Development system with methodology providing optimized message parsing and handling

• US 7,844,957 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2005
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sybase Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Sybase Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Krysinski, Joseph, Doucette, Michael W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kendall; Chuck O
• Application Number:
  US11/164,054
• Publication Number:
  US 20070044069A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,848 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/140
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/37 Compiler construction; Parser generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/41 Compilation

Abstract

A development system with methodology providing optimized message parsing and handling is described. In one embodiment, for example, a computer-implemented method is described for improved processing of certain types of messages, the method comprises steps of: loading metadata at design time, the metadata characterizing a particular message type; based on the metadata, automatically generating source code for creating runtime components highly optimized for the particular message type; compiling the source code into the runtime components, for deployment in a runtime environment; and at runtime, processing messages of the particular message type with the runtime components, so that messages are processed in a manner that is highly optimized for the particular message type.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for designing and compiling custom runtime components that provide improved processing of certain types of messages that comprise data objects serialized for transmission from one system to another, the method comprising:

in a graphical user interface, receiving design-time input from a user for characterizing logical structure and physical structure of a particular message type in serialized form;

based on said design-time input, creating metadata in markup language format that characterizes the logical structure and physical structure of the particular message type in serialized form;

based on the metadata, automatically generating source code for de novo creation of custom runtime components comprising newly created custom source code that is highly optimized for runtime processing of said particular message type; and

compiling the source code to create said custom runtime components for deployment in a runtime environment, so that at runtime, messages of the particular message type are processed with said custom runtime components in a manner that is highly optimized for the particular message type.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said custom runtime components include a generated parser for parsing message data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said custom runtime components include a generated serializer for serializing parsed message data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata includes information about a format specification for the particular message type.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata includes logical structure and physical structure information about the particular message type.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata itself is represented as an XML markup file.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving input step comprises:

displaying a message designer allowing a user to modify attributes of the metadata.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the custom runtime components are optimized to eliminate unnecessary conversion of message elements at runtime.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the custom runtime components are optimized to capture at design time a given coded character set relevant to the particular message type, thereby eliminating querying for the coded character set at runtime.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the custom runtime components are optimized to decrease unnecessary conditional logic from execution at runtime.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the custom runtime components defer performing data validation on messages, until necessary.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the custom runtime components defer performing data formatting on messages, until necessary.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the custom runtime components pass through message data that does not require data formatting, so that such message data is instead simply forwarded to other systems.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein processing of messages at runtime includes parsing message data, and wherein only a single copy of parsed message data is maintained in memory.

15. A computer-readable medium having processor-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

16. A downloadable set of processor-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

17. A computer-implemented system providing optimized processing of messages, the system comprising:

a computer having at least one processor and a memory;

metadata, created at design time based on user input received in a graphical user interface, comprising markup language information for characterizing logical structure and physical structure of a particular message type in serialized form;

a designer module for generating source code in response to said metadata, said source code for de novo creation of custom runtime components comprising newly created custom source code that is highly optimized for runtime processing of said particular message type; and

a compiler for compiling the source code into said custom runtime components, so that in a runtime environment deploying said runtime components the messages are processed by said runtime components in a manner that is highly optimized for the particular message type.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein said custom runtime components include a generated parser for parsing message data.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein said custom runtime components include a generated serializer for serializing parsed message data.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the metadata includes information about a format specification for the particular message type.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the metadata includes logical structure and physical structure information about the particular message type.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the metadata itself is represented as an XML markup file.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein said designer module includes:

a message designer allowing a user to modify attributes of the metadata.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the custom runtime components are optimized to eliminate unnecessary conversion of message elements at runtime.

25. The system of claim 17, wherein the custom runtime components are optimized to capture at design time a given coded character set relevant to the particular message type, thereby eliminating querying for the coded character set at runtime.

26. The system of claim 17, wherein the custom runtime components are optimized to decrease unnecessary conditional logic from execution at runtime.

27. The system of claim 17, wherein the custom runtime components defer performing data validation on messages, until necessary.

28. The system of claim 17, wherein the custom runtime components defer performing data formatting on messages, until necessary.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the custom runtime components pass through message data that does not require data formatting, so that such message data is instead simply forwarded to other systems.

