Systems and methods for lightweight conversations

• US 7,409,427 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2003
• Issued: 08/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Fry, Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang; Jungwon
• Application Number:
  US10/733,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20040205139A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,699 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/223, 709/206, 709/203, 709/205, 345/758, 379/93.01
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms

Abstract

Transaction management systems can take advantage of a lightweight approach to conversation management. In a cluster, a conversation manager can be used to keep track of state location throughout the cluster. When a cluster computing device receives a request, that computing device can contact the conversation manager to determine the location of the state within the cluster. Once the conversation manager provides the computing device with the location of the state, the computing device can invoke the state for the conversation. All state information can be kept in-memory on computing devices in the cluster in order to improve performance.

This description is not intended to be a complete description of, or limit the scope of, the invention. Other features, aspects, and objects of the invention can be obtained from a review of the specification, the figures, and the claims.

Claims

1. A system to provide conversation states, comprising:

a first computing device capable of;

running a process on the first computing device; and

accepting a message during a conversation between the process running on the first computing device in a cluster and another process that is running on a computing device outside the cluster, wherein the message is associated with a conversation state that operates to be invoked over an application service wherein the application service is a Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) or a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA);

a second computing device in the cluster capable of;

maintaining the conversation state requested by the message; and

storing information of the conversation state in memory on the second computing device; and

a conversation manager capable of;

identifying the location of the second computing device which maintains the conversation state requested by the message; and

providing the location and/or the information of the conversation state to the first computing device.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the first and second computing devices form a cluster.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the conversation manager is capable of maintaining the locations of all conversation states in the system.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the information may include, a map of every conversation state leased, owned, or stored on the second computing device.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the first and second computing devices are the same computing device.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the second computing device is capable of maintaining the information both in-memory and on persistent storage.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the conversation manager is capable of designating the second computing device as the primary and replicating the information on the second computing device to a third computing device.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein:

the conversation manager is capable of routing to the third computing device and setting it as the new primary when the second computing device fails.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the conversation manager is capable of periodically determining the availability of the second and third computing devices.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the conversation can be within the context of a business application.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the conversation state can be one of;

a program, an application, a service, and a database instance.

12. A system to provide conversation for Web service, comprising:

a conversation partner, which is a process, capable of providing a message during a conversation between the conversation partner and a process running on a first computing device;

said first computing device capable of accepting a message during the conversation with the conversation partner, wherein the message is associated with a conversation state that operates to be invoked over an application service wherein the application service is a Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) or a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA);

a second computing device capable of;

maintaining the conversation state requested by the message; and

storing information of the conversation state in memory on the second computing device; and

a conversation manager capable of;

identifying the location of the second computing device which maintains the conversation state requested by the message; and

providing the location and/or the information of the conversation state to the first computing device.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein:

the message includes a conversation ID.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein:

the first computing device is capable of contacting the conversation manager to determine the location of the conversation state requested by the message using the conversation ID.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein:

the conversation manager is capable of providing the location and/or the information of the conversation state to the first computing device requesting it based on the conversation ID.

16. The system according to claim 12, wherein:

the first computing device is capable of answering a request for the conversation state directly without contacting the conversation manager if it owns such state.

17. The system according to claim 12, wherein:

the conversation manager is capable of accepting a request for the location of the conversation state from the first computing device.

18. The system according to claim 12, wherein:

the first computing device is capable of accepting the location of the conversation state from the conversation manager.

19. The system according to claim 12, wherein:

the first computing device is capable of invoking the conversation state on the second computing device in order to respond to the conversation message received.

20. The system according to claim 12, wherein:

the conversation manager is capable of sharing the conversation state with at least two conversations.

21. The system according to claim 12, wherein:

the conversation manager is capable of tracking a participating Web service that initiates the conversation.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein:

the conversation manager is capable of sharing the conversation state with at least two Web services and joining the sessions of these services.

23. A method to provide a conversation for a Web service, comprising:

maintaining a conversation state on a second computing device in a cluster;

storing information of the conversation state in memory on the second computing device;

accepting a message requesting the conversation state during a conversation between a process running on a first computing device in a cluster and another process that is running on a computing device outside the cluster;

contacting a conversation manager to determine the location of the conversation state requested by the message;

accepting the location and/or the information of the conversation state from the conversation manager; and

invoking the conversation state over an application service wherein the application service is a Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) or a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) on the computing device in order to respond to the conversation message.

