Systems and methods that facilitate in-order serial processing of related messages

• US 8,086,671 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2004
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Helland, Patrick J., Hinson, Gerald L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Colin, Carl
• Assistant Examiner(s): SIDDIQI, MOHAMMAD A
• Application Number:
  US10/776,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20050198127A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,876 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-207, 707/8, 707/703, 707/704, 707/687, 707/737, 707/738, 707/999.008, 707/740
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/52 Program synchronisation; Mutual exclusion, e.g. by means of semaphores
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods that facilitate serial access to related messages stored within a queue. The systems and methods comprise a conversation manager that generates conversation groups and associated conversation group identifiers for related messages, wherein related messages are associated with one or more dialog conversations between services. The conversation manager utilizes a respective conversation group identifier to lock a conversation group and provide exclusive serial access to the related messages therein and any related incoming messages to a reader such that only one reader at a time can access and process the related messages; other readers can still concurrently dequeue and process messages associated with other conversation groups. The present invention employs order queuing techniques that ensure messages are stored in-order, which facilitates in-order serial processing of messages in a conversation group.

Claims

1. A method that facilitates message processing, the method performed within a computer comprising one or more processors and computer system memory, the method comprising:

requesting one or more messages;

storing the one or more messages in order;

determining from information associated with the one or more messages that each of the one or more messages belongs to a conversation group, the conversation group comprising a conversation group topology which comprises a plurality of dialogs, each dialog comprising a plurality of the one or more messages;

linking the one or more messages by a unique group identifier;

opening a conversation corresponding to the conversation group;

locking the conversation group, the lock preventing a disparate requestor from accessing the one or more messages linked by the unique group identifier;

tracking the conversation corresponding to the conversation group;

providing exclusive serial access to the messages linked by the unique group identifier such that only one service can process linked messages at any time and such that the messages are processed in order;

upon a new message arriving, dynamically associating the new message with the locked conversation group such that the new message inherits the lock and the disparate requestor is prevented from accessing the new message;

while providing exclusive serial access to the messages linked by the unique group identifier, providing concurrent processing of one or more messages not linked by the unique group identifier;

when a reader has finished processing the linked messages, receiving a notification from the reader to release the lock on the conversation group; and

releasing the lock.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more related messages;

associating the related messages with the conversation group; and

ordering the related messages to mitigate out-of-order processing.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the conversation group with incoming related messages.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising utilizing a conversation group identifier to lock the conversation group.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the messages in-order.

6. A computer readable storage device storing computer executable instructions which when executed upon one or more computer processors facilitate message processing by causing the processors to perform the method of claim 1.

7. A method that facilitates message processing, the method performed within a computer comprising one or more processors and computer system memory, the method comprising:

receiving a request for a message;

determining from information associated with the message that message belongs to a conversation group, the conversation group comprising a conversation group topology which comprises a plurality of dialogs, each dialog comprising a plurality of the one or more messages;

associating the message and other related messages with a conversation group identified by a unique group identifier;

opening a conversation corresponding to the conversation group;

locking the conversation group via the unique group identifier, the lock preventing a disparate requestor from accessing the one or more messages linked by the unique group identifier;

tracking the conversation corresponding to the conversation group;

providing exclusive serial access to one or more messages of the conversation group identified by the unique group identifier to the requestor such that the messages are processed in order;

upon a new message arriving, dynamically associating the new message with the locked conversation group such that the new message inherits the lock and the disparate requestor is prevented from accessing the new message;

while providing exclusive serial access to the one or more messages of the conversation group, providing concurrent processing of one or more messages not linked by the unique group identifier;

when the requestor has finished processing the linked messages, receiving a notification from the requestor to release the lock on the conversation group; and

releasing the lock.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising utilizing message identifiers to determine whether messages are related.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving the conversation group identifiers to associate with the conversation group.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising dynamically updating the conversation group with incoming related messages.