Reactive API gateway

• US 10,693,988 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2019
• Issued: 06/23/2020
• 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:
  US16/258,885
• Publication Number:
  US 20190260844A1
• Time in Patent Office: 512 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 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:

receiving, by a proxy system and from a first user agent, an API call that relates to a service provided by a first service subsystem, wherein the proxy system is configured as a proxy for a plurality of service subsystems including the first service subsystem;

routing, by the proxy system, the API call to the first service subsystem to cause the first service subsystem to perform an operation responsive to the API call and to communicate a result of the operation to a messaging system, wherein the messaging system is distinct from both the proxy system and the first service subsystem and is configured to publish messages from each of the plurality of service subsystems for which the proxy system is configured as a proxy;

receiving, by the proxy system and from the messaging system rather than directly from the first service subsystem, an indication of the result of the first service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation responsive to the API call from the first user agent; and

in response to receiving the indication of the result of the first service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation responsive to the API call from the first user agent, returning a message that is based on the indication of the result to one or more user agents associated with a user of the first user agent.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein proxy system comprises a gateway that is configured as a reverse proxy to the plurality of service subsystems including the first service subsystem.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein returning the message that is based on the indication of the result of the first service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation responsive to the API call comprises returning the message to the first user agent.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein returning the message that is based on the indication of the result of the first service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation responsive to the API call comprises returning the message to at least one user agent other than the first user agent;

the method further comprising determining, by the proxy system, to return the message to the at least one user agent based on identifying that the user of the first user agent is currently connected to the proxy system through the at least one user agent other than the first user agent.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the first user agent and the at least one user agent collectively comprise at least two user agents located on distinct computing devices.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising identifying, by the proxy system, that the user of the first user agent is currently connected to the proxy system through the at least one user agent other than the first user agent by (i) identifying that the indication of the result as received from the messaging system is addressed to the user of the first user agent and (ii) performing a lookup in a connections log that associates each active user agent connected to the proxy system with a corresponding user identifier to identify each active user agent associated with the user of the first user agent.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the API call received from the first user agent 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.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing, by the proxy system, respective connections with a plurality of user agents including one or more second user agents associated with a second user;

identifying, by the proxy system, that the second user appears in a blacklist of users that are blocked from maintaining connections with the proxy system; and

in response to identifying that the second user appears in the blacklist, automatically terminating the respective connections with the one or more second user agents associated with the second user.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first user agent comprises a web browsing application on a mobile computing device or a desktop computing device, and the messaging system comprises an events hub.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the proxy system is arranged according to a distributed architecture having a plurality of computing nodes, and the proxy system is configured to determine when it is connected to multiple user agents associated with a same user based at least on execution of a consensus algorithm to achieve strict or eventual consistency of user agent connection data among the plurality of computing nodes.

11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by a proxy system and from a first user agent, an API call that relates to a service provided by a first service subsystem, wherein the proxy system is configured as a proxy for a plurality of service subsystems including the first service subsystem;

routing, by the proxy system, the API call to the first service subsystem to cause the first service subsystem to perform an operation responsive to the API call and to communicate a result of the operation to a messaging system, wherein the messaging system is distinct from both the proxy system and the first service subsystem and is configured to publish messages from each of the plurality of service subsystems for which the proxy system is configured as a proxy;

receiving, by the proxy system and from the messaging system rather than directly from the first service subsystem, an indication of the result of the first service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation responsive to the API call from the first user agent; and

in response to receiving the indication of the result of the first service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation responsive to the API call from the first user agent, returning a message that is based on the indication of the result to one or more user agents associated with a user of the first user agent.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein proxy system comprises a gateway that is configured as a reverse proxy to the plurality of service subsystems including the first service subsystem.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein returning the message that is based on the indication of the result of the first service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation responsive to the API call comprises returning the message to the first user agent.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein returning the message that is based on the indication of the result of the first service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation responsive to the API call comprises returning the message to at least one user agent other than the first user agent;

the operations further comprise determining, by the proxy system, to return the message to the at least one user agent based on identifying that the user of the first user agent is currently connected to the proxy system through the at least one user agent other than the first user agent.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the first user agent and the at least one user agent collectively comprise at least two user agents located on distinct computing devices.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise identifying, by the proxy system, that the user of the first user agent is currently connected to the proxy system through the at least one user agent other than the first user agent by (i) identifying that the indication of the result as received from the messaging system is addressed to the user of the first user agent and (ii) performing a lookup in a connections log that associates each active user agent connected to the proxy system with a corresponding user identifier to identify each active user agent associated with the user of the first user agent.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the API call received from the first user agent 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.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

establishing, by the proxy system, respective connections with a plurality of user agents including one or more second user agents associated with a second user;

identifying, by the proxy system, that the second user appears in a blacklist of users that are blocked from maintaining connections with the proxy system; and

in response to identifying that the second user appears in the blacklist, automatically terminating the respective connections with the one or more second user agents associated with the second user.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the proxy system is arranged according to a distributed architecture having a plurality of computing nodes, and the proxy system is configured to determine when it is connected to multiple user agents associated with a same user based at least on execution of a consensus algorithm to achieve strict or eventual consistency of user agent connection data among the plurality of computing nodes.

20. A proxy system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising;

receiving, by the proxy system and from a first user agent, an API call that relates to a service provided by a first service subsystem, wherein the proxy system is configured as a proxy for a plurality of service subsystems including the first service subsystem;

routing, by the proxy system, the API call to the first service subsystem to cause the first service subsystem to perform an operation responsive to the API call and to communicate a result of the operation to a messaging system, wherein the messaging system is distinct from both the proxy system and the first service subsystem and is configured to publish messages from each of the plurality of service subsystems for which the proxy system is configured as a proxy;

receiving, by the proxy system and from the messaging system rather than directly from the first service subsystem, an indication of the result of the first service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation responsive to the API call from the first user agent; and

in response to receiving the indication of the result of the first service subsystem'"'"'s performance of the operation responsive to the API call from the first user agent, returning a message that is based on the indication of the result to one or more user agents associated with a user of the first user agent.