Message brokering

• US 20030126229A1
• Filed: 08/15/2002
• Published: 07/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Patterson, Andrew, Sadler, Andrew, Turvey, David, Kantor, Jiri, McMillan, Craig, Bevis, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,653,679 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1016 Devices or methods for securing the PIN and other transaction-data, e.g. by encryption arrangements for secret communication, see H04L9/00

Abstract

Disclosed is a message brokering mechanism (120, 220) for performing a recovery operation in a transaction processing system (100, 200), comprising first and second stages (221, 222) operable to exchange message requests and responses. The first stage (221) is operable to receive a message request from a message source (110, 210) and to check whether the message request is a special message request. This may be by way of checking if a recovery attribute of the message request is set. A normal message request may have a recovery attribute that is not set. If the message request is a special message request, it can be dispatched to the second stage. If the message request is a normal message request, it may be dispatched to the second stage only if the normal message request is not a repeat normal message request.

Claims

1. A message brokering mechanism operable to perform a recovery operation in a transaction processing system, comprising first and second stages operable to exchange message requests and responses, wherein the first stage is operable to receive a message request from a message source and to check whether the message request is a special message request comprising a recovery attribute.

2. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein special message requests are identified by the state of a recovery attribute of the message request being set and normal message requests are identified by the state of the recovery attribute of the message request not being set.

3. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the first stage is operable to dispatch special message requests to the second stage.

4. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the first stage is operable to dispatch normal message requests to the second stage conditional on the message request not being a repeat normal message request.

5. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the first stage is further operable to check whether there is an existing first stage response to a normal message request and, conditional on there being an existing first stage response, to dispatch the existing first stage response to the message source.

6. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the first stage is further operable to dispatch a message indicating that a response to the message request is not ready for transmission to the message source, conditional on there being no existing first stage response to a normal message request that has been dispatched previously to the second stage.

7. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the second stage is operable to check whether there is an existing second stage response to the message request and, conditional on there being an existing second stage response, to dispatch the existing second stage response to the first stage.

8. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the second stage comprises a message queue mechanism.

9. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the second stage is further operable to check that an actioned response has been dispatched from the message processor in response to the message request.

10. The message brokering mechanism of claim 9, wherein the second stage is operable to check that any said actioned response has been dispatched from the message processor in response to the message request after the elapse of a predetermined time period.

11. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the message processor and the second stage are operable to communicate using query messages implemented according to a query protocol.

12. The message brokering mechanism of claim 11, wherein the query messages indicate one or more of the following:

a) that the message processor has processed the message request;

b) the result of processing the message request;

c) that the message processor is currently processing the message request;

d) that the second stage is to await the result of processing the message request; and

e) that the second stage is to re-dispatch the message request to the message processor.

13. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein the second stage is operable to time out special message requests for which there is no response.

14. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, comprising a recovery mechanism acting as a message source, wherein the recovery mechanism is operable to identify message requests eligible for restarting, to convert the message requests eligible for restarting to special message requests, and to dispatch the special message requests to the first stage.

15. The message brokering mechanism of claim 14, wherein the recovery mechanism identifies message requests eligible for restarting by checking whether corresponding responses exist at one or more of the first and second stages.

16. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second stages is operable to record the identities of dispatched message requests.

17. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second stages is operable to record the attributes of dispatched message requests.

18. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second stages is operable to record responses generated in response to message requests.

19. The message brokering mechanism of claim 1, wherein message requests and responses are dispatched between the first and second stages by a transaction control mechanism.

20. The message brokering mechanism of claim 19, wherein the transaction control mechanism comprises a transaction server operable to dispatch message requests and responses over a network.

21. A transaction processing system comprising the message brokering mechanism of claim 1.

50. A program element comprising program code operable to provide the message brokering mechanism according to claim 1.

51. The program element of claim 50 on a carrier medium.

22. A method of performing a recovery in an automated transaction processing system, comprising:

checking for incomplete responses to message requests;

setting a special recovery attribute of any message requests for which there is no response or a non-actioned response; and

re-dispatching the incomplete message requests as special message requests to the automated transaction processing system for further processing.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising initiating the recovery process upon receiving a message request with a set recovery initiation attribute.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising screening repeat normal message requests or messages not having a set special recovery attribute at a first stage.

