Routing of pooled messages via an intermediary

• US 8,683,030 B2
• Filed: 10/18/2012
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Paramasivam, Kartik, Johnson, James E., Allen, Nicholas Alexander, Taylor, John Anthony, Drollinger, Margaret J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sall, El Hadji
• Application Number:
  US13/655,162
• Publication Number:
  US 20130046877A1
• Time in Patent Office: 523 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/225, 709/223, 709/206, 718/105, 370/401, 370/252
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Message intermediation for multiple service instances, while allowing the service instance to control whether messages are processed under a transaction. The message intermediator chooses to dispatch messages among different backend service instances based on any routing rules. The message intermediator performs a peek-lock of message from a forward-end queue, and assigns the message to a service instance. The message is provided into a backward-end queue specific to the assigned service instance. The service instance may then process the message, perhaps under a transaction created at the service instance. Upon completion of processing, the message is deleted in the back-end queue, which causes the forward-end queue to delete the message under the same transaction created by the service instance. Whether or not this deletion at the forward-end is committed or rolled back depends on whether the transaction created at the service instance is committed or rolled back.

Claims

1. One or more physical computer-readable storage devices having stored thereon one or more computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to instantiate a message forwarding intermediary in one or more memories of the computing system, the message forwarding intermediary configured to do the following with respect to a message in a forward-end message pool;

an act of requesting a message from the forward-end message pool using a coordination pattern that causes the forward-end message pool to provide a non-destructive view of the contents of the requested message to the message forwarding intermediary and to lock the requested message in the forward-end message pool for exclusive access by the message forwarding intermediary until the message is once again unlocked;

an act of evaluating the message contents to identify that, of a plurality of service instances, a particular service instance is to process the message contents;

an act of dispatching the message contents towards a backward-end message pool corresponding to the particular service instance; and

an act of signaling the forward-end message pool as to a disposition of the message based on determined results of processing of the message contents.

2. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of evaluating the message contents to identify that a particular service instance is to process the message contents comprises:

an act of identifying a plurality of candidate service instances that are capable of processing the message; and

an act of selecting from among the plurality of candidate service instances a particular service instance based on the respective loads of the candidate service instances.

3. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, wherein the message forwarding intermediary is further configured to identify a stateful session corresponding to the message, and perform an act of affinitizing the stateful session to the particular service instance.

4. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 3, wherein the message forwarding intermediary performs the act of affinitizing the stateful session to the particular service instance using affinitization criteria received from the particular service instance.

5. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, the method further comprising determining results of processing of the message contents in the backward-end message pool by the particular service instance,

wherein the act of dispatching the message further comprises an act of associating with the message a lease policy, and

wherein the act of determining the results of processing the message further comprises an act of considering processing to have failed if the lease expires.

6. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining results of processing of the message contents in the backward-end message pool by the particular service instance, by determining results of processing the message contents further comprises an act of receiving a transaction flowed from the particular service instance, and

wherein the act of signaling the forward-end message pool comprises an act of deleting the message from the forward-end message pool using the flowed transaction.

7. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 6, wherein the forward-end message pool is a transaction-enabled message queue.

8. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 6, wherein the forward-end message pool is not transactionally-enabled and wherein the act of deleting the message from the forward-end message pool using the flowed transaction comprises:

an act of the message forwarding intermediary enlisting in the flowed transaction;

an act of the message forwarding intermediary determining that the flowed transaction is resolved successfully; and

an act of non-transactionally deleting the message from the forward-end message pool.

9. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining results of processing of the message contents in the backward-end message pool by the particular service instance by determining that the particular service instance did not process the message contents successfully; and

wherein the act of signaling the forward-end message pool comprises an act of unlocking the message.

10. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of evaluating the message contents to identify that a particular service instance is to process the message contents comprises:

an act of determining that there is not yet a service instance instantiated for processing the message contents; and

wherein the act of dispatching the message contents comprises an act of causing the particular service instance to be instantiated.

11. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, wherein the requested message is a first requested message, and wherein the message forwarding intermediary is configured to further perform:

an act of requesting one or more additional messages from the forward-end message pool using the coordination pattern that causes the forward-end message pool to provide a non-destructive view of the contents of each message of the one or more additional messages to the message forwarding intermediary and to lock the requested one or more additional messages in the forward-end message pool for exclusive access by the message forwarding intermediary;

an act of dispatching the contents of the one or more additional messages towards the backward-end message pool corresponding to the particular service instance;

an act of determining results of processing the one or more additional message contents in the backward-end message pool by the particular service instance; and

an act of signaling the forward-end message pool as to the disposition of the one or more additional messages based on the determined results of processing the one or more message contents.

12. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 11, wherein if for any one of the first message or one or more additional messages, the determined service instance did not process the message contents successfully, the message forwarding intermediary handles all of the messages as if the determined service instance did not process the message contents successfully.

13. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 11, wherein the act of dispatching the message contents for each of the group of messages including the first message and the one or more additional messages, further includes an act of assigning each message a processing identifier unique within the group of messages;

and wherein the act of determining results of processing each message contents further includes an act of receiving one or more processing identifiers along with the dispositions of each of the processed message contents.

14. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 13,

wherein, for each of the first message and the one or more additional messages, the act of determining results of processing message contents further includes an act of receiving one or more transactions flowed from the particular service instance along with an associative mapping between one or more of the processing identifiers and one or more of the flowed transactions;

and

wherein, for each of the first message and the one or more additional messages, the act of signaling the forward-end message pool comprises an act of deleting the message from the forward-end message pool using the flowed transaction indicated by the associative mapping.

15. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, wherein requesting a message from the forward-end message pool using a coordination pattern comprises requesting a message from a forward-end peek-lock enabled message pool using a peek-lock coordination pattern.

16. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, wherein, in response to the act of requesting the message from the forward-end message pool using the coordination pattern, the forward-end message pool provides a view of the contents of the requested message to the message forwarding intermediary.

17. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, wherein, in response to the act of requesting the message from the forward-end message pool using the coordination pattern, the forward-end message pool locks the requested message in the forward-end message pool for exclusive access by the message forwarding intermediary.

18. The one or more storage devices in accordance with claim 1, wherein, subsequent to the act of dispatching the message contents towards a backward-end message pool corresponding to the particular service instance, the particular service instance accesses a view of contents of the message from the backward-end message pool using the coordination pattern.

19. A method for a service instance to process a version of a message from a backward-end message pool, the method comprising:

an act of a service instance requesting a version of a message from a backward-end message pool using a coordination pattern that causes the backward-end message pool to provide a non-destructive view of the contents of the requested version of the message to the service instance and to lock the requested version of the message in the backward-end message pool for exclusive access by the service instance until the version of the message is once again unlocked, wherein the message also exists in a forward-end message pool, the version of the message in the forward-end message pool having been locked in the forward-end message pool by a message forwarding intermediary requesting the message using the coordination pattern;

an act of the service instance processing the message contents;

an act of the service instance determining results of the processing of the message contents; and

an act of the service instance signaling the backward-end message pool as to the disposition of the version of the message based on the determined results of processing of the contents of the version of the message.

20. The method in accordance with claim 19, wherein the act of processing the message contents comprises:

an act of determining that the contents of the version of the message are to be accomplished within a transaction;

an act of processing the contents of the version of the message within the transaction,

an act of determining that the contents of the version of the message were accomplished successfully; and

an act of deleting the version of the message from the backward-end message pool using the transaction.

21. The method in accordance with claim 20, wherein the act of signaling the message forwarding intermediary of results of processing the message contents in the backward-end message pool comprises:

an act of flowing the transaction to the message forwarding intermediary.

22. The method in accordance with claim 20, wherein the acts of processing, determining, signaling the message forwarding intermediary and signaling the backward-end message pool are performed for a plurality of messages in the backward-end enabled message pool.

23. The method in accordance with claim 22,

wherein each of the plurality of messages are to be performed as part of a single transaction,

wherein the act of signaling the message forwarding intermediary of results of processing the message contents in the backward-end enabled message pool comprises an act of signaling the message forwarding intermediary that the message contents were not successfully processed if any of the plurality of messages could not be processed.

24. The method in accordance with claim 20, wherein requesting a version of a message from the backward-end message pool using a coordination pattern comprises requesting a version of a message from a backward-end peek-lock enabled message pool using a peek-lock coordination pattern.

25. The method in accordance with claim 19, wherein the message forwarding intermediary signals the forward-end message pool as to the disposition of the message based on the results of processing of the message contents signaled by the service instance.