Method, system, and program for facilitating flow control

• US 8,140,348 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2004
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mathrubutham, Ramani, Sathye, Adwait, Zou, Chendong
• Primary Examiner(s): Weiss, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Abdelsalam, Fathi
• Application Number:
  US10/768,285
• Publication Number:
  US 20050171789A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,972 Days
• Field of Search: 710/39, 710 52- 57
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

Disclosed is a technique for flow control. It is detected that a work request is being transferred to an in-memory structure. A maximum limit is compared with a number of work requests stored in the in-memory structure. If the number of work requests stored in the in-memory structure equals the maximum limit, a notification is sent that indicates that additional work requests are not to be sent.

Claims

1. A method for flow control between publishers and subscribers, comprising:

associating, using a server computer including a processor, a first maximum limit a with first business process;

associating a blocking type that has a value of blocking with a first in-memory structure associated with the first business process, wherein the value of blocking indicates that a client application is to be notified to stop sending additional work requests when a maximum limit is reached for the first in-memory structure;

associating a second maximum limit with a second business process;

associating a blocking type that has a value of non-blocking with a second in-memory structure associated with the second business process, and wherein the value of non-blocking indicates that the client application is not blocked from sending additional work requests when the maximum limit is reached for the second in-memory structure;

issuing, at each of multiple client computers that each include a processor and at least one client application comprising a publisher, a work request produced by a client application for the first business process or the second business process; and

at the server computer including the processor, determining whether to throttle each client application by;

in response to determining that the work request is received for the second in-memory structure,

comparing the second maximum limit with a number of work requests stored in the second in-memory structure;

in response to determining that the number of work requests stored in the second in-memory structure equals the second maximum limit, determining that the blocking type of the second in-memory structure is set to the value of non-blocking; and

in response to determining that the blocking type is set to the value of non-blocking, storing the work request in a structure other than the second in-memory structure; and

in response to determining that the work request is received for the first in-memory structure,

comparing the first maximum limit with a number of work requests stored in the first in-memory structure;

in response to determining that the number of work requests stored in the first in-memory structure equals the first maximum limit, determining that the blocking type of the first in-memory structure is set to the value of blocking; and

in response to determining that the blocking type is set to the value of blocking, throttling a rate of work requests issued by the client application to match a retrieval rate of the business process by sending a notification to the client application that issued the received work request that additional work requests are not to be sent.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that there are empty slots available in the first in-memory structure for storing new work requests in response to detecting that a work request has been transferred out of the first in-memory structure.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that a work request is being transferred out of the first in-memory structure.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first maximum limit is a number of work requests that the first business process is configured to accept, and the second maximum limit is a number of work requests that the second business process is configured to accept.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring a different maximum limit for each of different business processes.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the notification to the client application identified in the work request.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining that the blocking type is set to the value of non-blocking, processing the work request to avoid an overflow state.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining that the number of work requests stored in the first in-memory structure does not equal the first maximum limit, that there are empty slots in the first in-memory structure, and that the notification that additional work requests are not to be sent was previously sent to the client application, sending a notification to the client application that additional work requests are to be sent.

9. An article of manufacture comprising a computer readable medium storing code for flow control between publishers and subscribers, wherein the code when executed by a processor of a computer causes operations to be performed, the operations comprising:

associating, using a server computer including a processor, a first maximum limit with a first business process;

associating a blocking type that has a value of blocking with a first in-memory structure associated with the first business process, wherein the value of blocking indicates that a client application is to be notified to stop sending additional work requests when a maximum limit is reached for the first in-memory structure;

associating a second maximum limit with a second business process;

associating a blocking type that has a value of non-blocking with a second in-memory structure associated with the second business process, and wherein the value of non-blocking indicates that the client application is not blocked from sending additional work requests when the maximum limit is reached for the second in-memory structure;

issuing, at each of multiple client computers that each include a processor and at least one client application comprising a publisher, a work request produced by a client application for the first business process or the second business process; and

at the server computer including the processor, determining whether to throttle each client application by;

in response to determining that the work request is received for the second in-memory structure,

comparing the second maximum limit with a number of work requests stored in the second in-memory structure;

in response to determining that the number of work requests stored in the second in-memory structure equals the second maximum limit, determining that the blocking type of the second in-memory structure is set to the value of non-blocking; and