30. The system of claim 17, wherein processing by the custom runtime components includes parsing message data, and wherein only a single copy of parsed message data is maintained in memory.

31. A computer-implemented method for designing and compiling custom runtime components that provide improved for processing messages, the method comprising:

in a graphical user interface, receiving design-time input from a user for characterizing logical structure and physical structure of a particular message type in serialized form;

based on said design-time input, creating metadata comprising markup language information that characterizes the logical structure and physical structure of the particular message type in serialized form;

analyzing the new metadata created at design time for the particular message type; and

based on the metadata, dynamically generating and compiling new source code into custom message handling components that are highly optimized for runtime processing of the particular message type, so that the dynamically generated custom message handling components, when deployed in a runtime environment, process the messages in a manner that is highly optimized manner for the particular message type.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein said generating step includes:

generating source code for a parser specifically optimized for parsing messages of said particular message type.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein said generating step includes:

generating source code for a serializer specifically optimized for serializing message data parsed from messages of said particular message type.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein literal values from the metadata are compiled into said components in binary form, thereby eliminating runtime loading of metadata for reading the literal values.

35. The method of claim 31, wherein said metadata includes a wire format specification for the particular message type.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the wire format specification includes attribute information selected from a set comprising data types, tags, field delimiters, container delimiters, and coded character sets.

37. A method for dynamically creating de novo customized message processing components, the method comprising:

in a graphical user interface, receiving design-time input from a user that characterizes a particular wire format used to serialize messages;

based on said design-time input, authoring information comprising markup language information that characterizes the particular wire format used to serialize messages;

passing said information about the particular wire format to a parser generator, which creates a first set of new source code for a customized parser component;

passing said information to a serializer generator, which creates a second set of new source code for a customized serializer component; and

compiling said first and second sets of new source code, for generating runtime versions of the customized parser and the customized serializer components, wherein said runtime versions of the customized parser and said customized serializer components may be deployed for runtime processing of messages in a manner that is highly optimized for said particular wire format.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein at runtime a data object is created that is populated with parsed message data received from said customized parser component.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the data object is then serialized by the customized serializer component, for transmitting parsed message data to another system.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the data object is itself not specific to a particular wire format.

41. A system for processing messages comprising:

a computer having at least one processor and a memory;

a graphical message designer, for receiving input from a user for characterizing logical structure and physical structure of a particular message type in serialized form;

metadata, comprising markup language information generated from said design-time input, for characterizing the logical structure and physical structure of the particular message type in serialized form; and

code generation modules for automatically generating de novo source code, based on the metadata, that compiles into custom message handling components that are highly optimized for runtime processing of the particular message type, so that a runtime environment may employ the components for processing messages of said particular message type in a highly optimized manner.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the code generation modules include:

a module for generating source code for a parser specifically optimized for parsing messages of said particular message type.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the code generation modules include:

a module for generating source code for a serializer specifically optimized for serializing message data parsed from messages of said particular message type.

44. The system of claim 41, wherein literal values from the metadata are compiled into said components in binary form, thereby eliminating runtime loading of metadata for reading the literal values.

45. The system of claim 41, wherein said metadata includes a wire format specification for the particular message type.

46. A system for dynamically creating new source code that compiles into customized message processing components, the system comprising:

a computer having at least one processor and a memory;

a graphical message designer, for receiving design-time input from a user that characterizes a particular wire format used to serialize messages;

metadata, created based on said design-time input, comprising markup language information that characterizes the particular wire format used to serialize messages;

a parser generator, responsive to said metadata, for creating a new parser component customized for the particular wire format, and a serializer generator for creating a new serializer component customized for the particular wire format; and

a runtime environment for deployment of said new parser component and said new serializer component, so that messages of said particular wire format are processed runtime by newly created components specifically customized for that wire format.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein at runtime a data object is created that is populated with parsed message data received from said parser component.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein the data object is then serialized by said serializer component, for transmitting parsed message data to another system.

49. The system of claim 48, wherein the data object is itself not specific to a particular wire format.

50. The system of claim 46, wherein said parser component and said serializer component defer performing data validation and formatting of message data, until necessary.