Reactive API gateway

• US 10,193,992 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2017
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Solutions Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Solutions Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Wagenknecht, Dominik, Lancaster, Matthew D., Renalias, Oscar
• Primary Examiner(s): Zong, Ruolei
• Application Number:
  US15/469,147
• Publication Number:
  US 20180278705A1
• Time in Patent Office: 676 Days
• Field of Search: 709227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54

Abstract

A system for processing application programming interface (API) calls and event messages may include a gateway subsystem and an events hub. The gateway subsystem can route API calls submitted by user agents connected to the gateway subsystem to appropriate service subsystems. The events hub can receive event messages from at least some of the service subsystems and publish the received event messages for consumption by one or more consuming subsystems including the gateway subsystem. A first published event message may specify a first user and the the gateway subsystem can (i) determine every user agent that is associated with the first user and that is currently connected to the gateway subsystem and (ii) transmit information that represents the first published event message to every user agent that is determined to be associated with the first user and currently connected to the gateway subsystem.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing application programming interface (API) calls, the method comprising:

establishing, by a first system of one or more computers, connections with a plurality of user agents at one or more client computers, wherein the first system is configured as a proxy between the plurality of user agents and a plurality of service subsystems that provide respective online services;

receiving, by the first system, an API call from a first user agent of the plurality of user agents to which the first system is connected, the first user agent associated with a first user;

routing, by the first system, the received API call to a particular service subsystem of the plurality of service subsystems, thereby causing the particular service subsystem (i) to perform an operation based on the received API call and (ii) to provide to a messaging system an event message that describes a result of the particular service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation based on the received API call,

wherein the first system routes the received API call to the particular service subsystem based on identifying that the particular service subsystem is configured to handle API calls of a same type as the received API call, and

wherein the messaging system is communicably coupled with each of the plurality of service subsystems and is configured to publish event messages received from each of the plurality of service subsystems including the particular service subsystem to a plurality of consumer systems including the first system, so that the plurality of consumer systems receive event messages generated by the plurality of service subsystems from the messaging system rather than directly from the plurality of service subsystems;

receiving, by the first system and from the messaging system rather than directly from the particular service subsystem, the event message that was generated by the particular service subsystem and that describes the result of the particular service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation based on the received API call, wherein the messaging system addresses the event message to the first user;

in response to receiving the event message that is addressed to the first user;

identifying, by the first system, one or more user agents associated with the first user; and

providing the event message from the first system to the one or more user agents associated with the first user.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the messaging system is implemented at an events hub that is configured as a messaging intermediary between the plurality of service subsystems and the plurality of consumer systems.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first system is an API gateway that is configured to intercept API calls directed to the plurality of service subsystems and to route each intercepted API call to a respective service subsystem of the plurality of service subsystems that is determined to correspond to the intercepted API call.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more user agents associated with the first user include at least one user agent that is distinct from the first user agent.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more user agents associated with the first user include the first user agent and a second user agent that are located on different client computers.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the first user agent or the second user agent is a web browser application on a mobile client computer or a desktop client computer.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein establishing connections with the plurality of user agents comprises establishing connections with one or more user agents that are associated with a second user;

and

the method further comprises;

identifying that the second user has been added to a blacklist of users that are blocked from maintaining connections with the first system; and

in response to identifying that the second user has been added to the blacklist, automatically terminating the connections with the one or more user agents that are associated with the second user.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the API call comprises a request to store form field data that has been partially entered at the first user agent, but that has not yet been submitted.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to receiving the event message that is addressed to the first user:

determining, by the first system, that multiple user agents associated with the first user, including the first user agent, are currently connected to the first system; and

providing the event message from the first system to each of the multiple user agents associated with the first user.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of service subsystems independently provide services for a same website.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the messaging system is configured to publish event messages that the messaging system receives from multiple ones of the plurality of service subsystems to the plurality of consumer systems including the first system.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more user agents associated with the first user includes the first user agent.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the first system includes multiple computers in a distributed architecture that includes a plurality of nodes of computers;

and

determining that the multiple user agents associated with the first user are currently connected to the first system comprises performing a consensus technique to achieve strict consistency or eventual consistency of user agent data among the plurality of nodes.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein determining that the multiple user agents associated with the first user are currently connected to the first system comprises performing a lookup in a connections log that associates each active user-agent connection with a corresponding user identifier that indicates which user is associated with the active user-agent connection.

