Deterministic rule-based dispatch of objects to code

• US 7,624,141 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2004
• Issued: 11/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cabrera, Luis Felipe, Copeland, George P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Donaghue; Larry D
• Assistant Examiner(s): TAYLOR, NICHOLAS R
• Application Number:
  US10/763,530
• Publication Number:
  US 20050198108A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,132 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/449 Object-oriented method invocation or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449

Abstract

Deterministic rule-based dispatch of the data structure to a group of one or more methods. After accessing the data structure to be processed, a list of rules is evaluated to identify multiple rules that apply to the dispatch of the data structure. Each of these multiple rules specifies a different group of one or more methods to which the data structure should be dispatched. The multiple rules are resolved to a single prevailing rule that will be applied for the dispatch of the data structure. Then, the computing system dispatches the data structure to the group of one or more methods specified by the prevailing rule. The rule evaluation and prioritization is deterministic for ease in debugging since it may be determined which group of one or more methods processed a data structure should a performance problem arise during the processing. Furthermore, rules may be added, amended, or deleted dynamically.

Claims

1. In a computing system that is capable of dispatching a data structure within a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) envelope for processing by groups of one or more software methods, a method for the computing system to perform deterministic rule-based dispatch of the SOAP envelope to a group of one or more software methods for further processing, the dispatch being deterministic and resulting in a single rule despite the existence of multiple rules that conflict regarding which group of one or more software methods the SOAP envelope should be dispatched, the method comprising the following:

an act of the computing system accessing a SOAP envelope that includes a data structure that is to be dispatched to one or more software methods for processing;

subsequent to the act of accessing the SOAP envelope, an act of the computing system evaluating a list of rules to identify a plurality of rules that apply to the dispatch of the data structure within the SOAP envelope, wherein all of the rules within the list of rules are specific to dispatch of the data structure within the SOAP envelope to one or more software methods, such that the list of rules includes rules consisting of software method dispatch rules, and wherein each of the plurality of rules specifying a condition and a group of one or more software methods the SOAP envelope should be dispatched to if the condition is met;

subsequent to the act of evaluating the list of rules, an act of the computing system resolving the plurality of rules utilizing one or more prioritizing mechanisms, wherein at least one prioritizing mechanism is configured to guarantee that only a single rule will be applied for the dispatch of the data structure of the SOAP envelope to the group of one or more software methods; and

an act of the computing system dispatching the data structure of the SOAP envelope to the group of one or more software methods specified by the single prevailing rule.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of resolving the plurality of rules comprises the following:

an act of applying a first prioritization mechanism.

3. A method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the first prioritization mechanism is selected from the group consisting of:

an express dominance mechanism, a prioritization level mechanism, and a unique identifier comparison mechanism.

4. A method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the application of the first prioritization mechanism narrows the plurality of rules to a single prevailing rule.

5. A method in accordance with claim 4, wherein the application of the first prioritization mechanism guarantees that only one single rule will prevail under any circumstances from the plurality of rules.

6. A method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the act of resolving the plurality of rules to identify a prevailing rule further comprises the following:

an act of determining that the application of the first prioritization mechanism still resulted in more than one rule; and

in response, an act of applying a second prioritization mechanism.

7. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the second prioritization mechanism is selected from the group consisting of:

an express dominance mechanism, a prioritization level mechanism, and a unique identifier comparison mechanism.

8. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the application of the second prioritization mechanism narrows the plurality of rules to a single prevailing rule.

9. A method in accordance with claim 8, wherein the application of the second prioritization mechanism guarantees that only one single rule will prevail under any circumstances from the plurality of rules.

10. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the act of resolving the plurality of rules further comprises the following:

an act of determining that the application of the second prioritization mechanism still resulted in more than one rule; and

in response, an act of applying a third prioritization mechanism.

11. A method in accordance with claim 10, wherein the third prioritization mechanism is selected from the group consisting of:

an express dominance mechanism, a prioritization level mechanism, and a unique identifier comparison mechanism.

12. A method in accordance with claim 10, wherein the application of the third prioritization mechanism narrows the plurality of rules to a single prevailing rule.

13. A method in accordance with claim 12, wherein the application of the third prioritization mechanism guarantees that only one rule will prevail under any circumstances from the plurality of rules.

14. A method in accordance with claim 10, wherein when application of the third prioritization mechanism does not narrow the plurality of rules to a single prevailing rule, the method further comprising the following:

an act of continuing application of prioritization rules until the plurality of rules is narrowed down to just the single prevailing rule.

15. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the group of one or more software methods comprises a single method.

16. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the group of one or more software methods comprises a temporally-ordered chain of a plurality of software methods.

17. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the SOAP envelope is a first SOAP envelope, the plurality of rules is a first plurality of rules, the sing1e rule is a single first prevailing rule, and the group of one or more methods is a first group of one or more software methods, the method further comprising the following:

an act of accessing a second SOAP envelope that is to be processed;

subsequent to the act of accessing a second SOAP envelope, an act of evaluating the list of rules to identify a second plurality of rules that apply to the dispatch of the second SOAP envelope, each of the second plurality of rules specifying a different group of one or more software methods to which the SOAP envelope should be dispatched;

subsequent to the act of evaluating the list of rules, an act of resolving the second plurality of rules to identify a single second prevailing rule that will be applied for the dispatch of the second SOAP envelope; and

an act of dispatching the second SOAP envelope to the second group of one or more software methods specified by the single second prevailing rule.

