Transactional service pipeline

• US 9,058,227 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2014
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hom, Richard V., Nelson, Eric M., Roxin, David C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruiz, Angelica
• Application Number:
  US14/159,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20140136474A1
• Time in Patent Office: 511 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes

Abstract

An approach for connecting the inputs and the outputs of multiple services in such a way that the entire transaction can be tracked from beginning to end and from service to service is provided. The pipeline architecture of the present invention passes information through a sequence of nodes, each node providing some processing or filtering before passing information to the next node in the pipe. A transaction'"'"'s token passes down a pipe of services. The pipe can have forks and branches, so a transaction'"'"'s token is passed from node to node carrying messages from one node to another. The overall transactional information is not lost from service to service; instead it is carried up and down the length of the pipeline. As the transaction'"'"'s token is passed up and down the pipeline, its history passes with it. The pipe links a chain of nodes connected end-to-end.

Claims

1. A system for connecting inputs and outputs of multiple services to track an entire transaction from beginning to end and from service to service in a pipeline architecture, the system comprising:

at least one processing unit;

memory operably associated with the at least one processing unit; and

a transactional service pipeline (TSP) executable by the at least one processing unit, the TSP having a series of nodes connecting a plurality of segments end-to-end in a pipeline configuration such that an output of each segment of the plurality of segments is supplied directly, without the use of a bus, to an input of another segment of the plurality of segments, each node providing processing or filtering before passing information to the next node in the TSP, and passing information tracked by a token having an ID and context, through the TSP.

2. The system as defined in claim 1 further comprising forks and branches within the pipeline of the TSP for controlling a passing of one or more transaction tokens from node to node.

3. The system as defined in claim 2 further comprising a lightweight virtual attribute provenance pipeline (LVAPP) for connecting virtual attribute enabled directories (VAEDs) to corresponding sources of data.

4. The system as defined in claim 3 further comprising a Trust and Provenance Pipeline (TPP).

5. The system as defined in claim 4 further comprising an Enterprise Services Pipeline (ESP) between the LVAPP and the TPP.

6. A method in a system having a transactional service pipeline (TSP) for connecting inputs and outputs of multiple services to track an entire transaction from beginning to end and from service to service, the method comprising:

a computer passing a transaction token up and down the TSP, the TSP having a series of nodes connecting a plurality of segments end-to-end in a pipeline configuration such that an output of each segment of the plurality of segments is supplied directly, without the use of a bus, to an input of another segment of the plurality of segments, each node providing processing or filtering before passing information to the next node in the TSP, and passing information tracked by a token having an ID and context, through the TSP, wherein each of the plurality of segments is a proxy for a service.

7. The method as defined in claim 6 further comprising the computer tracking a transaction between components in the TSP from beginning to end.

8. The method as defined in claim 7 further comprising the computer using a transactional single sign-on identity for the entire TSP that can be used for a Database Management System (DBMS) level audit trails.

9. The method as defined in claim 8 further comprising the computer connecting the TSP consumers to sources of data.

10. The method as defined in claim 9 further comprising:

the computer providing, by the TSP, provenance to one or more consumers;

the computer tracking the TSP provenance through all of its sources; and

the computer calculating a trust level value, which determines if the transaction should proceed to completion.

11. A computer-readable storage device storing computer instructions, which are executed to enable a system having a Transactional Service Pipeline (TSP) operating to connect inputs and outputs of multiple services to perform steps comprising:

passing a transaction token up and down the TSP, the TSP having a series of nodes connecting a plurality of segments end-to-end in a pipeline configuration such that an output of each segment of the plurality of segments is supplied directly, without the use of a bus, to an input of another segment of the plurality of segments, each node providing processing or filtering before passing information to the next node in the TSP.

12. The computer-readable storage device as defined in claim 11, wherein the steps further comprise tracking the transaction between components in the TSP from beginning to end.

13. The computer-readable storage device as defined in claim 12, wherein the steps further comprise using a transactional single sign-on identity for the entire TSP that can be used for Database Management System (DBMS) level audit trails.

14. The computer-readable storage device as defined in claim 13, wherein the steps further comprise connecting the TSP, consumers, and providers to sources of data.

15. The computer-readable storage device as defined in claim 14, wherein the steps further comprise:

providing, by the TSP, provenance to one or more consumers;

tracking the TSP provenance through all of its sources; and

calculating a trust level value, which determines if the transaction should proceed to completion.