Mechanism to provide callback capabilities for unreachable network clients

• US 7,337,237 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2002
• Issued: 02/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Subramanian, Balan, Salahshoor, Mohamad Reza
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn; Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): SIDDIQI, MOHAMMAD A
• Application Number:
  US10/272,313
• Publication Number:
  US 20040078486A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,959 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/205, 709/206, 709/227, 709/217, 709/248, 709/241, 709/245, 719/330
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A system and method for delivering asynchronous callbacks from a network server to clients that are unreachable by the network server. The system provides a callback server that receives callback registration requests from clients. The callback server generates a web service based on the description of the service that is being invoked by the client and an associated URL address based on its own address. The network server uses the dynamically generated service accessible at this URL address to deliver the asynchronous callbacks. The callbacks are either delivered to the clients by the callback server, if they are reachable inside the network domain, or made available on the callback server for the clients to poll. In addition, the callback server provides functionality that may be too expensive for the clients to provide locally.

Claims

1. A method for providing asynchronous callbacks from a network server to a client that is unreachable by the server, the method comprising the steps of:

registering a callback request from the client with a first callback server that has its own first network address and that is not part of the network server and that is configured to receive a callback request from the client and create a web service endpoint URL (Uniform Resource Locator) address corresponding to the callback request, the web service endpoint URL address being based on the first network address of the first callback server;

creating a web service at the first callback server, the web service being based on interface description of service provided by the network server;

generating a second network address for the web service based on the web service endpoint URL address;

sending the second network address to the client;

receiving an asynchronous callback at the second network address; and

making the asynchronous callback available to the client.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of forwarding the asynchronous callback to the client.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving polling requests from the client.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of preprocessing the asynchronous callback.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of distributing the second network address to a second callback server.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of using the first network address of the first callback server as base.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving a third network address associated with the client.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

receiving a service request from the client at the callback server; and

forwarding the service request from the callback server to the network server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the callback service request is a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) message.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the network address is a URL address.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

obtaining service provider'"'"'s interface description from a registry; and

sending at least a portion of the service provider'"'"'s interface description to the callback server.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the service provider interface description is in WSDL (Web Service Description Language).

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the registry is Universal, Description and Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry.

14. A method for providing asynchronous callbacks from a network server to a client that is unreachable by the network server, the method comprising the steps of:

registering a callback request with a first callback server that is different from the network server;

creating a web service at the first callback server;

generating a network address for the web service;

distributing the network address and information on the callback request from the first callback server to a plurality of callback servers, each of the plurality of callback servers being different from the network server;

sending the network address from the callback server to the client;

receiving an asynchronous callback at a callback server associated with the network address; and

making the asynchronous callback available to the client.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of checking the first callback server for the asynchronous callback.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of processing polling messages from the client.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of distributing information of a generated web service.

18. A system for providing asynchronous callbacks from a network server to a client that is unreachable by the network server, the system comprising:

a plurality of clients that are separated from the network server by a network isolation mechanism; and

a callback server, different from the network server, that is configured to receive asynchronous callbacks from the network server and to communicate the asynchronous callbacks with the plurality of clients, the callback server having a base network address and being configured to;

generate a network address based on the base network address,

create a web service based on a given service description,

associate the web service with the network address, and

receive the asynchronous callbacks at the network address.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the callback server is further configured to preprocess the asynchronous callbacks.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the callback server is further configured to receive a registration request from at least one client.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the registration request includes a network address for the at least one client.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the callback server is further configured to send the network address to at least one client.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the callback server is further configured to process polling messages from at least one client.