×

Method and apparatus for creating, sending, and using self-descriptive objects as messages over a message queuing network

  • US 7,631,317 B2
  • Filed: 11/18/2004
  • Issued: 12/08/2009
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1998
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A system for performing asynchronous communications between computing devices, the system comprising:

  • a) a first computing device comprising a first process serializing a self-descriptive dictionary object to the body of an asynchronous message intended for a message queue by invoking a save method contained in the self-descriptive dictionary object and passing the asynchronous message to the save method as a target location for the serialized self-descriptive dictionary object, wherein the serialized self-descriptive dictionary object comprises a field for maintaining a count of the number of elements in the serialized self-descriptive dictionary object, and wherein each element of the serialized self-descriptive dictionary object comprises a triplet comprising a name, a type indicator identifying a type of an element of the serialized self-descriptive dictionary object, and a value;

    b) the message queue for storing the serialized self-descriptive dictionary object until a recipient application is ready to receive the serialized self-descriptive dictionary object;

    c) a second computing device comprising a second process retrieving the asynchronous message from the message queue when the recipient application is ready to receive the asynchronous message, wherein the self-descriptive dictionary object provides information necessary for the second process to deserialize the self-descriptive dictionary object without relying upon an established convention between the first process and the second process to deserialize and extract a data object from the asynchronous message; and

    d) the recipient application on the second computing device receiving the deserialized self-descriptive dictionary object, extracting each element of the deserialized self-descriptive dictionary object, discovering the type of the element based upon the type indicator of the self-descriptive dictionary object, and instantiating the element based upon the discovered type, wherein the recipient application sends a remote query in response to a discovery of an unknown type indicator in the deserialized self-descriptive dictionary object.

View all claims
  • 2 Assignments
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×