9. A computing system including one or more computers having memory and one or more processors, the computing system comprising:

a gateway subsystem, including one or more computers, configured to route application programming interface (API) calls submitted by user agents connected to the gateway subsystem to appropriate service subsystems of a plurality of service subsystems that provide respective online services to the user agents based on respective types of the API calls, wherein the gateway subsystem is arranged as a proxy between the user agents that are connected to the gateway subsystem and the plurality of service subsystems; and

an events hub, including one or more computers, configured to receive event messages from at least some of the plurality of service subsystems and to publish the received event messages for consumption by one or more consuming subsystems including the gateway subsystem, such that the one or more consuming subsystems indirectly receive event messages from the at least some of the plurality of service subsystems through the events hub rather than directly from the at least some of the plurality of service subsystems,

wherein at least a first published event message that is consumed by the gateway subsystem identifies a first user,

wherein the at least the first published event message is generated by one of the plurality of service subsystems to describe a result of the service subsystem'"'"'s performance of an operation responsive to an API call that was routed to the service subsystem from the gateway subsystem; and

wherein the gateway subsystem is further configured, in response to consuming the first published event message that identifies the first user;

(i) to determine every user agent that is associated with the first user and that is currently connected to the gateway subsystem, and

(ii) to transmit information that represents the first published event message to every user agent that is determined to be associated with the first user and currently connected to the gateway subsystem.

10. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the gateway subsystem is further configured to:

identify a second user that has permission to access an online session of the first user, and

based on identifying that the second user has permission to access the online session of the first user, transmit information that represents the first published event message to one or more user agents that are determined to be associated with the second user and that are currently connected to the gateway subsystem.

11. The computing system of claim 10, wherein the second user is a customer support representative or an information technology specialist.

12. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the information that represents the first published event message is the first published event message.

13. A gateway system for processing application programming interface (API) calls, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media encoded with instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

establishing, by the gateway system, connections with a plurality of user agents at one or more client computers, wherein the gateway system is configured as a proxy between the plurality of user agents and a plurality of service subsystems that provide respective online services;

receiving, by the gateway system, an API call from a first user agent of the plurality of user agents to which the gateway system is connected, the first user agent associated with a first user;

routing, by the gateway system, the received API call to a particular service subsystem of the plurality of service subsystems, thereby causing the particular service subsystem (i) perform an operation based on the received API call and (ii) to provide to a messaging system an event message that describes a result of the particular service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation based on the received API call,

wherein the gateway system routes the received API call to the particular service subsystem based on identifying that the particular service subsystem is configured to handle API calls of a same type as the received API call, and

wherein the messaging system is communicably coupled with each of the plurality of service subsystems and is configured to publish event messages received from each of the plurality of service subsystems including the particular service subsystem to a plurality of consumer systems including the gateway system, so that the plurality of consumer systems receive event messages generated by the plurality of service subsystems from the messaging system rather than directly from the plurality of service subsystems;

receiving, by the gateway system and from the messaging system rather than directly from the particular service subsystem, the event message that was generated by the particular service subsystem and that describes the result of the particular service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation based on the received API call, wherein the messaging system addresses the event message to the first user;

in response to receiving the event message that is addressed to the first user;

identifying, by the gateway system, one or more user agents associated with the first user; and

providing the event message from the gateway system to the one or more user agents associated with the first user.

14. The gateway system of claim 13, wherein the gateway system is configured to intercept API calls directed to the plurality of service subsystems and to route each intercepted API call to a respective service subsystem of the plurality of service subsystems that is determined to correspond to the intercepted API call.

15. The gateway system of claim 13, wherein the messaging system is implemented at an events hub that is configured as a messaging intermediary between the plurality of service subsystems and the plurality of consumer systems.

19. The gateway system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, by the gateway system, that multiple user agents associated with the first user, including the first user agent, are currently connected to the gateway system; and

providing the event message from the gateway system to each of the multiple user agents associated with the first user.