SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING COMMUNICATION FOR COMPONENT APPLICATIONS

• US 20100223560A1
• Filed: 05/14/2010
• Published: 09/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Shenfield, Michael, Bibr, Viera, Fritsch, Brindusa
• Granted Patent: US 8,446,911 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• 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 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers

Abstract

An application gateway server is provided for managing communication between an application executing in a runtime environment on a device and at least one backend server. The application gateway server comprises a message listener, a connector subsystem, and a messaging subsystem. The message listener receives messages from the component applications. The connector subsystem comprises a plurality of connectors, each of the plurality of connectors for communicating with one or more associated backend servers. The messaging subsystem comprises a message broker for processing messages received from the message listener and transmitting them to an associated one of the plurality of connectors and a communication mapping for identifying which of the plurality of connectors is to be used for each message in accordance with an origin of the message.

Claims

1. An application gateway server for managing communication between an application executing in a runtime environment on a wireless device and at least one backend server;

the application gateway server comprising;

(a) a message listener for receiving messages from the application;

(b) a connector subsystem comprising a plurality of connectors, each of the plurality of connectors for communicating with one or more associated backend servers using required transport protocols;

(c) a messaging subsystem comprising;

(i) a message broker for processing the messages received from the message listener and transmitting them to an associated one of the plurality of connectors; and

(ii) memory for storing a communication mapping for identifying a respective one of the plurality of connectors to be used for each respective one of the messages in accordance with the application originating the message.

2. The application gateway server of claim 1 wherein the application is a component application constructed as a series of metadata record using a structure definition language, the metadata records consisting of a number of pre-defined elements representing specific attributes of a resources such that each element can have one or more values.

3. The application gateway server of claim 2 wherein the component application metadata records comprises:

a data component defining data entities used by the component application;

a presentation component to define the appearance and behavior of the component application program as it is displayed by a user interface;

a message component to define a format of messages used by the component application program to communicate with the application gateway server; and

a workflow component for coordinating the execution of the application by the data, presentation and message components.

4. The application gateway server of claim 1, further comprising a lifecycle subsystem for maintaining a list of devices and corresponding applications installed thereon for use by the application gateway server in ensuring that valid messages are transmitted.

5. The application gateway server of claim 2, wherein the lifecycle subsystem is used by the application gateway for verifying the application transmitting the message for inhibiting the installation of malicious component applications.

6. The application gateway server of claim 2, wherein the lifecycle subsystem is used by the application gateway for verifying the application receiving a message from the backend server for reducing bandwidth used for erroneous messages.

7. The application gateway server of claim 1, wherein the communication mapping includes details about how to interpret the contents of the message before sending it to the backend servers.

8. The application gateway server of claim 3, further comprising a transformation subsystem for transforming the message between a compact message format, used to communicate between the wireless device and the application gateway server, and a format and a protocol defined by an internal message format used to communicate elsewhere.

9. A method for managing communication at an application gateway server between component application executing in a runtime environment on a wireless device and at least one backend server, the method comprising:

(a) receiving a messages from the application at a message listener;

(b) mapping the message to a destination backend server in accordance with a predefined communication mapping based on the application originating the message;

(c) delivering the message to a connector in accordance with the destination backend server;

(d) delivering the message to a corresponding one or more of the at least one backend server using transport protocols defined by the connector.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the application is a component application constructed as a series of metadata record using a structure definition language, the metadata records consisting of a number of pre-defined elements representing specific attributes of a resources such that each element can have one or more values.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the component application metadata records comprises:

a data component defining data entities used by the component application;

a presentation component to define the appearance and behavior of the component application program as it is displayed by a user interface;

a message component to define a format of messages used by the component application program to communicate with the application gateway server; and

a workflow component for coordinating the execution of the application by the data, presentation and message components.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the message is a registration for notification from the component application to a backend server, the method further comprising sending a message to the application indicating whether or not the registration for notification succeeded.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising decrypting the message received from the application.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising validating the message received from the application.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising transforming the message between a compact message format used to communicate between the device and the application gateway server and a format and a protocol defined an internal message format used to communicate elsewhere.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the delivery of the message to the backend server is synchronous.

17. The method of claim 9 further comprising verifying the application receiving a message from the backend server for reducing bandwidth used for erroneous messages.

18. A communication infrastructure comprising:

a plurality of wireless devices;

a communication network enabling the wireless device to communicate with at least one back end server;

an application gateway server for managing communication between an application executing in a runtime environment on one of the plurality of wireless devices and the at lest one backend server, the application gateway server comprising;

(a) a message listener for receiving messages from the application;

(b) a connector subsystem comprising a plurality of connectors, each of the plurality of connectors for communicating with one or more associated backend servers using required transport protocols;

(c) a messaging subsystem comprising;

(i) a message broker for processing the messages received from the message listener and transmitting them to an associated one of the plurality of connectors; and

(ii) memory for storing a communication mapping for identifying a respective one of the plurality of connectors to be used for each respective one of the messages in accordance with the application originating the message.

19. The communication infrastructure of claim 18 wherein the application is a component application constructed as a series of metadata record using a structure definition language, the metadata records consisting of a number of pre-defined elements representing specific attributes of a resources such that each element can have one or more values.

20. The communication infrastructure of claim 19 wherein the component application metadata records comprises:

a data component defining data entities used by the component application;

a presentation component to define the appearance and behavior of the component application program as it is displayed by a user interface;

a message component to define a format of messages used by the component application program to communicate with the application gateway server; and

a workflow component for coordinating the execution of the application by the data, presentation and message components.