Conditional request processing

• US 9,571,478 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2014
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Eli, Filip, Nguyen, Filip
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhang, Shirley
• Application Number:
  US14/151,644
• Publication Number:
  US 20150195377A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,132 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/083 for increasing network speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A method and system for processing a request is provided. An example system includes a security module that authenticates a request from a client. The system also includes a Web service that determines whether the set of operations includes an input/output (I/O) operation and determines whether a result of the authentication has been determined. While the request is pending authentication, the Web service may initiate processing of the request and may ensure that no I/O operations are performed within the processing of the request until a request of the authentication has been determined.

Claims

1. A method of processing a request, comprising:

receiving, at a Web service, a request for processing, wherein processing of the request includes performing a set of operations based on an order, and the request is from a client;

determining that the set of operations includes an input/output (I/O) operation;

authenticating the request from the client;

determining whether a result of the authentication has been determined;

while the request is pending the result of the authentication, initiating processing of the request; and

in response to a determination that the set of operations is determined to include the I/O operation;

performing, based on the order, one or more operations of the set of operations preceding the I/O operation;

in response to a determination that the result of the authentication has not been determined, waiting for the result of the authentication to be determined; and

in response to a determination that the result of the authentication indicates that the request has been successfully authenticated, performing, via the Web service, one or more remaining operations of the set of operations that has not been processed and determining, via the Web service, a result of the processed request based on performing the set of operations, wherein the one or more remaining operations includes the I/O operations

creating a first request identifier that identifies the request;

inserting into a data structure an entry that associates the first request identifier with an authentication flag value that indicates whether the request has been authenticated; and

removing the entry from the data structure after the request has been processed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether a result of the authentication has been determined includes reading the authentication flag value stored in the data structure.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the data structure is a hash table that stores one or more mappings of a request identifier to a value.

4. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving from an instance a second request to load one or more classes;

determining whether the instance is of a first type; and

in response to a determination that the instance is not of the first type, loading the requested class.

5. The method of claim 4, further including:

in response to a determination that the instance is of the first type, identifying a value that is stored in the data structure and that is associated with a request identifier attribute of the instance;

in response to a determination that the identified value indicates that the request has been successfully authenticated, loading the requested class;

in response to a determination that the identified value indicates that authentication of the request is pending, determining whether the requested class is included in a list of one or more libraries including I/O operations;

in response to a determination that the requested class is not included in the list, loading the requested class; and

in response to a determination that the requested class is determined to be included in the list;

waiting for a time period;

determining whether the request has been authenticated; and

in response to a determination that the result of the authentication indicates that the request has been successfully authenticated, loading the class.

6. The method of claim 1, further including:

in response to a determination that the result of the authentication indicates that the request has failed authentication, halting processing of the request.

7. The method of claim 1, further including:

enabling a normal mode, wherein enabling the normal mode includes authenticating the request before initiating processing of the request.

8. The method of claim 1, further including:

enabling a parallel mode, wherein enabling the parallel mode includes authenticating and processing the request in parallel.

9. The method of claim 1, further including:

instantiating an instance of a thread object of a first type including a request identifier attribute;

inserting the request identifier as a value of the request identifier attribute into the instance; and

initiating processing of the request using the instance.

10. A system for processing a request, comprising:

a server interface that receives, from a client, a request for processing, wherein processing of the request includes performing a set of operations based on an order;

a security component that authenticates the request from the client;

a Web service that determines that the set of operations includes an input/output (I/O) operation and determines whether a result of the authentication has been determined,

wherein while the request is pending authentication, the Web service initiates processing to include the I/O operation, (i) the Web service performs, based on the order, one or more operations of the set of operations preceding the I/O operation, (ii) in response to a determination that the result of the authentication has not been determined, the Web service waits for the result of the authentication to be determined, and (iii) in response to a determination that the result of the authentication indicates that the request has been successfully authenticated, the Web service performs one or more remaining operations of the set of operations that has not been processed and determines a result of the processed request based on performing the set of operations, wherein the one or more remaining operations includes the I/O operation; and

a memory that stores a data structure, wherein the Web service creates a first request identifier that identifies the request, inserts into the data structure an entry that associates the first request identifier with a first value that indicates whether the request has been authenticated, and removes the entry from the data structure after the request has been processed.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the Web service ensures that no I/O operations are performed until the request has been successfully authenticated.

12. The system of claim 10, further including a server that includes the server interface, Web service, and security component, wherein the server switches between a normal mode and a parallel mode, and wherein when the server is in the parallel mode, the Web service authenticates and processes the request in parallel and when the server is in the normal mode, the web service authenticates the request before the Web service initiates processing the request.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the Web service instantiates an instance of a thread object of a first type including a request identifier attribute, inserts the request identifier as a value of the request identifier attribute into the instance, and initiates processing of the request using the instance.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the security component sets the flag value based on whether the request has been successfully authenticated or has failed authentication.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions that when executed by one or more processors is adapted to cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

receiving, at a Web service, a request for processing, wherein processing of the request includes performing a set of operations based on an order, and the request is from a client;

determining that the set of operations includes an input/output (I/O) operation;

authenticating the request from the client;

determining whether a result of the authentication has been determined;

while the request is pending the result of the authentication, initiating processing of the request; and

in response to a determination that the set of operations is determined to include the I/O operation;

performing, based on the order, one or more operations of the set of operations preceding the I/O operation;

in response to a determination that the result of the authentication has not been determined, waiting for the result of the authentication to be determined; and

in response to a determination that the result of the authentication indicates that the request has been successfully authenticated, performing, via the Web service, one or more remaining operations of the set of operations that has not been processed and determining, via the Web service, a result of the processed request based on performing the set of operations, wherein the one or more remaining operations includes the I/O operations

creating a first request identifier that identifies the request;

inserting into a data structure an entry that associates the first request identifier with an authentication flag value that indicates whether the request has been authenticated; and

removing the entry from the data structure after the request has been processed.