24. The method according to claim 23, further comprising:

maintaining the locations of all conversation states in the system on the conversation manager.

25. The method according to claim 23, further comprising:

maintaining on the computing device its conversation state information, which may include, a map of every state leased, owned, or stored on it.

26. The method according to claim 25, further comprising:

maintaining the conversation state information on the computing device both in-memory and on persistent storage.

27. The method according to claim 25, further comprising:

designating the computing device as the primary and replicating the conversation state information on the computing device to another computing device.

28. The method according to claim 27, further comprising:

routing to the another computing device; and

setting it as the new primary when the current primary computing device fails.

29. The method according to claim 23, further comprising:

determining the availability of the computing devices periodically.

30. The method according to claim 23, further comprising:

accepting request for the location of the conversation state from a computing device; and

providing the location of the conversation state to the computing device requesting it.

31. The method according to claim 23, further comprising:

sharing the state with at least two conversations.

32. The method according to claim 23, further comprising:

tracking a participating Web service that initiates the conversation.

33. The method according to claim 32, further comprising:

sharing the conversation state with at least two Web services; and

joining the sessions of these services.

34. A method to provide a conversation for a Web service, comprising:

maintaining a conversation state on a second computing device in a cluster;

storing information of the conversation state in memory on the second computing device;

accepting a message requesting the conversation state during a conversation between a process running on a first computing device in a cluster and another process that is running on a computing device outside the cluster; and

invoking the conversation state over an application service wherein the application service is a Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) or a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) on the computing device in order to respond to the conversation message received directly at the computing device without contacting a conversation manager.

35. A machine readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processor cause a system to:

maintain a conversation state on a second computing device in a cluster;

store the information of the conversation state in memory on the second computing device;

accept a message requesting the state during a conversation between a process running on a first computing device in a cluster and another process that is running on a computing device outside the cluster;

contact a conversation manager to determine the location of the conversation state requested by the message;

accept the location and/or the information of the conversation state from the conversation manager; and

invoke the conversation state over an application service wherein the application service is a Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) or a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) on the computing device in order to respond to the conversation message.

36. The machine readable storage medium of claim 35, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

maintain the locations of all conversation states in the system on the conversation manager.

37. The machine readable storage medium of claim 35, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

maintain on the computing device information, which may include, a map of every conversation state leased, owned, or stored on it.

38. The machine readable storage medium of claim 37, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

maintain the conversation state information on the computing device both in-memory and on persistent storage.

39. The machine readable storage medium of claim 38, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

designating the computing device as the primary and replicating the conversation state information on the computing device to another computing device.

40. The machine readable storage medium of claim 39, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

route to the another computing device; and

set it as the new primary when the current primary computing device fails.

41. The machine readable storage medium of claim 35, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

check for the availability of the computing devices periodically.

42. The machine readable storage medium of claim 35, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

accept request for the location of the state from a computing device; and

provide the location of the state to the computing device requesting it.

43. The machine readable storage medium of claim 35, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

share the state with at least two conversations.

44. The machine readable storage medium of claim 35, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

track a participating Web service that initiates the conversation.

45. The machine readable storage medium of claim 44, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

share the conversation state with at least two Web services; and

join the sessions of these services.

46. A machine readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processor cause a system to:

maintain a conversation state on a second computing device in a cluster;

store information of the conversation state in memory on the second computing device;

accept a message requesting the conversation state during a conversation between a process running on a first computing device in a cluster and another process that is running on a computing device outside the cluster; and

invoke the conversation state over an application service wherein the application service is a Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) or a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) on the computing device in order to respond to the conversation message received directly at the computing device without contacting a conversation manager.

47. A system for handling conversation, comprising:

means for maintaining a conversation state on a second computing device in a cluster;

means for storing information of the conversation state in memory on second the computing device;

means for accepting a message requesting the conversation state during a conversation between a process running on a first computing device in a cluster and another process that is running on a computing device outside the cluster;

means for contacting a conversation manager to determine the location of the conversation state requested by the message;

means for accepting the location and/or the information of the conversation state from the conversation manager; and

means for invoking the conversation state over an application service wherein the application service is a Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) or a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) on the computing device in order to respond to the conversation message.