Input validation techniques

• US 9,558,445 B1
• Filed: 09/25/2012
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Rabe, Bruce R., Joyce, Scott E., Miles, Norman M., Chen, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Hill, Stanley K
• Assistant Examiner(s): Traktovenko, Ilya
• Application Number:
  US13/626,272
• Time in Patent Office: 1,589 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/004 Error avoidance G06F11/07 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0769 Readable error formats, e.g. cross-platform generic formats, human understandable formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1487 using N-version programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity

Abstract

Described are techniques for processing inputs. A plurality of rules engines is provided. Each of the rules engines is written in a different programming language. Input validation processing is performed of a first set of one or more inputs by a first of the plurality of rules engines using a first portion of a set of validation rules. Input validation processing is performed for the first set of one or more inputs by a second of the plurality of rules engines using the first portion of validation rules.

Claims

1. A method for processing inputs comprising:

providing a plurality of rules engines, wherein each of the plurality of rules engines is written in a different programming language;

performing input validation processing of a first set of one or more inputs by a first of the plurality of rules engines using a first portion of validation rules, wherein said first set of one or more inputs are user inputs obtained from a user interface and in connection with provisioning storage for a logical entity in a data storage system, wherein each of the validation rules includes a message identifier associated with an error message, and each of the validation rules includes validation criteria comprising required validation criteria and optionally comprising optional validation criteria, wherein a specified input needs to meet the required criteria and additionally needs to meet the optional validation criteria, if specified, to be successfully validated in accordance with said each validation rule, wherein said optional validation criteria of at least one of the validation rules includes any of;

a minimum length of an input, a maximum length of an input, and an expression denoting an acceptable pattern or format of an input, wherein a plurality of message catalogues include text of a same set of error messages for a plurality of spoken languages, the plurality of message catalogues each using a same set of message identifiers whereby a same one of the message identifiers in each of the plurality of message catalogues is associated with text of a same error message in a different one of the plurality of spoken languages; and

responsive to the input validation processing by the first rules engine determining that the first set of one or more inputs is valid, performing processing including;

transforming at least one of the first set of one or more inputs and producing a second set of one or more inputs as a result of said transforming; and

performing input validation processing of the second set of one or more inputs by a second of the plurality of rules engines using the second portion of the validation rules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second portion of the validation rules and the first portion of the validation rules each include at least one same rule from the validation rules.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the validation rules is uniquely identified by a rule identifier and said each validation rule identifies the message identifier associated with an error message included in the plurality of message catalogues.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the error message is displayed responsive to one of the plurality of rules engines determining, for an input, that said validation criteria of said each rule is not met by said input.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said message identifier is an index into each of the plurality of message catalogues and a record of each of the plurality of message catalogues includes the error message, the record being identified by the index.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein one of the plurality of message catalogues is selected for use in accordance with a language setting.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first rules engine performs input validation processing for a selected input at runtime during execution of a first code module, and the first code module issues a request to said first rules engine to perform input validation processing for the selected input.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein, upon successful validation of the selected input, the first code module transforms the selected input into a second input and issues a request to a second code module in accordance with an application programming interface defined for invoking the second code module, the application programming interface including one or more parameters whereby said second input is specified as a value for a first of the one or more parameters.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said second code module performs input validation processing of the second input using another one of the plurality of rules engines.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein input validation processing of the first set of one or more inputs uses a first validation rule of the validation rules, the first validation rule including first required criteria as the required criteria of the first validation rule and first optional criteria as the optional validation criteria of the first validation rule, and wherein the first set of one or more inputs is determined as valid if each input in the first set meets the first required criteria and the first optional criteria.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said first portion of the validation rules is used to perform said input validation processing including ensuring that an input is a valid IP (internet protocol) address, and wherein the first portion includes said at least one validation rule with said optional validation criteria comprising the expression, and wherein the expression denotes the acceptable pattern or format of the valid IP address.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said first portion of the validation rules is used to perform said input validation processing including ensuring that a number of physical devices specified is allowable for a particular selected RAID type.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said first portion of validation rules is used to perform said input validation processing including ensuring that a string input has a length in a defined range.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising code stored thereon that, when executed, performs a method for processing inputs comprising:

