MESSAGE DELIVERY IN A MESSAGE SYSTEM

• US 20170244657A1
• Filed: 02/22/2016
• Published: 08/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: BALDWIN, Timothy J., JOHNSON, Andrew, JOHNSON, Peter J., XU, Fenglian
• Granted Patent: US 10,225,219 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/562 Brokering proxy services

Abstract

Control of message delivery from publisher devices to a subscriber application of a messaging system is provided. The subscriber application has a subscription registered with a broker application of the messaging system and is only permitted to receive messages relating to a topic of the subscription from a predetermined set of one or more publisher devices. The method includes: altering a topic identifier of a message from a publisher device to a modified topic identifier, and altering a subscription identifier from a subscriber application to a modified subscription identifier; analyzing the modified topic identifier and the modified subscription identifier to determine if the message is to be communicated to the subscriber application, and if so, information is removed from the modified topic identifier to form a reverted topic identifier, and the message and reverted topic identifier are communicated to the subscriber application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of controlling message delivery from publisher devices to a subscriber application of a messaging system, the subscriber application having a subscription registered with a broker application of the messaging system and only being permitted to receive messages relating to a topic of the subscription from a predetermined set of one or more publisher devices, the method comprising:

altering a topic identifier of a message from a publisher device to a modified topic identifier comprising a description of the topic of the message, and a set of one or more publisher devices that the publisher device belongs to;

altering a subscription identifier from a subscriber application to a modified subscription identifier comprising a description of the topic of the subscription, and a predetermined set of one or more publisher devices that a message is permitted to be received from;

analyzing the modified topic identifier and the modified subscription identifier to determine if the message is to be communicated to the subscriber application; and

if the message is to be communicated to the subscriber application, removing the description of the set of one or more publisher devices that the publisher device belongs to from the modified topic identifier to form a reverted topic identifier, and communicating the message and reverted topic identifier to the subscriber application.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the removing the description of the set of one or more publisher devices that the publisher device belongs to from the modified topic identifier is undertaken such that the reverted topic identifier is identical to the topic identifier of the message from the publisher device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the altering the topic identifier or the altering the subscription identifier is undertaken by a proxy application adapted to intercept at least one of messages or subscription identifiers being communicated to or from the broker application.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

communicating the message and the modified topic identifier from the proxy application to the broker application;

communicating the modified subscription identifier from the proxy application to the broker application;

and wherein the analyzing the modified topic identifier and the modified subscription identifier is undertaken by the broker application.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the description of the topic of the subscription comprises a string supporting wildcard entries, and wherein the description of the topic of the message comprises a string.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the broker application is a Message Queuing Telemetry Transport, MQTT, broker application.

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

obtaining a data structure describing a plurality of different sets of one more publisher devices; and

wherein the altering the topic identifier comprises analyzing the obtained data structure to identify the set of one or more publisher devices that the publisher device belongs to.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the altering the subscription identifier comprises analyzing the obtained data structure to identify the set of one or more publisher devices that a message is permitted to be received from.

9. A computer program product for controlling message delivery from publisher devices to a subscriber application of a messaging system, the subscriber application having a subscription registered with a broker application of the messaging system and only being permitted to receive messages relating to a topic of the subscription from a predetermined set of one or more publisher devices, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processing unit to cause the processing unit to perform a method comprising;

altering a subscription identifier from a subscriber application to a modified subscription identifier comprising a description of the topic of the subscription, and a predetermined set of one or more publisher devices that a message is permitted to be received from;

analyzing the modified topic identifier and the modified subscription identifier to determine if the message is to be communicated to the subscriber application; and

wherein the message is to be communicated to the subscriber application, removing the description of the set of one or more publisher devices that the publisher device belongs to from the modified topic identifier to form a reverted topic identifier, and communicating the message and reverted topic identifier to the subscriber application.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the removing the description of the set of one or more publisher devices that the publisher device belongs to from the modified topic identifier is undertaken such that the reverted topic identifier is identical to the topic identifier of the message from the publisher device.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein at least one of the altering the topic identifier or the altering the subscription identifier is undertaken by a proxy application adapted to intercept at least one of messages or subscription identifiers being communicated to or from the broker application.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

communicating the message and the modified topic identifier from the proxy application to the broker application;

communicating the modified subscription identifier from the proxy application to the broker application;

and wherein the analyzing the modified topic identifier and the modified subscription identifier is undertaken by the broker application.

13. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the description of the topic of the subscription comprises a string supporting wildcard entries, and wherein the description of the topic of the message comprises a string.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the broker application is a Message Queuing Telemetry Transport, MQTT, broker application.

15. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising:

obtaining a data structure describing a plurality of different sets of one more publisher devices; and

wherein the altering the topic identifier comprises analyzing the obtained data structure to identify the set of one or more publisher devices that the publisher device belongs to.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the altering the subscription identifier comprises analyzing the obtained data structure to identify the set of one or more publisher devices that a message is permitted to be received from.

17. A system for controlling message delivery from publisher devices to a subscriber application of a messaging system, the subscriber application having a subscription registered with a broker application of the messaging system and only being permitted to receive messages relating to a topic of the subscription from a predetermined set of one or more publisher devices, the system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein the system performs a method comprising;

altering a subscription identifier from a subscriber application to a modified subscription identifier comprising a description of the topic of the subscription, and a predetermined set of one or more publisher devices that a message is permitted to be received from;

analyzing the modified topic identifier and the modified subscription identifier to determine if the message is to be communicated to the subscriber application; and

wherein the message is to be communicated to the subscriber application, removing the description of the set of one or more publisher devices that the publisher device belongs to from the modified topic identifier to form a reverted topic identifier, and communicating the message and reverted topic identifier to the subscriber application.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the removing the description of the set of one or more publisher devices that the publisher device belongs to from the modified topic identifier is undertaken such that the reverted topic identifier is identical to the topic identifier of the message from the publisher device.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein at least one of the altering the topic identifier or the altering the subscription identifier is undertaken by a proxy application adapted to intercept at least one of messages or subscription identifiers being communicated to or from the broker application.

20. The system of claim 17. further comprising:

communicating the message and the modified topic identifier from the proxy application to the broker application;

communicating the modified subscription identifier from the proxy application to the broker application;

and wherein the analyzing the modified topic identifier and the modified subscription identifier is undertaken by the broker application.