System for change notification and persistent caching of dynamically computed membership of rules-based lists in LDAP

• US 7,792,860 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2005
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Sharma, Jason, Shrivastava, Saurabh
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam; Shahid A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bromell; Alexandria Y
• Application Number:
  US11/090,618
• Publication Number:
  US 20060218147A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,992 Days
• Field of Search: 707/716, 707/756, 707/786, 707/793, 707/803
• US Class Current: 707/786
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4523 using lightweight directory access protocol [LDAP]

Abstract

A system, method, computer program and article of manufacture for membership list management is described. A rules-based membership list is built and cached. Any modifications to the member objects are incrementally added to the cache, and are submitted to a change log. Queries access the membership in the cache instead of having to execute the rules to build the list. The change log entries allow membership modification notifications to be sent to any subscribing application.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of membership list management, comprising:

executing a set of rules, by using a processor of a computer system, to create a computed rules-based membership list;

associating the computed rules-based membership list with a node in a hierarchical structure based at least in part upon the set of rules, wherein the hierarchical structure comprises a plurality of nodes, the plurality of nodes associating with a plurality of membership lists;

caching the computed rules-based membership list in a membership cache for retrieval in response to a later request for the computed rules-based list;

modifying the computed rules-based membership list by accessing the computed rules-based membership list that has been cached instead of executing membership rules to build a modified membership list;

modifying a hierarchy of the hierarchical structure, wherein modifying the hierarchy comprises;

receiving a rule change request comprising modification to a rule in the set of rules;

determining whether the computer rules-based membership list is a membership list affected by the rule change request;

determining whether the hierarchy of the hierarchical structure is affected by the rule change request;

changing the hierarchy of the hierarchical structure by adding or removing the node in the hierarchical structure based at least in part upon the rule change request; and

storing the computed rules-based membership list in a volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium or displaying the computed rules-based membership list on a display device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the computed rules-based membership list further comprises:

modifying the affected computed rules-based membership list.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein modifying the computed rules-based membership list further comprises:

setting a cache state to being updated while the modification is in progress;

setting the cache state to valid when the modification is complete; and

updating a change log based at least in part upon the modification.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein updating comprises:

sending a change notification based at least in part upon the change log.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising accessing the computed rules-based membership list based at least in part upon an object change request, wherein accessing the membership list comprises:

locating a membership list cache based at least in part upon the object change request;

determining a cache state of the membership list cache; and

accessing the membership list cache based at least in part upon the cache state.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein accessing further comprises:

accessing the computed rules-based membership list in the membership list cache if the cache state is valid;

computing the computed rules-based membership list if the cache state is being updated; and

purging the membership list cache, computing the computed rules-based membership list, and storing the computed rules-based membership list in the membership list cache if the cache state is invalid.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the computed membership list is affected comprises comparing a set of hierarchical information from the request to a set of hierarchical attributes of the membership lists.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the hierarchical information comprises:

a base, the base identifying a node in a hierarchy to which the computed rules-based membership list belongs;

a level, the level identifying a depth of the computed rules-based membership list in the node hierarchy;

a filter, the filter identifying one or more specific computed rules-based membership list attributes.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying one of the set of rules based at least in part upon the rule change request.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein modifying one of the set of rules comprises:

setting a cache state to invalid;

modifying one or more hierarchical attributes of membership lists based at least in part upon the rule change request.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein modifying the one or more hierarchical attributes further comprises:

moving a membership list ID from a link list of a base node to the link list of a new base node if the base of the rule changed;

adding the membership list ID to the link list of the new base node if the rule was added;

removing the membership list ID from the link list of the base node if the rule was deleted; and

modifying the membership list ID information if the rule was modified.

12. A computer program product comprising a volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium, the computer-usable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to execute a method for membership list management, the method comprising:

executing a set of rules to create a computed rules-based membership list;

associating the computed rules-based membership list with a node in a hierarchical structure based at least in part upon the set of rules, wherein the hierarchical structure comprises a plurality of nodes, the plurality of nodes associating with a plurality of membership lists;

caching the computed rules-based membership list in a membership cache for retrieval in response to a later request for the computed rules-based list;

modifying the computed rules-based membership list by accessing the computed rules-based membership list that has been cached instead of executing membership rules to build a modified membership list;

modifying a hierarchy of the hierarchical structure, wherein modifying the hierarchy comprises;

receiving a rule change request comprising modification to a rule in the set of rules;

determining whether the computer rules-based membership list is a membership list affected by the rule change request;

determining whether the hierarchy of the hierarchical structure is affected by the rule change request;

changing the hierarchy of the hierarchical structure by adding or removing the node in the hierarchical structure based at least in part upon the rule change request; and

storing the computed rules-based membership list or displaying the computed rules-based membership list on a display device.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein modifying the computed rules-based membership list further comprises:

modifying the affected computed rules-based membership list.