providing a plurality of rules engines, wherein each of the plurality of rules engines is written in a different programming language;

performing input validation processing of a first set of one or more inputs by a first of the plurality of rules engines using a first portion of validation rules, wherein said first set of one or more inputs are user inputs obtained from a user interface and in connection with provisioning storage for a logical entity in a data storage system, wherein each of the validation rules includes a message identifier associated with an error message, and each of the validation rules includes validation criteria comprising required validation criteria and optionally comprising optional validation criteria, wherein a specified input needs to meet the required criteria and additionally needs to meet the optional validation criteria, if specified, to be successfully validated in accordance with said each validation rule, wherein said optional validation criteria of at least one of the validation rules includes any of;

a minimum length of an input, a maximum length of an input, and an expression denoting an acceptable pattern or format of an input, wherein a plurality of message catalogues include text of a same set of error messages for a plurality of spoken languages, the plurality of message catalogues each using a same set of message identifiers whereby a same one of the message identifiers in each of the plurality of message catalogues is associated with text of a same error message in a different one of the plurality of spoken languages; and

responsive to the input validation processing by the first rules engine determining that the first set of one or more inputs is valid, performing processing including;

transforming at least one of the first set of one or more inputs and producing a second set of one or more inputs as a result of said transforming; and

performing input validation processing of the second set of one or more inputs by a second of the plurality of rules engines using the second portion of the validation rules.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the second portion of the validation rules and the first portion of the validation rules each include at least one same rule from the set of validation rules.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein each of the validation rules is uniquely identified by a rule identifier and said each validation rules identifies the message identifier associated with an error message included in the plurality of message catalogues.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the error message is displayed responsive to one of the plurality of rules engines determining, for an input, that said validation criteria of said each rule is not met by said input.

18. A system comprising:

a first set of one or more clients each including one or more processors, wherein each client in said first set executes code of one of a plurality of rules engines using a processor to perform input validation of first inputs received at said each client, wherein each of the plurality of rules engines is written in a different programming language and performs input validation processing using validation rules used by every other one of the plurality of rules engines; and

a second set of one or more servers each including one or more processors, wherein each server in said second set executes code of one of the plurality of rules engines using a processor to perform input validation of second inputs received at said each server, wherein each of the plurality of rules engines uses a plurality of message catalogues from which a message is obtained in response to determining an input is invalid, each of the plurality of message catalogues including message text in a different language or language dialect, and wherein each of the validation rules includes a message identifier associated with an error message, and each of the validation rules includes validation criteria used to determine whether an input is valid, the validation criteria including required validation criteria and optionally including optional validation criteria, wherein a specified input needs to meet the required criteria of said each validation rule and additionally needs to meet the optional validation criteria of said each validation rule, if specified, to be successfully validated in accordance with said each validation rule, wherein said optional validation criteria of at least one of the validation rules includes any of;

a minimum length of an input, a maximum length of an input, and an expression denoting an acceptable pattern or format of an input, wherein the plurality of message catalogues include text of a same set of error messages for a plurality of spoken languages, the plurality of message catalogues each using a same set of message identifiers whereby a same one of the message identifiers in each of the plurality of message catalogues is associated with text of a same error message in a different one of the plurality of spoken languages; and

wherein the first inputs received at said each client are user inputs obtained from a user interface and in connection with provisioning storage for a logical entity in a data storage system and said each client includes a memory comprising code stored thereon that performs a method comprising;

responsive to the input validation of the first inputs received at said each client determining that the first inputs received at said each client are valid, performing processing including;

transforming at least one of the first inputs received at said each client and producing at least one of the second inputs sent by said each client to a server in the second set of one or more servers;

sending the second inputs from said each client to the server; and

performing input validation processing of the second inputs by the server.