern to coordinate state transitions between the communication medium and any accessible applications, a method for coordinating state between the communication medium and the application in accordance with the state coordination pattern, the method comprising:

an act of the dispatcher sending a message request to the communication medium, the message request requesting a next available message from the communication medium on behalf of the application;

an act of the dispatcher receiving a view of the content of a message from the communication medium, receiving the content view indicative of the communication medium having locked the message for access by the dispatcher;

an act of the dispatcher offering the content view to the application;

an act of the application attempting to update application state for the application based on the content view;

an act of the dispatcher observing a signal related to the attempted application state update from the application; and

an act of the dispatcher sending a further signal to signal the communication medium how to update communication medium state on behalf of the application, the further signal based on the observed signal and in accordance with the state coordination pattern.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the application is not aware of the supported state coordination pattern, and wherein the act of the dispatcher sending a further signal comprises an act of the dispatcher signaling the communication medium to delete the message.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the application is not aware of the supported state coordination pattern, and wherein the act of the dispatcher offering the content view to the application and the act of the dispatcher sending a further signal comprise an act of the application and communication medium participating in a transaction that delivers the content view to the application and signals the communication medium to delete the message.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the application is aware of the supported state coordination pattern, and wherein the act of the dispatcher sending a further signal comprises an act of the dispatcher sending a further signal to the communication medium indicating how to update communication medium state subsequent to offering the content view to the application;

and

wherein the act of the dispatcher sending a further signal to the communication medium indicating how to update communication medium state subsequent to offering the content view to the application comprises an act of the dispatcher signaling the communication medium how to update communication medium state based on the results of an attempt to update application state based on the content view.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the act of the dispatcher offering the content view to the application and the act of the dispatcher sending a further signal comprise an act of the application and communication medium participating in a transaction that delivers the content view to the application and signals the communication medium to update communication medium state.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein an act of the dispatcher signaling the communication medium how to update communication medium state based on the results of an attempt to update application state based on the content view comprises an act of the dispatcher signaling the communication medium to delete the message in response to the dispatcher observing that the application successfully received the content view.

7. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein an act of the dispatcher signaling the communication medium how to update communication medium state based on the results of an attempt to update application state based on the content view comprises an act of the dispatcher signaling the communication medium to unlock the message in response to the dispatcher observing that the application did not successfully receive the content view, unlocking the message making the message available to the other software components.

8. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, the computer system also including a communication medium, a dispatcher, and an application, the dispatcher, the application, and the communication medium supporting a state coordination pattern to coordinate state transitions between the communication medium and the applications, a method for coordinating state between the communication medium and the application in accordance with the state coordination pattern, the method comprising:

an act of the dispatcher sending a message request to the communication medium, the message request requesting a next available message from the communication medium on behalf of the application;

an act of the dispatcher receiving a view of the content of a message from the communication medium, receiving the content view indicative of the communication medium having locked the message for access by the dispatcher in accordance with the state coordination pattern;

an act of the dispatcher offering the content view along with a communication proxy to the application, the communication proxy providing sufficient information for the application to communicate with the communication medium in accordance with the state coordination pattern;

an act of the application attempting to update application state for the application based on the content view;

an act of the application communicating the results of the attempted application state update to the communication proxy; and

an act of the communication proxy signaling the communication medium with an intended update to the communication medium state based on the result of the attempted application state update, the intended update to the communication state selected from among deleting the message from the communication medium and unlocking the message at the communication medium.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the act of the dispatcher offering the content view along with a communication proxy to the application and the act of the application sending a signal through the communication proxy to the communication medium comprise an act of the application and communication medium participating in a transaction that delivers the content view to the application and signals the communication medium to update communication medium state.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

an act of the communication proxy participating in the transaction that delivers the content view to the application and signals the communication medium to update communication medium state;

an act of the transaction subsequently being rolled back; and

an act of the application sending another signal through the communication proxy to the communication medium, possibly using a different transaction.

11. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the act of the application communicating the results of the attempted application state update to the communication proxy comprises an act of communicating an indication that the application successfully received the content view of the message;

and

wherein the act of the communication proxy signaling the communication medium with an intended update to the communication medium state comprises an act of sending a signal to the communication medium indicating that the communication medium is to delete the message.

12. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, the computer system also including a communication medium, a dispatcher, and an application, the dispatcher, the application, and the communication medium supporting a state coordination pattern to coordinate state transitions between the communication medium and the applications, the application using a scheduler and shared storage to provide an execution runtime, a method for coordinating state between the communication medium and the application in accordance with the state coordination pattern, the method comprising:

an act of the application providing to the scheduler a plurality of executable activities, the plurality of executable activities including a receive activity and one or more state update activities;

an act of the scheduler scheduling the receive activity for execution;

an act of receiving a content view of a message along with a communication proxy at the receive activity, the content view and communication proxy received from the dispatcher, the message being a message the dispatcher accessed on behalf of the application in accordance with the state coordination pattern, the communication proxy providing sufficient information for the application to communicate with the communication medium in accordance with the state coordination pattern;

an act of initializing a shared storage location with a receive context to communicate with the communication medium based on the communication proxy, the shared storage location accessible by other activities of the application to communicate with the communication medium;

an act of initializing one or more of the plurality of executable activities configured to update the application state of the application from the content view, the initialized executable activities having access to the shared storage location with the receive context;

an act of the scheduler scheduling a first state update activity for execution, the first state update activity included in the plurality of executable activities;

an act of attempting to update the application state of the application from the content view through execution of the first state update activity;

an act of sending a signal to the receive context, the signal indicating how the communication medium state is to be updated based on the results of attempting to update the application state and in accordance with the state coordination pattern; and

an act of the receive context forwarding the signal for delivery to the communication medium.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising an act of detecting that the first state update activity successfully updated the application state from the content view.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the act of sending a signal to the receive context comprises an act of the first update state activity sending a signal to delete the message from the communication medium.

15. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising:

an act of detecting that the first state update activity failed to successfully update the application state from the content view; and

an act of executing an alternate state update activity to attempt to update the application state from the content view in response to detecting the failure of the first state update activity to update the application state, the alternate state update activity included in the plurality of executable activities.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising an act of detecting that the alternate state update state activity successfully updated the application state;

and

wherein the act of sending a signal to the receive context comprises an act of the alternate update state activity sending a signal to delete the message from the communication medium.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising an act of detecting that the alternate state update activity failed to successfully update the application state.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the act of sending a signal to the receive context comprises an act of sending a signal to unlock the message at the communication medium.

19. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the act of receiving a content view of a message along with a communication proxy and forwarding the signal for delivery to the communication medium comprise an act of the application and the communication medium participating in a transaction that delivers the content view to the application and signals the communication medium to update communication state in accordance with the state coordination pattern.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, further comprising:

an act of the receive context participating in the transaction that delivers the content view to the application and signals the communication medium to update communication medium state;

an act of the transaction subsequently being rolled back; and

an act of the application sending another signal to the receive context, possibly using a different transaction.