Providing access to an application programming interface through a named pipe

• US 9,183,065 B1
• Filed: 11/01/2012
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shanker, Matthew Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Anya, Charles E
• Application Number:
  US13/666,517
• Time in Patent Office: 1,104 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources

Abstract

An API calling process creates a named pipe through which a program can submit data to an application programming interface (“API”). Appropriate permissions are set on the named pipe such that only authorized applications can write data to the named pipe. When data is written to the named pipe, the written data is piped to the API calling process. The API calling process may process the written data, such as by placing the data into an appropriate format for submission to an API. The API calling process then utilizes appropriate credentials to call an API with the data written to the named pipe. For example, the API calling process might utilize service credentials to make a Web services API call to submit the data written to the named pipe to a Web services API exposed by a network service.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

create one or more named pipes on a network host;

set one or more permissions on the named pipes to provide write access to the named pipes to one or more application programs executing on the network host that are authorized to access one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) exposed by one or more services;

receive data written to one of the named pipes by one of the application programs;

identify a destination API for the written data from the one or more APIs based upon the data written to the one of the named pipes;

process the data written to the one of the named pipes prior to performing an API call to the identified destination API; and

perform the API call that includes the processed written data to the identified destination API.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1,

wherein the named pipe is stored in a directory on the network host that is associated with the destination API.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein processing the data written to the named pipe comprises placing the data written to the named pipe into a format suitable for submission to the destination API.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein processing the written data comprises batching the received data written to the named pipe with other data written to the named pipe prior to transmission to the destination API.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the data written to the named pipe comprises one or more metrics relating to the execution of the application program writing the data to the named pipe.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the data written to the named pipe comprises log data relating to the execution of the application program writing the data to the named pipe.

7. A computer-implemented method for accessing one or more application programming interface (APIs) through a named pipe, the method comprising performing computer-implemented operations for:

creating one or more named pipes on a network host;

setting one or more permissions on the named pipes to provide write access to the named pipes to one or more application programs executing on the network host that are authorized to access one or more APIs exposed by one or more services;

receiving data written to one of the named pipes by one of the application programs;

identifying a destination API for the written data from the one or more APIs based upon the data written to the one of the named pipes;

processing the data written to the one of the named pipes prior to performing an API call to the identified destination API; and

performing the API call that includes the processed written data to the identified destination API.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the written data comprises one or more metrics for the application program writing the data to the named pipe.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the API call is performed utilizing a set of service credentials selected based upon the identified destination API.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein processing the written data comprises placing the written data into a format suitable for submission to the API.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein identifying a destination API for the written data comprises identifying a destination API for the written data based upon the named pipe to which the data was written.

12. A system for performing an application programming interface (API) call using a named pipe, the system comprising one or more computing devices configured to:

create one or more named pipes,

set one or more permissions on the named pipes to provide write access to the named pipes to one or more application programs executing on a host that are authorized to access one or more APIs exposed by one or more services,

receive data written to one of the named pipes by one of the application programs,

identify a destination API based upon the data written to the one of the named pipes;

process the data written to the one of the named pipes prior to performing an API call using the written data, and

perform the API call that includes the processed written data to the identified destination API.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the data written to the named pipe comprises one or more metrics relating to the execution of the application program writing the data to the named pipe.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the API call is performed utilizing a set of credentials selected based upon the identified destination API.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the named pipe is created on the host executing the one of the applications writing data to the named pipe.

16. An apparatus for performing an application programming interface (API) call using a named pipe, the apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to

create one or more named pipes,

set one or more permissions on the named pipes to provide write access to the named pipes to one or more application programs executing on a host that are authorized to access one or more APIs exposed by one or more services,

receive data written to one of the named pipes by one of the application programs,

identify a destination API based upon the data written to the one of the named pipes;

process the data written to the named pipe prior to performing an API call using the written data, and

perform the API call that includes the processed written data to the identified destination API.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the API call is performed utilizing a set of service credentials selected based upon the API.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the named pipe is stored in a directory that is associated with the API.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the data written to the named pipe comprises one or more metrics relating to the execution of the program writing the data to the named pipe, and wherein processing the data written to the named pipe prior to performing the API call comprises batching the data written to the named pipe with other metrics data written to the named pipe prior to transmission to the API.