CONDITIONAL REQUEST PROCESSING

• US 20150195377A1
• Filed: 01/09/2014
• Published: 07/09/2015
• 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: Elis, Filip, Nguyen, Filip
• Granted Patent: US 9,571,478 B2
• Time in Patent Office: 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, from a client, a request for processing, wherein processing of the request includes performing a set of operations based on an order;

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

determining whether a result of the authentication has been determined; and

while the request is pending authentication, initiating processing of the request, wherein when the set of operations is determined to include an I/O operation;

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

when the result of the authentication has not been determined, waiting for the result of the authentication to be determined; and

when the result of the authentication indicates that the request has been successfully authenticated, performing one or more remaining operations of the set of operations that has not been processed and determining 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.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

authenticating the request from the client.

3. The method of claim 1, further including:

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.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining whether a result of the authentication has been determined includes reading the authentication flag value stored in the data structure.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the data structure is a hash table that stores one or more mappings of a request identifier to a value.

6. The method of claim 3, 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

when the instance is determined to not be of the first type, loading the requested class.

7. The method of claim 6, further including:

when the instance is determined to be 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;

when the identified value indicates that the first request has been successfully authenticated, loading the requested class;

when 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;

when the requested class is determined to not be included in the list, loading the requested class; and

when the requested class is determined to be included in the list;

waiting for a time period;

determining whether the first request has been authenticated; and

when the result of the authentication indicates that the request has been successfully authenticated, loading the class.

8. The method of claim 1, further including:

when the set of operations is determined to not include an I/O operation, performing, based on the order, the set of operations.

9. The method of claim 1, further including:

when the result of the authentication indicates that the request has failed authentication, halting processing of the request.

10. The method of claim 1, further including:

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

11. The method of claim 1, further including:

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

12. 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.

13. 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; and

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,

wherein while the request is pending authentication, the Web service initiates processing of the request, and wherein when the set of operations is determined to include an 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) when the result of the authentication has not been determined, the Web service waits for the result of the authentication to be determined, and (iii) when 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.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the Web service ensures that no I/O operations are performed until the request has been successfully authenticated.

15. The system of claim 13, further including:

a security component that authenticates the request from the client.

16. The system of claim 15, further including:

a memory that stores a data structure, wherein the data structure stores one or more associations between a request identifier and a value, 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, and wherein the security component sets the first value based on whether the request has been successfully authenticated or has failed authentication.

17. The system of claim 15, 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.

18. The system of claim 13, 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.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein when the set of operations is determined to not include an I/O operation, the Web service performs, based on the order, the set of operations, and wherein when the result of the authentication indicates that the request has failed authentication, the Web service stops processing the request.

20. A 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, from a client, a request for processing, wherein processing of the request includes performing a set of operations based on an order;

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

determining whether a result of the authentication has been determined; and

while the request is pending authentication, initiating processing of the request, wherein when the set of operations is determined to include an I/O operation;

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

when the result of the authentication has not been determined, waiting for the result of the authentication to be determined; and

when the result of the authentication indicates that the request has been successfully authenticated, performing one or more remaining operations of the set of operations that has not been processed and determining 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.