Processing event notifications with an event sink

• US 7,937,714 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2007
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Seacat, Lisa A., Grigsby, Travis M., Lyle, Ruthie D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho; Andy
• Application Number:
  US11/924,575
• Publication Number:
  US 20090113451A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,286 Days
• Field of Search: 719/318
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

Applications generating events, and system facilities generating events, send notifications of the events to a system event sink. The event sink is preferably associated with an operating system, and provides an application programming interface for registering listeners. (In one alternative approach, the event sink operates as a centrally-accessible or network-accessible entity, where it may concurrently interact with more than one client.) Upon receiving a notification of an event, the event sink forwards the notification to any registered listeners. Optionally, filters may be used to specify criteria to be met before a notification is forwarded to the listener. An event does not rely a particular application for displaying the event to an end user. As one example, notification of a newly-arrived e-mail message might be presented in a chat window of an instant messaging client.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of processing event notifications, comprising:

receiving, at an event sink from each of at least one event notification producer, at least one event notification, wherein each event notification producer comprises one of an operating system of a computer on which the event notification producer executes or an executing application program; and

sending at least one of the received event notifications from the event sink to at least one registered listener that registered its interest in receiving and rendering that event notification with the event sink and that is an executing application program distinct from the producer of at least one of the sent at least one event notifications.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the event sink operates as a utility of the operating system.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the event sink operates as a network-accessible function that is communicatively coupled to each of the event notification producers from which event notifications are received and to each of the registered listeners to which event notifications are sent.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least one event notifications is distinct from an underlying message or event for which that event notification is produced by the event notification producer from which it is received.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least one received event notifications notifies the event sink of an arrived e-mail message at the event producer from which the event notification is received and at least one of the registered listeners to which the notification of the arrived e-mail message is sent is not an e-mail application program.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least one received event notifications notifies the event sink of an arrived e-mail message at the event producer from which the event notification is received and at least one of the registered listeners to which the notification of the arrived e-mail message is sent is an instant messaging application program.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least one received event notifications notifies the event sink of a system event produced by the operating system from which the event notification is received and at least one of the registered listeners to which the notification of the system event is sent is an instant messaging application program.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the at least one registered listeners registers with the event sink dynamically using registration messages.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising applying at least one filter to at least one of the received event notifications, each of the at least one filters specifying criteria to be met as a condition of the sending, and wherein at least one of the at least one sent event notifications passes each of the at least one applied filters.

10. A computer-implemented system for processing event notifications, comprising:

a computer comprising a processor; and

instructions which execute, using the processor, to implement functions comprising;

receiving, at an event sink from each of at least one event notification producer, at least one event notification, wherein each event notification producer comprises one of an operating system of a computer on which the event notification producer executes or an executing application program; and

sending at least one of the received event notifications from the event sink to at least one registered listener that registered its interest in receiving and rendering that event notification with the event sink and that is an executing application program distinct from the producer of at least one of the sent at least one event notifications.

11. A computer program product for processing event notifications, the computer program product embodied on at least one computer-usable medium and comprising computer-usable program code for:

receiving, at an event sink from each of at least one event notification producer, at least one event notification, wherein each event notification producer comprises one of an operating system of a computer on which the event notification producer executes or an executing application program; and

sending at least one of the received event notifications from the event sink to at least one registered listener that registered its interest in receiving and rendering that event notification with the event sink and that is an executing application program distinct from the producer of at least one of the sent at least one event notifications.