Localization in distributed computer environments

• US 7,603,403 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2001
• Issued: 10/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Banerjee, Debasish, Zavala, David Alan, Frey, Jeffrey Alan, Schuerfeld, Ute, High, Robert Howard Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr.; William C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bayard; Djenane M
• Application Number:
  US09/870,319
• Publication Number:
  US 20020188722A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,058 Days
• Field of Search: 709/225, 709/200, 709/203, 709/103, 709/105, 709/201, 709/217, 709/218, 709/232, 395/650, 704/8, 717/130
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method and system for providing client locale information to a server in a distributed computer enterprise. When a client generates a request to a remote server, the client'"'"'s locale and time zone information, known as the international context, is associated with the request. The server then processes requests from the client according to the internationalization context. The client'"'"'s international context is propagated to successive servers that further service the client'"'"'s request.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method operative in a distributed computing environment having clients and a plurality of servers located across geographically dispersed boundaries, comprising:

receiving, at a server, a first request from a client, wherein the first request is a request to invoke a remote procedure call at the server;

receiving, at the server, a second request from the client, wherein the second request comprises an internationalization context for processing the first request, wherein the internationalization context specifies geographically specific parameters set for the client;

extracting the internationalization context from the second request;

processing the first request at the server using the internationalization context, wherein processing the first request comprises;

providing the first request and internationalization context to an application configured to perform calculations requested by the remote procedure call using the geographically specific parameters included in the internationalization context and further configured to return a result formatted according to a formatting convention selected based on the geographically specific parameters;

attaching the internationalization context to the first request; and

propagating the first request with the attached internationalization context from the server to an application associated with an application interface on a second server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the internationalization context from the server to at least one of the plurality of servers in the distributed computing environment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the internationalization context contains a country identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the internationalization context contains a language identifier.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the internationalization context contains a time zone identifier.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the internationalization context contains at least a locale specification and a time zone identifier.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the locale specification comprises at least one of a country identifier, a language identifier and a currency identifier.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the first request according to a country identifier of the server if the internationalization context does not contain a country identifier.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the first request according to a universal time zone identifier if the internationalization context does not contain a time zone identifier of the client.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the first request according to a time zone identifier of the server if the internationalization context does not contain a time zone identifier.

11. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising a program which, when executed by a processor of a server configured with a default locale setting and a default time zone setting, performs a method, comprising:

parsing a first request from a client computer;

parsing a second request from the client computer, wherein the second request comprises an internationalization context containing a user specified locale specification and a time zone identifier;

extracting the client'"'"'s internationalization context from the second request;

processing the first request at the server using the internationalization context, wherein processing the first request comprises;

providing the first request and internationalization context to an application configured to perform calculations requested by the remote procedure call using the geographically specific parameters included in the internationalization context and further configure to return a result formatted according to a formatting convention selected based upon the geographically specific parameters;

generating a main body of a second request to invoke a second remote procedure call;

attaching the internationalization context to the main body; and

propagating the second request with the attached internationalization context from the server to an application associated with an application interface on a second server.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising sending the internationalization context from the server to at least one of the plurality of servers in the distributed computing environment.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the internationalization context contains a country identifier.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the internationalization context contains a language identifier.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the internationalization context contains a time zone identifier.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the internationalization context contains at least a locale specification and a time zone identifier.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the locale specification comprises at least one of a country identifier, a language identifier and a currency identifier.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising processing the first request according to a country identifier of the server if the internationalization context does not contain a country identifier.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising processing the first request according to a time zone identifier provided by the server if the time zone identifier of the internationalization context is set to null.

20. A method for transparently propagating internationalization context information, comprising:

receiving, at a first computer, a first request from a second computer, the first request including an internationalization context, wherein the internationalization context specifies geographically specific parameters set for the client computer;

extracting the internationalization context from the first request;

associating the internationalization context with a thread executing a second request, from the second computer, to invoke a remote procedure call at the first computer;

generating a main body of a second request to invoke a second remote procedure call;

attaching the internationalization context to the second request; and

propagating the second request with the attached internationalization context from the server to an application associated with an application interface on a second server, wherein the application of the second server is configured to perform calculations requested by the second remote procedure call using the geographically specific parameters included in the internationalization context and is further configured to return a result formatted according to a formatting convention selected based on the geographically specific parameters.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the internationalization context contains at least a locale specification and a time zone identifier.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising sending a first main body of the first request to the thread.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the thread comprises a legacy application thread.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the internationalization component comprises culture sensitive information.