14. The computer program of claim 13, wherein modifying the computed rules-based membership list further comprises:

updating a change log based at least in part upon the modification; and

sending a change notification based at least in part upon the change log.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising accessing the computed rules-based membership list based at least in part upon an object change request, wherein accessing the computed rules-based membership list comprises:

locating a membership list cache based at least in part upon the object change request;

determining a cache state of the membership cache; and

accessing the membership list cache based at least in part upon the cache state.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein determining whether the computed rules-based membership list is affected comprises comparing a set of hierarchical information from the request to a set of hierarchical attributes of the membership lists.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the hierarchical information comprises:

a base, the base identifying a node in a hierarchy to which the computed rules-based membership list belongs;

a level, the level identifying a depth of the computed rules-based membership list in the node hierarchy;

a filter, the filter identifying one or more specific membership list attributes.

18. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising:

modifying one of the set of rules based at least in part upon a rule change request;

modifying one or more hierarchical attributes of membership lists based at least in part upon the rule change request.

19. A computer system for membership list management, the system comprising:

a processor for executing a set of rules to create a computed rules-based membership list;

a membership cache for caching the computed rules-based membership list for retrieval in response to a later request for the computed rules-based list;

the processor configured for;

modifying the computed rules-based membership list by accessing the computed rules-based membership list that has been cached instead of executing membership rules to build a modified membership list;

modifying a hierarchy of the hierarchical structure, wherein the processor is further configured for;

receiving a rule change request comprising modification to a rule in the set of rules;

determining whether the computer rules-based membership list is a membership list affected by the rule change request;

determining whether the hierarchy of the hierarchical structure is affected by the rule change request;

changing the hierarchy of the hierarchical structure by adding or removing the node in the hierarchical structure based at least in part upon the rule change request; and

a volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium for storing the computed rules-based membership list or a display device for displaying the computed rules-based membership list.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein modifying the computed rules-based membership list further comprises:

modifying the affected computed rules-based membership list.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein modifying the computed rules-based membership list further comprises:

updating a change log based at least in part upon the modification; and

sending a change notification based at least in part upon the change log.

22. The system of claim 20 further comprising means for accessing the computed rules-based membership list based at least in part upon an object change request, wherein accessing the computed rules-based membership list comprises:

locating a membership list cache based at least in part upon the object change request;

determining a cache state of the membership list cache; and

accessing the membership list cache based at least in part upon the cache state.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the act of modifying the computed rules-based membership list comprises comparing a set of hierarchical information from the object change request to a set of hierarchical attributes of the computed rules-based membership list.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the hierarchical information comprises:

a base, the base identifying a node in a hierarchy to which the computed rules-based membership list belongs;

a level, the level identifying a depth of the computed rules-based membership list in the node hierarchy;

a filter, the filter identifying one or more specific computed rules-based membership list attributes.

25. The system of claim 19, the act of modifying the rule further comprising:

modifying one of the set of rules based at least in part upon the rule change request;

modifying one or more hierarchical attributes of membership lists based at least in part upon the rule change request.

26. A membership list management system comprising:

a processor for executing instructions;

a set of rules which when executed by the processor that produces a computed rules-based membership list;

a storage device which caches the computed rules-based membership list, wherein the computed rules-based membership list is cached for retrieval in response to a later request for the computed rules-based membership list;

a cache accessing module that can retrieve data from the computed rules-based membership list, wherein the cache accessing module can modify the computed rules-based membership list by accessing the computed rules-based membership list that has been cached instead of executing membership rules to build a modified membership list; and

a cache updating module which can modify the computed rules-based membership lists by accessing the computed rules-based membership list that has been cached instead of executing membership rules to build a modified membership list;

a rule modifying module which can make changes to rules, wherein the rule modifying module is configured for;

receiving a rule change request comprising modification to a rule;

determining whether the computer rules-based membership list is a membership list affected by the rule change request;

determining whether a hierarchy of the hierarchical structure is affected by the rule change request;

changing the hierarchy of the hierarchical structure by adding or removing the node in the hierarchical structure based at least in part upon the rule change request; and

a volatile or non-volatile computer-usable medium for storing the computed rules-based membership list or displaying the computed rules-based membership list on a display device.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising:

a rule modification module which can modify the set of rules and update hierarchical information; and

a change notification module which can transmit change notices.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein each membership list is represented by an entry in a link list of a base node, the entry including a list ID, a level, and filter information.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the entry in the link list is utilized to locate the membership list.