CRITERIA-BASED MESSAGE PUBLICATION CONTROL AND FEEDBACK IN A PUBLISH/SUBSCRIBE MESSAGING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20120215872A1
• Filed: 02/20/2011
• Published: 08/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Beardsmore, Anthony P., Levell, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 8,843,580 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding

Abstract

Control and/or feedback are provided for message publication in a publish/subscribe messaging environment. A number of different aspects are disclosed, and an embodiment may include one or more of these aspects. In each aspect, each subscribing application has an associated importance level for a subscription, and this importance level may vary among subscriptions for different message topics. Each published message has an associated topic. In some aspects, each published message also has associated criteria, where the criteria are specified with regard to message classification. In preferred embodiments, the message classification comprises importance criteria specifying requirements for importance level of subscribers registered for the topic of that message. Feedback can be provided regarding whether a message publication meets the importance criteria. Control over message publication can be based on whether a message publication meets the importance criteria.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of criteria-based message publication control and feedback in a publish/subscribe messaging environment, comprising:

receiving, at a message broker, a message published by a message publisher, the message having associated therewith a topic and classification criteria for determining successful publication of the message;

selecting, by the message broker from a plurality of registered message subscribers that have registered subscriptions with the message broker to receive published messages, each subscription specifying a topic and subscriber classification information, each of at least one subscriber for which the registered topic matches the topic associated with the published message and for which the registered subscriber classification information matches the classification criteria associated with the published message;

sending the published message from the message broker to each of the at least one selected subscriber;

determining whether the sending of the published message to the selected subscribers meets requirements of the classification criteria associated with the published message; and

notifying the message publisher, by the message broker responsive to the determining, whether the published message was published successfully.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the registered subscriber classification information comprises an importance level for receiving published messages having the registered topic associated therewith.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the importance level is an integer value.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the classification criteria associated with the message comprises importance criteria.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the classification criteria associated with the message is specified as one or more parameters, which together specify requirements for the successful publication of the message.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the classification criteria associated with the message is specified as one or more rules, which together specify requirements for the successful publication of the message.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sending occurs, responsive to selecting a plurality of the registered message subscribers, in a decreasing order of the registered subscriber classification information of the plurality of selected subscribers.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising performing controlled failure handling of the published message responsive to determining that the published message was not published successfully.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein performing the controlled failure handling further comprises notifying the message publisher that publication of the message failed when a fail mode of failure handling is operable.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein performing the controlled failure handling further comprises sending the published message from the message broker to any additional ones of the registered message subscribers for which the registered topic matches the topic associated with the published message, and warning the message publisher that publication of the message was not successful, when a warn mode of failure handling is operable.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the warn mode is selectively activated.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the notifying further notifies a third party whether the published message was published successfully.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the classification information is received, with the message, by the message broker.

14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

subsequently sending the published message to at least one of the plurality of registered message subscribers which is a durable subscriber, the durable subscriber characterized by being disconnected during the sending of the published message from the message broker to each of the at least one selected subscriber, yet retaining an active registered subscription for which the registered topic matches the topic associated with the published message and for which the registered subscriber classification information matches the classification criteria associated with the published message; and

reflecting the subsequent sending of the published message in the determining and the notifying.

15. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to determining, by the message broker, that the published message is to be a retained message, retaining the published message subsequent to sending the published message from the message broker to each of the at least one selected subscriber;

responsive to detecting, by the message broker, a new message subscriber that registers a subscription for which the registered topic matches the topic associated with the retained message and for which the registered subscriber classification information matches the classification criteria associated with the retained message, subsequently sending the retained message to the new subscriber; and

reflecting the subsequent sending of the published message in the determining and the notifying.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the determining and the notifying are delayed, following the sending of the published message from the message broker to each of the at least one selected subscriber, to await the subsequent sending of the retained message to the new subscriber.

17. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

forwarding the published message, by the message broker, to each of at least one additional message broker to which the message broker is communicably coupled in a cluster environment, each additional message broker having a plurality of registered message subscribers that have registered subscriptions therewith to receive published messages, each registered subscription specifying a topic and subscriber classification information;

receiving, at the message broker from each of the at least one additional message brokers, feedback regarding sending of the forwarded message by the additional message broker to selected ones of the subscribers registered therewith responsive to the registered topic matching the topic associated with the forwarded message and the registered subscriber classification information matching the classification criteria associated with the forwarded message; and

consolidating the feedback received from each of the at least one additional message brokers with the feedback regarding the sending of the published message; and

wherein the feedback sent to the message publisher comprises the consolidated feedback.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the selecting, the sending, and the determining are carried out in context of a transaction; and

further comprising;

committing the transaction or rolling back the transaction, responsive to the determining, wherein the transaction is committed responsive to determining that the published message was published successfully and the transaction is rolled back otherwise.

19. A system for criteria-based message publication control and feedback in a publish/subscribe messaging environment, comprising:

a computer comprising a processor; and

instructions which are executable, using the processor, to implement functions comprising;

receiving, at a message broker, a message published by a message publisher, the message having associated therewith a topic and classification criteria for determining successful publication of the message;

selecting, by the message broker from a plurality of registered message subscribers that have registered subscriptions with the message broker to receive published messages, each subscription specifying a topic and subscriber classification information, each of at least one subscriber for which the registered topic matches the topic associated with the published message and for which the registered subscriber classification information matches the classification criteria associated with the published message;

sending the published message from the message broker to each of the at least one selected subscriber;

determining whether the sending of the published message to the selected subscribers meets requirements of the classification criteria associated with the published message; and

notifying the message publisher, by the message broker responsive to the determining, whether the published message was published successfully.

20. A computer program product for criteria-based message publication control and feedback in a publish/subscribe messaging environment, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code configured for;

receiving, at a message broker, a message published by a message publisher, the message having associated therewith a topic and classification criteria for determining successful publication of the message;

selecting, by the message broker from a plurality of registered message subscribers that have registered subscriptions with the message broker to receive published messages, each subscription specifying a topic and subscriber classification information, each of at least one subscriber for which the registered topic matches the topic associated with the published message and for which the registered subscriber classification information matches the classification criteria associated with the published message;

sending the published message from the message broker to each of the at least one selected subscriber;

determining whether the sending of the published message to the selected subscribers meets requirements of the classification criteria associated with the published message; and

notifying the message publisher, by the message broker responsive to the determining, whether the published message was published successfully.