18. A method in accordance with claim 17, wherein the single first prevailing rule is the same as the single second prevailing rule such that the first group of one or more software methods is the same as the second group of one or more software methods.

19. A method in accordance with claim 17, wherein the single first prevailing rule is different than the single second prevailing rule and the first group of one or more software methods is different than the second group of one or more software methods.

20. A method in accordance with claim 19, wherein one or more software methods in the first group of one or more software methods are also in the second group of one or more software methods.

21. A method in accordance with claim 20, wherein the group of one or more software methods are executed by the computing system.

22. A method in accordance with claim 20, wherein the computing system is a first computing system, the group of one or more software methods being executed by a second computing system that the first computing system is capable of communicating with over a network, the act of dispatching the SOAP envelope to the group of one or more software methods comprising the following:

an act of sending the SOAP envelope to the second computing system over the network.

23. A method in accordance with claim 22, wherein the list or rules is expressed using XPATH statements.

24. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the list or rules is expressed using XPATH statements.

25. A method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

an act of accessing an instruction to amend the list of rules; and

an act of automatically amending the list of rules in response to the instruction.

26. A computer program product for use in a computing system that is capable of dispatching a data structure within a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) envelope for processing by groups of one or more software methods, the computer program product for implementing a method for the computing system to perform deterministic rule-based dispatch of the SOAP envelope to a group of one or more software methods for further processing, the dispatch being deterministic despite the existence of multiple rules that conflict regarding where the SOAP envelope should be dispatched, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media that have stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to perform the following:

an act of the computing system accessing a SOAP envelope that includes a data structure that is to be dispatched to one or more software methods for processing;

subsequent to the act of accessing the SOAP envelope, an act of the computing system evaluating the list of rules to identify a plurality of rules that apply to the dispatch of the data structure within the SOAP envelope, wherein all of the rules within the list of rules are specific to dispatch of the data structure within the SOAP envelope to one or more software methods, such that the list of rules includes roles consisting of software method dispatch rules, and wherein each of the plurality of rules specifying a condition and a group of one or more software methods the SOAP envelope should be dispatched to if the condition is met SOAP envelope;

subsequent to the act of evaluating the list of rules, an act of the computing system resolving the plurality of rules utilizing one or more prioritizing mechanisms, wherein at least one prioritizing mechanism is configured to guarantee only a single rule will be applied for the dispatch of the data structure of the SOAP envelope to the group of one or more methods; and

an act of the computing system dispatching the data structure of the SOAP envelope to the group of one or more software methods specified by the single prevailing rule.

27. A computer program product in accordance with claim 26, wherein the one or more computer-readable storage media comprises persistent memory.

28. A computer program product in accordance with claim 26, wherein the one or more computer-readable storage media comprises system memory.

29. A computer program product in accordance with claim 26, wherein the act of resolving the plurality of rules comprises the following:

an act of applying a first prioritization mechanism.

30. A computer program product in accordance with claim 29, wherein the application of the first prioritization mechanism narrows the plurality of rules to a single prevailing rule.

31. A computer program product in accordance with claim 29, wherein application of the first prioritization mechanism does not narrow the plurality of rules to a single prevailing rule, the method further comprising the following:

an act of continuing application of prioritization rules until the plurality of rules is narrowed down to just the single prevailing rule.

32. A computer program product in accordance with claim 26, the method further comprising:

an act of accessing an instruction to amend the list of rules; and

an act of automatically amending the list of rules in response to the instruction.

33. A computing system comprising the following:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon a list of rules, each rule specifying a condition and a group of one or more software methods that a data structure within a SOAP envelope should be dispatched to if the condition is met, the one or more computer-readable storage media further having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to instantiate in the system memory the following;

a comparison module configured to access a SOAP envelope that includes a data structure that is to be dispatched to one or more software methods for processing and evaluate the list of rules to identify a plurality of rules that apply to the dispatch of the SOAP envelope;

a plurality of prioritization mechanisms configured to identify which conflicting rules take priority, each of the plurality of rules specifying a condition and a group of one or more software methods the SOAP envelope should be dispatched to when the condition is met, at least one of the prioritization mechanisms guarantying only one single prevailing rule will be applied to the dispatch of the data structure of the SOAP envelope and that none of the other rules contained in the list of rules will be applied to the dispatch of the data structure within the SOAP envelope, wherein all of the rules within the list of rules are specific to dispatch of the data structure within the SOAP envelope to one or more software methods, such that the list of rules includes rules consisting of software method dispatch rules;

a resolution module configured to use the plurality of prioritization mechanisms to identify the single prevailing rule that will be applied for the dispatch of the data structure of the SOAP envelope to the one or more software methods specified in the single prevailing rule; and

a dispatching mechanism configured to dispatch the data structure of the SOAP envelope to only the group of one or more software methods specified by the single prevailing rule.