Dynamic extension of network-accessible services

• US 7,418,501 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2004
• Issued: 08/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Davis, Douglas B., Gerken, John K. III
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne; Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): Elchanti; Hussein
• Application Number:
  US10/836,692
• Publication Number:
  US 20060031441A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,579 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/223, 709/225, 709/226
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Services deployed in a network computing environment (such as a Web services implementation model) are transparently extended. Preferably, handler components in an engine that processes requests and responses provide the extensions. A handler for outgoing messages adds the extensions to a response message that is created responsive to receiving a request message that asks for a service'"'"'s available operations. A client receiving this response message can then invoke one of the extensions, without knowing that it is an extension. A handler for incoming messages checks received requests: if a request for an extension is received, the handler routes that message to a location other than the service itself; otherwise, incoming requests for operations that are actually available from the service are routed thereto. Extensions may provide additional operations such as, but not limited to, management operations, dynamic enabling/disabling of service operations, and/or controlled access to service operations—even though the service itself might contain no operations for these.

Claims

1. A method of dynamically extending operations available from a network-accessible service, comprising:

receiving, at an engine from a client, a request for a list of operations available by invoking the network-accessible service, the engine adapted for processing the request using a pre-processing handler set and a post-processing handler set, the pre-processing handler set comprising at least one pre-processing handler and the post-processing handler set comprising at least one post-processing handler;

inserting, into the pre-processing handler set, an additional pre-processing handler and into the post-processing handler set, an additional post-processing handler;

creating, by the engine responsive to receiving the request, a response comprising a markup-language document specifying, as the requested list, a first set comprising at least one operation that is available by invoking the network-accessible service; and

programmatically annotating the markup-language document, by the inserted additional post-processing handler, to also specify, in the requested list, a second set comprising at least one operation that is not available by invoking the network-accessible service, such that the response specifies the first set and the second set as the list of operations that are available by invoking the network-accessible service, wherein the additional pre-processing handler is adapted to respond to a subsequent request for invoking any of the at least one operation from the second set by invoking code not deployed in the network-accessible service.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of sending the programmatically-annotated response to the client.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first set is determined by consulting a deployment descriptor specification corresponding to the network-accessible service and the second set is determined by consulting a data structure separate from the deployment descriptor specification.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second set comprises at least one management operation for managing the network-accessible service.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

subsequently receiving, at the engine from the client, a later-sent request for invoking a particular one of the at least one operation from the first set; and

invoking, responsive to receiving the later-sent request, the particular operation on the network-accessible service.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

subsequently receiving, at the engine from the client, the subsequent request for invoking a particular one of the at least one operation from the second set; and

invoking, by the engine responsive to receiving the subsequent request, the particular operation from the code not deployed in the network-accessible service using information provided for the invoking by the inserted additional pre-processing handler.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the subsequently-received request is rejected by the inserted additional pre-processing handler, instead of performing the invoking, if the client is not authorized to invoke the particular operation.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second set comprises at least one status-changing operation that operates to dynamically change availability of the at least one operation in the first set.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein a selected one of the at least one status-changing operation is an operation that must be invoked to dynamically enable use of any of the at least one operation in the first set.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein a selected one of the at least one status-changing operation is an operation that, when invoked, dynamically disables use of any of the at least one operation in the first set.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the at least one operation in the second set is dynamically selected based on a role of a user of the client.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the at least one operation in the second set is dynamically selected based on permissions of a user of the client.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the at least one operation in the second set is dynamically selected based on authorization of a user of the client.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the at least one operation in the second set is dynamically selected based on current run-time information.

15. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

subsequently receiving, at the engine from the client, the subsequent request for invoking a particular one of the at least one operation from the second set;

determining, by the inserted additional pre-processing handler, whether the client is authorized to invoke the particular operation;

invoking the particular operation from a location other than the network-accessible service, if the determining has a positive result; and

not invoking the particular operation otherwise.