Execution of composite services

• US 8,019,652 B1
• Filed: 02/19/2010
• Issued: 09/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: McCann, James R. III, Kakulapati, Gunavardhan, Frederick, Robert, Agrawal, Ashish
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah; Amee A
• Application Number:
  US12/709,324
• Time in Patent Office: 571 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/27.1, 709/218, 706/62
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Techniques are described for assisting users in dynamically creating and using composite services that are based on other constituent services. In some situations, each constituent service is a Web service (“WS”), and each composite service is a new WS whose execution involves dynamically invoking multiple specified constituent WSes in a specified manner. Such techniques may be used, for example, in conjunction with an electronic WS marketplace via which third-party WS providers make their WSes available to third-party WS consumers who locate and purchase access to those WSes, such as to allow a user to dynamically create a new composite WS that is based on one or more WSes available from other WS providers and that reflects any constraints of the WS marketplace, with the composite WS available for use by other WS consumers. This abstract is not intended for use in interpreting or limiting the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically providing a composite service that is based on multiple other constituent services, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a request for providing a composite service that is based on multiple other constituent services, the request being received by one of one or more configured computing systems using a specified one of multiple distinct alternative interfaces that are provided by the one or more configured computing systems for use in accessing the composite service, wherein the multiple interfaces are based at least in part on use of multiple distinct communication protocols;

obtaining information for use in the providing of the composite service, the obtained information including one or more use restrictions for the composite service, at least one of the use restrictions being based at least in part on one or more restrictions on use of at least one of the constituent services; and

if it is determined that the use restrictions are satisfied,

automatically performing the providing of the composite service by requesting providing of the constituent services to access capabilities of those constituent services for the composite service, the automatic performing of the providing of the composite service being performed by the one or more configured computing systems and being based on the obtained information, the providing of the constituent services being performed in an order based on relationships indicated from the obtained information and being performed using input information from the request for providing of the composite service; and

providing a response to the request for the providing of the composite service that is based at least in part on the providing of the constituent services.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising obtaining one or more indications of a specification for accessing the capabilities of the constituent services, and wherein the requesting of the providing of the constituent services is performed based at least in part on the indicated specification.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple interfaces are each associated with a distinct one of multiple network endpoints that are provided by the one or more configured computing systems for use with the composite service, wherein the indicated request for the providing of the composite service includes an invocation of the network endpoint associated with the specified one interface, the invocation being by a remote executing program on behalf of a user of the program, and wherein the method further comprises determining whether the use restrictions for the composite service are satisfied based at least in part on information related to at least one of the user and of the remote executing program.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the one or more configured computing systems are part of an entity that provides the composite service to others, and wherein the user is associated with the entity.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple interfaces are further based in part on use of multiple distinct input data formats.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple distinct interfaces are based on use of SOAP (“

Simple Object Access Protocol”

) messages, on use of network-addressable resources as part of a REST (“

REpresentational State Transfer”

) interaction model, and on use of XML (“

eXtensible Markup Language”

) documents sent over HTTP (“

HyperText Transport Protocol”

), and wherein the specified one interface for the received request uses one of a SOAP message, a network-addressable resource that is part of the REST interaction model, and an XML document sent over HTTP.

7. A computing system configured to automatically provide a composite service that is based on multiple other constituent services, comprising:

one or more processors;

a first component that is configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, and for each of multiple users, receive a request on behalf of the user for providing a composite service that is based on multiple other constituent services, the request being received by the configured computing system using a specified one of multiple distinct alternative interfaces that are provided by the configured computing system for use in accessing the composite service, wherein the multiple interfaces are based at least in part on use of multiple distinct input data formats; and

a second component that is configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, and for each of the received requests;

obtain information for use in the providing of the composite service for the received request, the obtained information including one or more use restrictions for the composite service, at least one of the use restrictions being based at least in part on one or more restrictions on use of at least one of the constituent services; and

if it is determined that the use restrictions for the composite service are satisfied for the received request,

automatically perform the providing of the composite service for the received request by initiating providing of the constituent services to access capabilities of those constituent services for the composite service, the automatic performing of the providing of the composite service being based on the obtained information for use in the providing of the composite service for the received request, the providing of the constituent services being performed in an order based on relationships indicated from that obtained information and being performed using input information from the received request; and

provide a response to the received request that is based at least in part on the providing of the constituent services.

8. The computing system of claim 7 wherein, for one of the received requests, the obtaining of the information for use in the providing of the composite service for the one received request includes obtaining one or more indications of a specification for accessing the capabilities of the constituent services, and the initiating of the providing of the constituent services is performed based at least in part on the indicated specification.

9. The computing system of claim 7 wherein the multiple interfaces are each associated with a distinct one of multiple network endpoints that are provided by the configured computing system for use with the composite service, wherein, for one of the received requests, the one request includes an invocation of the network endpoint associated with the specified one interface for the one request, the invocation being by a remote executing program for the user on whose behalf the one received request is made, and the second component is further configured to determine whether the use restrictions for the composite service are satisfied for the one received request based at least in part on information related to at least one of the user and of the remote executing program.

10. The computing system of claim 9 wherein the computing system is part of an entity that provides the composite service to others, and wherein the user on whose behalf the one received request is made is associated with the entity.

11. The computing system of claim 7 wherein the first component and the second component each include software instructions for execution by the one or more processors.

12. The computing system of claim 7 wherein the multiple interfaces are further based in part on use of multiple distinct communication protocols.