25. The method of any one of claim 22, further comprising screening repeat special message requests at a second stage, conditional on there being an existing actioned response.

54. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied in said computer usable medium operable to effect the performance of a recovery operation in a transaction processing system, said computer readable program code comprising computer readable program code for causing at least one computer to implement the method of claim 22.

55. The computer program product of claim 54 wherein the computer usable medium comprises one of the following set of media:

a signal, a magnetic disk or tape, solid-state memory, a compact disk and a digital versatile disk.

26. A method of brokering messages for performing a recovery operation in a transaction processing system having first and second stages operable to exchange message requests and responses, the method comprising:

receiving a message request from a message source at a first stage; and

checking whether the message request is a special message request.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the step of checking whether the message request is a special message request comprises checking a recovery attribute of the message request.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein special message requests are identified by the recovery attribute being set.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein normal message requests are identified by the recovery attribute not being set.

30. The method of claim 26, further comprising dispatching the message request to a second stage, conditional on the message request being a special message request.

31. The method of claim 26, further comprising dispatching the message request to the second stage conditional on the message request not being a repeat normal message request.

32. The method of claim 26, further comprising checking whether there is an existing first stage response to a normal message request and dispatching the existing first stage response to the message source, conditional on there being an existing first stage response.

33. The method of claim 26, further comprising dispatching a message indicating that a response to the message request is not ready for transmission to the message source, conditional on there being no existing first stage response to a normal message request.

34. The method of claim 26, further comprising checking whether there is an existing second stage response to normal or special message requests at the second stage and, conditional on there being an existing second stage response, to dispatch the existing second stage response to the first stage.

35. The method of claim 26, further comprising checking that an actioned response has been dispatched from a message processor in response to the message request.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising checking that any said actioned response has been dispatched from the message processor in response to the message request after the elapse of a predetermined time period.

37. The method of claim 35, further comprising the message processor and the second stage communicating using query messages implemented according to a query protocol.

38. The method of claim 26, further comprising timing out special message requests for which there is no response.

39. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

identifying message requests eligible for restarting;

converting the message requests eligible for restarting to special message requests; and

dispatching the special message requests to the first stage.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising identifying message requests eligible for restarting by checking whether corresponding existing responses exist at one or more of the first and second stages.

41. The method of claim 26, further comprising recording the identities of dispatched message requests.

42. The method of claim 26, further comprising recording the attributes of dispatched message requests.

43. The method of claim 26, further comprising recording responses generated in response to message requests.

44. The method of claim 26, further comprising dispatching message requests and responses between the first and second stages through a transaction control mechanism.

45. The method of claim 44, comprising operating a transaction server to dispatch message requests and responses over a network.

46. A first stage logic module operable to carry out the method of claim 26.

47. A program element comprising program code operable to configure a data processing apparatus to provide the first stage logic module according to claim 46.

48. A second stage logic module operable to carry out the method of claim 34.

49. A program element comprising program code operable to configure a data processing apparatus to provide the second stage logic module according to claim 48.

52. A transaction processing system, comprising:

at least one request generating apparatus operably coupled to a first network;

a first stage operably coupled to the first network to receive message requests from and to dispatch message responses corresponding to respective processed message requests to the at least one request generating apparatus through the first network;

a transaction controller server operably coupled to the first stage to receive message requests therefrom and to dispatch message responses thereto;

a second stage operably coupled to the transaction controller server to receive message requests therefrom and to dispatch message responses thereto; and

a transaction processing apparatus coupled to the second stage to process requests received therefrom and dispatch message responses corresponding to respective processed message requests thereto;

wherein the transaction processing system is operable to initiate a transaction recovery process without entering a special operational recovery mode.

53. The transaction processing system of claim 52, wherein the transaction controller server is operatively coupled to the second stage through a second network.