Asynchronous web service invocation model

• US 7,580,975 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2007
• Issued: 08/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Cheenath, Manoj
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrell; Robert B
• Application Number:
  US11/684,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20070150303A1
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203
• US Class Current: 709/203
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and method for asynchronously invoking a remote web service on a server by application code residing on a client. The web service invoke request received from application code residing on the client, passes an invoke request to a web service residing on a server, receives a result from the web service, the result relating to the invoke request passed by the client, and transmits the result to the application code. Once the invoke request is passed to the web service by the client, the application code is freed to perform other tasks. The result may be transmitted to the application code from the client as part of a call back object passed to the client by the application code, as a result of application code polling of the client, or by the application code ending the task generated by the client.

Claims

1. A system for asynchronous invocation of web services in a distributed network, said system comprising:

a client connected to the distributed network and having an application executing thereon, said application having generated a web service request in a first thread, wherein a future result object and a task are created by said client, said future result object being stored on a computer readable medium, wherein said client schedules the task to a thread pool and transmits the web service request to a web service and releases said first thread such that the application is enabled to perform one or more other tasks while the web service request is processed, wherein said one or more other tasks are executed independently of a result of said web service request; and

a server connected to the distributed network and having the web service deployed thereon, wherein said server receives the web service request from the client, processes said web service request and obtains the result of said web service request;

wherein said application periodically queries the future result object for said result of the web service request and retrieves the result of said web service request upon receiving an indication that said result of said web service request is available, wherein if the future result object indicates that the result of said web service request has not been received from the server, the application continues to poll the future result object at an interval of time after the previous poll.

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

a first socket connection over which the web service request is transmitted from the client to the server.

3. The system according to claim 2, further comprising:

a second socket connection over which the result of said web service request is transmitted from the server to the client wherein said second socket connection differs from said first socket connection.

4. The system according to claim 1 wherein transmitting the web service request by the client to the web service residing on server further includes:

generating a second thread to process the task scheduled by the client, the task configured to handle invoking the web service, wherein said first thread is released upon the generation of the second thread.

5. The system according to claim 1 wherein periodically querying for said result of the web service request and retrieving the result of the web service request by the application further includes:

notifying the application that the result of the web service request is available;

receiving a result request from the application code; and

transmitting the result of the web service request to the application code.

6. The system according to claim 1 wherein generating the web service request in the first thread by the application further includes:

passing a call back parameter by the application to the client as part of an asynchronous context creation.

7. The system according to claim 1 wherein the web service request is initiated by at least one of:

a user action at a console, a user action on a graphical user interface (GUI), and by application code.

8. A method for asynchronously invoking web services in a distributed network, said method comprising:

generating a web service request in a first thread by an application residing on a client in said distributed network;

creating a future result object to allow the first thread to be released and creating a task, wherein said future result object being stored on a computer readable medium;

scheduling the task to a thread pool by the client wherein the task includes transmitting the web service request by the client to a web service residing on a server;

assigning a second thread to process the task scheduled by the client, wherein the task handles invoking the web service request;

releasing the first thread such that said application is enabled to perform one or more other tasks while the web service request is carried out, wherein said one or more other tasks are executed independently of a result of said web service request;

processing the web service request by the web service residing on said server and obtaining the result of said web service request, the result of said web service request relating to the web service request passed by the application residing on the client, wherein the task sets the future result object with the result of said web service request received from the web service;

polling the future result object for said result of the web service request by the application to determine if the result of said web service request has been received by the client from the web service; and

retrieving said result of the web service request by the application from the future result object upon receiving an indication that said result of said web service request is available, wherein if the future result object indicates that the result of said web service request has not been received from the server, the application continues to poll the future result object at an interval of time after the previous poll.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein transmitting the web service request by the client to the web service residing on the server further includes:

transmitting the web service request over a first socket connection.

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein the server transmits the result of said web service request to the client on a second socket connection that differs from said first socket connection.

11. The method according to claim 8 wherein polling the future result object for said result of the web service request by the application to determine if the result of the web service request has been received by the client from the web service, further includes:

notifying the application that the result of said web service request is available;

receiving a result request from the application code; and

transmitting the result of said web service request to the application code.

12. The method according to claim 8 wherein generating the web service request in the first thread by the application further includes:

passing a call back parameter by the application to the client as part of asynchronous context creation.

13. The method according to claim 8 wherein the web service request is initiated by at least one of:

a user action at a console, a user action on a graphical user interface (GUI), and by application code.

14. A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon which when executed by one or more processors cause a system to:

generate a web service request in a first thread by an application residing on a client in a distributed network;

create a future result object to allow the first thread to be released and creating a task, wherein said future result object being stored on the computer readable storage medium;

schedule the task to a thread pool by the client wherein the task includes transmitting the web service request by the client to a web service residing on a server;

assign a second thread to process the task scheduled by the client, wherein the task handles invoking the web service request;

release the first thread such that said application is enabled to perform one or more other tasks while the web service request is carried out, wherein said one or more other tasks are executed independently of a result of said web service request;

process the web service request by the web service residing on said server and obtaining the result of said web service request, the result of said web service request relating to the web service request passed by the application residing on the client, wherein the task sets the future result object with the result of said web service request received from the web service;

poll the future result object for said result of the web service request by the application to determine if the result of said web service request has been received by the client from the web service; and

retrieve said result of the web service request by the application from the future result object upon receiving an indication that said result of said web service request is available, wherein if the future result object indicates that the result of said web service request has not been received from the server, the application continues to poll the fixture result object at an interval of time after the previous poll.