Protocol agnostic request response pattern

• US 7,730,499 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2004
• Issued: 06/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Firth, Richard L, Sanders, Henry L, Olson, Lance E, Nielsen, Henrik Frystyk
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Van H
• Application Number:
  US10/970,513
• Publication Number:
  US 20050055398A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,049 Days
• Field of Search: 719/310, 719/328, 709/228, 709/230, 709/238, 709/231, 709/232, 709/246
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/03 Protocol definition or specification protocol conformance testing H04L1/244
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating communications over a protocol is provided. The system includes a class factory that holds identifiers associated with determining which, if any, registered protocol object creator should be employed to create a protocol object. The protocol object implements an abstract network protocol base class. The protocol object is employed to abstract details of communicating over a protocol and to provide a byte stream interface to communications occurring over the protocol, while removing protocol specific code from an application program. The method includes creating an instance of a protocol object from a source of registered protocol handlers based on a request to communicate over a protocol and using a base class API to communicate over the protocol through the protocol object.

Claims

1. A method for allowing a computer program to communicate over one of a plurality of protocols, comprising:

at a computing system, using one or more processors to execute computer executable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-executable instructions by the one or more processors causes the computing system to;

register one or more protocol handlers operable to create a protocol object;

receive a request to communicate;

create an instance of a protocol object by employing a registered protocol handler;

return the protocol object to an application; and

use a base class Application Programming Interface (API) to communicate though the protocol object, wherein using the base class API includes implementing one or more methods defined in the base class API in a derived class, and wherein at least one of the one or more methods can be employed to read a first data from a resource, the first data having at least one of a format specific to the protocol and one or more headers and/or footers specific to the protocol when it is read from the resource, the first data being provided to a computer program of the computing system as a byte stream, and wherein at least one of the one or more methods can be employed to write a second data to the resource, the second data having at least one of a format specific to the protocol and one or more headers and/or footers specific to the protocol when it is written to the resource, the second data being provided to the one or more methods as a byte stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors further cause the computing, system to:

use the computer program to generate a request to communicate, wherein the request to communicate identifies a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) with which a communication is desired.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein creating an instance of a protocol object from a source of registered protocol handlers comprises:

selectively determining one or more protocol object creators operable to create the protocol object based, at least in part, on a portion of the URI, where the protocol object creator implements one or more creator methods defined in an abstract creator base class; and

invoking at least one of the one or more protocol object creators to create the protocol object.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein using the base class API to communicate though the protocol object further comprises:

employing the one or more implemented methods.

5. One or more computer readable media having the computer executable instructions used by one or more processors to perform the method of claim 1.

6. A system that facilitates computer program communication over one of a plurality of protocols, comprising:

one or more processors communicatively coupled to the following;

an input component that, when executed by the one or more processors, receives a communication request from an application;

an constructor component that, when executed by the one or more processors, ensures that a requested communication protocol is registered, and that generates at least one protocol object based upon a registered protocol; and

a communication component that, when executed by the one or more processors, returns the at least one generated protocol object to the application and communicates with the application though the at least one protocol object via a base class Application Programming Interface (API), wherein the base class API defines one or more methods, and wherein the one or more methods include;

at least one method that can be employed to read a first data from a resource, the first data having at least one of a format specific to the registered protocol and one or more headers and/or footers specific to the registered protocol when it is read from the resource, the first data being provided to a computer program of the computing system as a byte stream;

at least one method that can be employed to write a second data to the resource, the second data having at least one of a format specific to the registered protocol and one or more headers and/or footers specific to the protocol when it is written to the resource. the second data being provided to the one or more methods as a byte stream.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the communication component determines when a communication session has ended.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the communication component releases the protocol object upon a determination that the communication session has ended.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the released protocol object is destroyed upon release.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the released protocol object is deallocated and stored upon release for potential future reallocation.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein the communication request comprises a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that identifies a resource with which the application is requesting communication.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the constructor component examines the URI to determine which one of a plurality of constructors to employ in order to generate the at least one protocol object.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the URI identifies at least one of a hypertext transfer protocol data source, a file transfer protocol data source, or a simple mail transfer protocol data source, with which the application is requesting communication.

14. A method for enabling a computer program to communicate one of a plurality of protocols, the method comprising:

using one or more processors to execute computer executable instructions, wherein execution of the computer executable instructions causes a computing system to;

register one or more protocol handlers operable to create a protocol object;

generate a request to communicate using a computer program, wherein the request to communicate identifies a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) with which a communication is desired;

receive a request to communicate;

create an instance of a protocol object by employing a registered protocol handler by at least;

selectively determining one or more protocol object creators operable to create the protocol object based, at least in part, on a portion of the URI, where the protocol object creator implements one or more creator methods defined in an abstract creator base class, wherein at least one of the one or more methods can be employed to read a first data from a resource, the first data having at least one of a format specific to the protocol and one or more headers and/or footers specific to the protocol when it is read from the resource, the first data being provided to the computer program as a byte stream, and wherein at least one of the one or more methods can be employed to write a second data to the resource, the second data having at least one of a format specific to the protocol and one or more headers and/or footers specific to the protocol when it is written to the resource, the second data being provided to the one or more methods as a byte stream;

invoking at least one of the one or more protocol object creators to create the protocol object;

return the protocol object to the an application; and

use a base class Application Programming Interface (API) to communicate though the protocol object, by at least;

implementing one or more methods defined in the base class API in a derived class; and

employing the one or more implemented methods.

15. One or more computer readable media having the computer executable instructions used by one or more processors to perform the method of claim 14.