Method and system for rules based workflow of media services

• US 7,986,707 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2008
• Issued: 07/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gallo, Diego Sanchez, Dettori, Paolo, Nogima, Julio, Schaffa, Frank A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yao; Kwang B
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGO, NGUYEN HOANG
• Application Number:
  US12/028,962
• Publication Number:
  US 20090201812A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,261 Days
• Field of Search: 370/230, 370/230.1, 370/231, 370/252, 370/352, 370/389, 370/395.21, 370/401, 370/466, 370/235, 370/422, 370/423, 370/424, 370/426
• US Class Current: 370/423
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers

Abstract

A method for executing services over an enterprise service bus includes analyzing a message of a first service to a second service to determine a nature of a digital media object sent from the first service to the second service, analyzing one or more media rules to determine whether one or more intermediary services are to be performed based on the nature of the digital media object, and when it is determined that one or more intermediary services are to be performed, executing, after the first service and before the second service, the one or more intermediary services.

Claims

1. A method for executing services over an enterprise service bus, comprising:

analyzing a message of a first service to a second service to determine a nature of a digital media object sent from the first service to the second service;

analyzing one or more media rules to determine whether one or more intermediary services are to be performed based on one or more digital media standards representing format or transport protocol of the digital media object; and

executing, after the first service and before the second service, the one or more intermediary services, which are inserted into a service execution workflow, when it is determined that one or more intermediary services are to be performed,

wherein the one or more intermediary services are determined to be performed when the digital media object cannot be consumed by the second service, because of an inability of the second service to interpret the format or transport protocol of the digital media object, and

wherein the service execution workflow represents an order in which services are executed and data is passes between services.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more intermediary services prepare the digital media object for consumption by the second service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the enterprise service bus routes messages over a computer network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the message of the first service to the second service to determine one or more digital media standards representing format or transport protocol of the digital media object sent from the first service to the second service includes examining one or more properties retrieved from a digital item declaration object portion of a message sent from the first service to the second service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the message of the first service to the second service to determine one or more digital media standards representing format or transport protocol of the digital media object sent from the first service to the second service includes examining an input service message object sent from the first service.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first service is a source service of the service execution workflow and the second service is a destination service of the service execution workflow.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital media object is sent from the first service to the second service as a reference to a binary object included in a message sent from the first service to the second service.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more intermediary services include a transcoder service, a watermarking service, a notifier service, or a publisher service.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more intermediary services reorganize the digital media object in accordance with a transfer protocol that the second service can consume.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more intermediary services prepare the digital media object for consumption by the second service by resampling, reencoding, or translating the digital media object.

11. A method for executing services over an enterprise service bus, comprising:

analyzing a message from a first service to determine one or more digital media standards representing format or transport protocol of a digital media object sent from the first service to a second service;

analyzing one or more characteristics of the second service to determine whether the digital media object can be consumed by the second service by determining whether the second service has programming necessary to interpret the format or transport protocol of the digital media object; and

executing, as part of a service execution workflow, one or more intermediary services between the first and second services to prepare the digital media object for consumption by the second service, when it is determined that the digital media object cannot be consumed by the second service,

wherein the service execution workflow represents an order in which services are executed and data is passed between services.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determination of whether the digital media object can be consumed by the second service is performed according to one or more media rules, independent of the service execution workflow that provides for the sending of the digital media object from the first service to the second service.

13. A method for executing services over an enterprise service bus, comprising:

analyzing a message of a first service to an abstract service to determine one or more digital media standards representing format or transport protocol of a digital media object sent from the first service to the abstract service;

analyzing one or more media rules to select a concrete service to be performed in place of the abstract service based on the nature of the digital media object; and

performing the selected concrete service in place of the abstract service within a service execution workflow representing an order in which services are executed and data is passed between services, after the performance of the first service,

wherein the one or more media rules operate to select a concrete service to be performed in place of the abstract service when it is determined that the abstract service cannot consume the digital media object because of an inability of the abstract service to interpret the format or transport protocol of the digital media object.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more intermediary services prepare the digital media object for consumption by the second service.

15. A method for executing services over an enterprise service bus, comprising:

analyzing a message of a first service to an abstract service to determine one or more digital media standards representing format or transport protocol of a digital media object sent from the first service to the abstract service;

analyzing one or more characteristics of one or more concrete services to determine which of the one or more concrete services can consume the digital media object by determining which of the concrete services has programming necessary to interpret the format or transport protocol of the digital media object;

selecting a concrete service that can consume the digital media object to be performed in place of the abstract service; and

performing the selected concrete service in place of the abstract service within a service execution workflow representing an order in which services are executed and data is passed between services, after the performance of the first service.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the selection of the concrete service that can consume the digital media object is performed according to one or more media rules, independent of a workflow that provides for the sending of the digital media object from the first service to the second service.

17. A computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a program storage device readable by the computer system, embodying a program of instructions executable by the processor to perform method steps for executing services over an enterprise service bus, the method comprising;

analyzing a message of a first service to determine one or more digital media standards representing format or transport protocol of a digital media object sent from the first service;

analyzing one or more media rules to determine whether second services can consume the digital media object by determining whether the second services have programming necessary to interpret the format or transport protocol of the digital media object; and

executing, as part of a service execution workflow, after the first service, the second services, when it is determined that the second services can consume the digital media object,

wherein the service execution workflow represents an order in which services are executed and data is passed between services.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the second service prepares the digital media object for consumption by a third service.

19. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the second service is a concrete service that replaces an abstract service in the service execution workflow.

20. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the first service and the second service are web services or web applications.