in response to determining that the blocking type is set to the value of non-blocking, storing the work request in a structure other than the in-memory structure; and

in response to determining that the work request is received for the first in-memory structure,

comparing the first maximum limit with a number of work requests stored in the first in-memory structure;

in response to determining that the number of work requests stored in the first in-memory structure equals the first maximum limit, determining that the blocking type of the first in-memory structure is set to the value of blocking; and

in response to determining that the blocking type is set to the value of blocking, throttling a rate of work requests issued by the client application to match a retrieval rate of the business process by sending a notification to the client application that issued the received work request that additional work requests are not to be sent.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that there are empty slots available in the first in-memory structure for storing new work requests in response to detecting that a work request has been transferred out of the first in-memory structure.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting that a work request is being transferred out of the first in-memory structure.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 9, wherein the first maximum limit is a number of work requests that the first business process is configured to accept, and the second maximum limit is a number of work requests that the second business process is configured to accept.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

configuring a different maximum limit for each of different business processes.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

sending the notification to the client application identified in the work request.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to determining that the blocking type is set to the value of non-blocking, processing the work request to avoid an overflow state.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to determining that the number of work requests stored in the first in-memory structure does not equal the first maximum limit, that there are empty slots in the first in-memory structure, and that the notification that additional work requests are not to be sent was previously sent to the client application, sending a notification to the client application that additional work requests are to be sent.

17. A computer system for flow control between publishers and subscribers, comprising:

a processor; and

storage coupled to the processor, wherein the storage has stored thereon a program, and wherein the processor is configured to execute the program to perform operations, wherein the operations comprise;

associating, using a server computer including a processor, a first maximum limit with a first business process;

associating a blocking type that has a value of blocking with a first in-memory structure associated with the first business process, with a first in-memory structure associated with the first business process, wherein the value of blocking indicates that a client application is to be notified to stop sending additional work requests when a maximum limit is reached for the first in-memory structure;

associating a second maximum limit with a second business process;

associating a blocking type that has a value of non-blocking with a second in-memory structure associated with the second business process, and wherein the value of non-blocking indicates that the client application is not blocked from sending additional work requests when the maximum limit is reached for the second in-memory structure;

issuing, at each of multiple client computers that each include a processor and at least one client application comprising a publisher, a work request produced by a client application for the first business process or the second business process; and

at the server computer including the processor, determining whether to throttle each client application by;

in response to determining that the work request is received for the second in-memory structure,

comparing the second maximum limit with a number of work requests stored in the second in-memory structure;

in response to determining that the number of work requests stored in the second in-memory structure equals the second maximum limit, determining that the blocking type of the second in-memory structure is set to the value of non-blocking; and

in response to determining that the blocking type is set to the value of non-blocking, storing the work request in a structure other than the second in-memory structure; and

in response to determining that the work request is received for the first in-memory structure,

comparing the first maximum limit with a number of work requests stored in the first in-memory structure;

in response to determining that the number of work requests stored in the first in-memory structure equals the first maximum limit, determining that the blocking type of the first in-memory structure is set to the value of blocking; and

in response to determining that the blocking type is set to the value of blocking, throttling a rate of work requests issued by the client application to match a retrieval rate of the business process by sending a notification to the client application that issued the received work request that additional work requests are not to be sent.

18. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising:

determining that there are empty slots available in the first in-memory structure for storing new work requests in response to detecting that a work request has been transferred out of the first in-memory structure.

19. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising:

detecting that a work request is being transferred out of the first in-memory structure.

20. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the first maximum limit is a number of work requests that the first business process is configured to accept, and the second maximum limit is a number of work requests that the second business process is configured to accept.

21. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising:

configuring a different maximum limit for each of different business processes.

22. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising:

sending the notification to the client application identified in the work request.

23. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising:

in response to determining that the blocking type is set to the value of non-blocking, processing the work request to avoid an overflow state.

24. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising:

in response to determining that the number of work requests stored in the first in-memory structure does not equal the first maximum limit, that there are empty slots in the first in-memory structure, and that the notification that additional work requests are not to be sent was previously sent to the client application, sending a notification to the client application that additional work requests are to be sent.