13. The computing system of claim 7 wherein the multiple distinct interfaces are based on use of SOAP (“

Simple Object Access Protocol”

) messages, on use of network-addressable resources as part of a REST (“

REpresentational State Transfer”

) interaction model, and on use of XML (“

eXtensible Markup Language”

) documents sent over HTTP (“

HyperText Transport Protocol”

), and wherein the specified one interface for the received request uses one of a SOAP message, a network-addressable resource that is part of the REST interaction model, and an XML document sent over HTTP.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium whose contents include instructions that when executed configure a computing system to automatically provide a composite service that is based on multiple other constituent services, by performing a method comprising:

receiving an indication of a request for a composite service that is based on one or more other constituent services, the request being received by the configured computing system based on invocation of a specified one of multiple distinct alternative interfaces that are generated by and provided by the configured computing system for use in invoking the composite service, wherein the multiple interfaces are based on at least one of use of multiple distinct communication protocols and of use of multiple distinct input data formats;

obtaining information for use in providing the composite service, the obtained information including one or more use restrictions for use of the composite service, at least one of the use restrictions being based at least in part on one or more restrictions on use of at least one of the constituent services; and

if the one or more use restrictions for use of the composite service are satisfied,

automatically requesting providing of the constituent services to access capabilities of those constituent services for the composite service, the requesting being performed by the configured computing system and being based on the obtained information, the providing of the constituent services being performed in an order based on relationships indicated from the obtained information and being performed using input information from the request for the composite service in a manner indicated in the obtained information; and

providing a response to the request for the composite service that is based at least in part on the providing of the constituent services.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further includes obtaining one or more indications of a specification for accessing the capabilities of the one or more constituent services, and wherein the automatic requesting of the providing of the constituent services is performed based at least in part on the indicated specification.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the multiple interfaces are each associated with a distinct one of multiple network endpoints that are provided by the configured computing system for use with the composite service, wherein the indicated request for the composite service includes an invocation of the network endpoint associated with the specified one interface, the invocation being by a remote executing program on behalf of a user of the program, and wherein the method further includes determining whether the use restrictions are satisfied based at least in part on information related to at least one of the user and of the remote executing program.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the computing system.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the one or more use restrictions for use of the composite service include at least one of that payment is made available for a use price associated with the composite service and that a user associated with the request for the composite service has access rights for the providing of the composite service.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the one or more other constituent services include multiple constituent services, and wherein the obtaining of the information for use in providing the composite service includes dynamically determining the order for performing the multiple constituent services.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the one or more other constituent services include multiple constituent services, and wherein the obtaining of the information for use in providing the composite service includes determining the relationships on which the order is based to reflect dependencies between the multiple constituent services.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the one or more other constituent services include multiple constituent services, and wherein the providing of the multiple constituent services includes obtaining output information from invoking one of the constituent services using a first protocol and automatically supplying at least some of the output information as input information during invoking of another of the constituent services using a distinct second protocol.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the one or more other constituent services include multiple constituent services, and wherein the providing of the multiple constituent services includes obtaining output information from invoking one of the constituent services and automatically modifying at least some of the output information before supplying the modified information as input information during invoking of another of the constituent services.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the obtained information further specifies a manner of generating response information for the composite service, and wherein the provided response to the request include the response information that is generated for the composite service in that specified manner based at least in part on that output information from the providing of the constituent services.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the received request for the composite service is an invocation of the composite service that includes an input value for each of one or more input parameters of the composite service, and wherein the providing of the constituent services includes invoking at least one of the constituent services and supplying at least one of the input values to a distinct input parameter of the at least one constituent service.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the configured computing system is part of an organization that provides the one or more constituent services for use by others, and wherein the requesting of the providing of the constituent services includes performing the constituent services as part of the providing of the composite service.

26. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the one or more constituent services are provided by one or more entities for use by others, wherein the configured computing system is part of an organization distinct from the one or more entities that facilitates access to the one or more constituent services, and wherein the requesting of the providing of the constituent services includes sending one or more requests to perform the constituent services as part of the providing of the composite service to one or more other computing systems associated with the one or more entities.

27. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the multiple interfaces are based in at least in part on use of multiple distinct communication protocols, and wherein the method further comprises receiving indications of multiple invocations of the composite service on behalf of multiple users that are performed using the multiple interfaces, each of the multiple users controlling which of the multiple interfaces is used for the invocation on behalf of that user.

28. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the multiple interfaces are based in at least in part on use of multiple distinct input data formats, and wherein the method further comprises receiving indications of multiple invocations of the composite service on behalf of multiple users that are performed using the multiple interfaces, each of the multiple users controlling which of the multiple interfaces is used for the invocation on behalf of that user.

29. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the request for the composite service is received from a user, and wherein the providing of the composite service includes providing a subscription to the user for each of one or more of the constituent services.

30. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the request for the composite service is received from a remote executing program, and wherein the method further comprises automatically determining whether the one or more use restrictions for use of the composite service are satisfied by the request for the composite service based at least in part on information about the remote executing program.

31. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the request for the composite service invocation is made on behalf of a user, and wherein the method further comprises automatically determining whether the one or more use restrictions for the composite service are satisfied by the request for the composite service based at least in part on information about the user.

32. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the multiple distinct interfaces are based on use of SOAP (“

Simple Object Access Protocol”

) messages, on use of network-addressable resources as part of a REST (“

REpresentational State Transfer”

) interaction model, and on use of XML (“

eXtensible Markup Language”

) documents sent over HTTP (“

HyperText Transport Protocol”

), and wherein the specified one interface for the received request uses one of a SOAP message, a network-addressable resource that is part of the REST interaction model, and an XML document sent over HTTP.