MESSAGE ORDERING USING DYNAMICALLY UPDATED SELECTORS

• US 20110107350A1
• Filed: 10/29/2009
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Titheridge, Paul, Matthewson, Christ, Bittles, William, Gormley, Simon
• Granted Patent: US 8,539,508 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

A method of queuing messages for communications between a first computer program and a second computer program, comprises: placing a plurality of messages in a queue, wherein each message has a message body; placing selector information on each message, wherein the selector information contains information as to which message is to be processed next; and using the selector information on a message to identify a next message for processing.

Claims

1. A method of queuing messages for communications between a first computer program and a second computer program, comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of messages in a queue, wherein each message has a message body;

placing selector information on each message, wherein said selector information contains information as to which message is to be processed next; and

using said selector information on a message to identify a next message for processing,

wherein a processor device executing one or more of said placing a plurality of messages, said placing selector information and said using.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

placing said selector information in each message prior to sending said plurality of messages from said queue.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

using said selector information to designate a defined order for the processing of said plurality of messages.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said selector information can appear on any part of each of said plurality of messages.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein said selector information is an arbitrary function.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said selector information can not be changed after said messages are sent from said queue.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said plurality of messages each contain selector information that designates an order for processing said plurality of messages that is different than the order that said messages are in said queue.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said plurality of messages each contain selector information that designates an order for processing said plurality of messages that is the same as the order that said messages are in said queue.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

using a message selector for identifying a next message to be processed from selector information on an immediately prior message already processed.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein selector information in the prior message is used by said message selector to identify the next message.

20. The computer program of claim 9 wherein selector information in the prior message is used by said message selector to identify the next message.

11. A computer program product for use with a computer, the computer program producer including a computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program or program code for causing the computer to perform a method for storing and retrieving data, the method comprising:

placing a plurality of messages in a queue, wherein each message has a message body;

placing selector information on each message, wherein said selector information contains information as to which message is to be processed next; and

using said selector information on a message to identify a next message for processing.

12. The computer program of claim 11 further comprising:

placing said selector information in each message prior to sending said plurality of messages from said queue.

13. The computer program of claim 12 further comprising:

using said selector information to designate a defined order for the processing of said plurality of messages.

14. The computer program of claim 11 wherein said selector information can appear on any part of each of said plurality of messages.

15. The computer program of claim 12 wherein said selector information is an arbitrary function.

16. The computer program of claim 15 wherein said selector information can not be changed after said messages are sent from said queue.

17. The computer program of claim 11 wherein said plurality of messages each contain selector information that designates an order for processing said plurality of messages that is different than the order that said messages are in said first queue.

18. The computer program of claim 11 wherein said plurality of messages each contain selector information that designates an order for processing said plurality of messages that is the same as the order that said messages are in said first queue.

19. The computer program of claim 11 further comprising:

using a message selector for identifying a next message to be processed from selector information on an immediately prior message already processed.

21. A system of queuing messages for communications between a first computer program and a second computer program, the system comprising:

means for placing a plurality of messages in a queue, wherein each message has a message body;

means for placing selector information on each message, wherein said selector information contains information as to which message is to be processed next; and

means for using said selector information on a message to identify a next message for processing.