System and method for providing highly available processing of asynchronous service requests

• US 7,222,148 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2002
• Issued: 05/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Upton, Mitch, Golding, Christa, Potter, Tim
• Primary Examiner(s): Barot; Bharat
• Application Number:
  US10/293,059
• Publication Number:
  US 20040015368A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,651 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-203, 709206-207, 709217-219, 709/226
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Highly-available processing of an asynchronous request can be accomplished in a single transaction. A distributed request queue receives a service request from a client application or application view client. A service processor is deployed on each node of a cluster containing the distributed request queue. A service processor pulls the service request from the request queue and invokes the service for the request, such as to an enterprise information system. If that service processor fails, another service processor in the cluster can service the request. The service processor receives a service response from the invoked service and forwards the service response to a distributed response queue. The distributed response queue holds the service response until the response is retrieved for the client application.

Claims

1. A system for high-availability processing of asynchronous requests in a single transaction, comprising:

a client application that instantiates an application view instance and passes a durable client identifier to the application view instance, said application view instance configured to create a service request;

an asynchronous request queue distributed over a server cluster and configured for receiving said service request from the application view instance and for storing said service request in a single physical request queue;

a service processor distributed over the server cluster and for pulling the service request from the single physical request queue and for invoking a service for the service request wherein the service processor is further configured for receiving a service response for the service request from the invoked service; and

an asynchronous response queue distributed over the server cluster and configured for receiving the service response from the service processor and for storing the service response in a single physical response queue;

wherein said client application is configured to query the asynchronous response queue distributed over the server cluster for responses that match the durable client identifier in an event of failure and restart of said client application.

2. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an enterprise information system containing the service invoked by the service processor.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said service processor is packaged as a message-driven Enterprise JavaBean.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the application view client is configured for sending the service request to the distributed request queue and retrieving the service response from the distributed response queue on behalf of the client application.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein:

said application view client can generate failure recovery semantics for the client application.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the asynchronous response queue is configured to store the service response until the response is retrieved by the application view client.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said application view is configured to determine whether any service responses are waiting in the asynchronous response queue for the client application.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the client identifier is configured for identifying the client application and used to process the service request and service response for the client application.

9. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said application view client passes the service request to the asynchronous request queue in a request document.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein:

said application view further passes a service response listener with the request document, the service response listener configured to listen for the service response corresponding to the service request document.

11. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said service processor is deployed on a node in a cluster.

12. A system according to claim 11, further comprising:

additional service processors, each additional service processor deployed on different node in the cluster.

13. A system according to claim 12, wherein:

the additional service processors are configured to listen to the asynchronous request queue for a service request, each of the additional service processors capable of pulling the service request from the asynchronous request queue and invoking the service for the service request if the service processor is unavailable.

14. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said service processor further encapsulates the service response into a service response object that is sent to the asynchronous response queue.

15. A method for high-availability processing of asynchronous requests in a single transaction, comprising:

instantiating an application view client by an application and passing a durable client identifier to the application view client, said application view client configured to create a service request

maintaining an asynchronous request queue distributed over a server cluster for storing service requests from client applications;

maintaining an asynchronous response queue distributed over the server cluster for storing service responses from invoked services;

maintaining a service processor distributed over the server cluster for servicing service invocations;

receiving a service request to the request queue from the application;

pulling the service request from the asynchronous request queue to a service processor and invoking a service for the service request;

receiving the service response from the invoked service to the asynchronous response queue and storing the service response until retrieval by the application; and

querying the asynchronous response queue distributed over the server cluster for responses that match the durable client identifier in an event of failure and restart of said client application.

16. A method according to claim 15, further comprising:

executing the invoked service using an enterprise information system.

17. A method according to claim 15, further comprising:

deploying an additional service processor on each node of the duster containing the service processor.

18. A method according to claim 17, further comprising:

listening to the asynchronous request queue using with the service processor and any additional service processors.

19. A method according to claim 15, further comprising:

packaging the service processor as a message-driven Enterprise JavaBean.

20. A method according to claim 15, wherein:

the application view client is configured to send service requests and receive service responses on behalf of the client application.

21. A method according to claim 20, further comprising:

generating failure recovery semantics using the application view client.

22. A method according to claim 15, wherein:

the durable client identifier is assigned to the service request to be used in processing the service request and service response.

23. A method according to claim 15, wherein:

the step of receiving a service request includes passing a request document and response listener to the service processor.

24. A system for high-availability processing of asynchronous requests in a single transaction, comprising:

an asynchronous request queue distributed over a server cluster and configured for receiving and storing a service request;

an application view client for sending the service request to the request queue on behalf of a client application;

a service processor distributed over the server duster and configured for pulling the service request from the request queue and invoking the service for the service request, the service processor further receiving a service response for the service request from the invoked service; and

an asynchronous response queue distributed over the server cluster and configured for receiving the service response from the service processor and storing the service response until the service response is retrieved for the client application by the application view client.

25. A system for high-availability processing of asynchronous requests in a single transaction, comprising:

an application view client for generating a service request on behalf of a client application, the service request comprising a request document and a service response listener;

a request queue distributed over a server cluster and configured for receiving the service request from the application view client and storing the service request;

a service processor distributed over the server cluster and configured for pulling the service request from the request queue and invoking the service specified in the request document, the service processor further receiving a service response for the request document from the invoked service; and

a response queue distributed over the server cluster and configured for receiving the service response from the service processor and storing the service response until the service response is retrieved for the client application by the application view client, the response listener notifying the application view client when the service response is received in the distributed response queue.

26. A system for high-availability processing of asynchronous requests in a single transaction, comprising:

means for maintaining an asynchronous request queue distributed over a server cluster for storing service requests from client applications;

means for maintaining an asynchronous response queue distributed over the server cluster for storing service responses from invoked services;

means for maintaining a service processor distributed over the server duster for servicing service invocations;

means for receiving a service request to the request queue from a client application;

means for pulling the service request from the request queue to a service processor and invoking a service for the service request; and

means for receiving the service response from the invoked service to the response queue and storing the service response until retrieval from a client application.

27. A computer system for high-availability processing of asynchronous requests in a single transaction comprising:

a processor a computer readable medium, and, object code executed by said processor, and embodied on said computer readable medium said object code configured to;

maintain an asynchronous request queue distributed over a server cluster for storing service requests from client applications;

maintain an asynchronous response queue distributed over the server cluster for storing service responses from invoked services;

maintain a service processor distributed over the server cluster for servicing service invocations;

receive a service request to the request queue from a client application;

pull the service request from the request queue to a service processor and invoke a service for the service request; and

receive the service response from the invoked service to the response queue and store the service response until retrieval from a client application.