Executing dynamically assigned functions while providing services

• US 8,572,576 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2006
• Issued: 10/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Elvanoglu, Ferhan, Pierce, Shaun D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAYIM, SAMUEL E
• Application Number:
  US11/347,448
• Publication Number:
  US 20060150140A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,825 Days
• Field of Search: 717/127
• US Class Current: 717/127
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/543 User-generated data transfer, e.g. clipboards, dynamic data exchange [DDE], object linking and embedding [OLE]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1863 comprising mechanisms for improved reliability, e.g. status reports arrangements for detecting or preventing errors by carrying supervisory signal the return channel H04L1/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1425 Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products for applying actions during server system processing. Functional processing blocks where actions may be applied to a service request are identified. actions are dynamically associated with functional processing blocks. During execution of a functional processing block, a check is performed to determine whether an action is associated with the functional processing block. If an action is associated with a functional processing block, the action is applied during the functional processing block'"'"'s execution. An evaluation may be performed to determine if an action should be applied before or after the functional processing block. The server system may comprise an XML data repository, providing access to XML data, based on identity information which is received with a client system request. A portion of the server system may be described in accordance with an XML schema.

Claims

1. A server system configured to provide a service, the server system comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium that is not a signal or carrier wave parse, that stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of the server system, cause the server system to perform a method for dynamically executing one of a plurality of functions at any of a plurality of processing blocks that are performed by the server system in providing the service to at least one client system, wherein the method comprises:

defining, in response to a request from a client system of the at least one client system, the plurality of processing blocks that are performed by the server system in providing the service, the plurality of processing blocks defined within a plurality of processing layers of the service, the plurality of processing layers including at least a parsing layer atop a security layer atop a cryptography layer atop a service layer, where each of the plurality of processing layers includes a request processing component and a response processing component, where the request processing component of the parsing layer is configured for parsing the request and for indicating that processing is to continue with the response processing component of the parsing layer or with the request processing component of the security layer that is configured for determining an identity associated with the request and for indicating that the processing is to continue with the response processing component of the security layer or with the request processing component of the cryptography layer that is configured for decrypting the request and for indicating that the processing is to continue with the response processing component of the cryptography layer or with the request processing component of the service layer that is configured for performing a method indicated by the request for indicating that the processing is to continue with the service response component; and

dynamically assigning, by the server system in response to the defining, at least one of the plurality of functions to at least one of the plurality of processing blocks, wherein the plurality of functions is configured to include predefined functions, custom functions, logging functions, and filtering functions, wherein the dynamically assigning is based on an action association list that indicates which of the plurality of functions is to be assigned to which of the plurality of processing blocks, and that further indicates whether an assigned one of the plurality of functions is to be assigned to be executed before or after its corresponding assigned one of the plurality of processing blocks, wherein the action association list identifies various of the plurality of processing blocks within various of the plurality of processing layers of the service, wherein the action association list specifies some of the plurality of functions to be executed before some of the plurality of processing blocks, and wherein the action association list further specifies others of the plurality of functions to be executed after others of the plurality of processing blocks.

2. A server system as recited in claim 1, the method further comprising evaluating whether the at least one dynamically assigned function should be executed either before or after the at least one of the plurality of processing blocks.

3. A server system as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of processing blocks enable processing requests from the at least one client system, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, from the client system, the request for the service;

generating, in response to the request and by the service, a response; and

sending the response to the client system.

4. A server system as recited in claim 3, wherein the request and the response comprise data organized hierarchically within a network message, and wherein the hierarchically organized data comprises extensible Markup Language (“

XML”

) formatted data, and wherein the network message comprises a Simple Object Access Protocol (“

SOAP”

) network message.

5. A server system as recited in claim 4, wherein the hierarchically organized data comprises binary data.

6. A server system as recited in claim 1, wherein the server system comprises an eXtensible Markup Language (“

XML”

) data repository configured to provide access to XML data based on identity information that is received with the request from the client system.

7. A server system as recited in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises describing at least a portion of the server system in accordance with an eXtensible Markup Language (“

XML”

) schema.

8. A server system as recited in claim 7, wherein the plurality of layers further comprise a security layer, a cryptography layer, and a service layer.

9. A server system as recited in claim 1, the method further comprising:

executing, in response to the request, one of the plurality of processing blocks and its corresponding assigned one of the plurality of functions;

detecting, based on the executed assigned of the plurality of functions, a filtering condition;

terminating, based on the detecting, any further processing of the request; and

generating a response that includes information about the detected filtering condition.

10. A server system as recited in claim 1, wherein the parsing layer is configured to determine that there are errors with the request.

11. A method comprising:

identifying a plurality of functional processing blocks that are each identified within a plurality of processing layers of a service provided by a server system that is a computing device, the plurality of processing layers including at least a parsing layer atop a security layer atop a cryptography layer atop a service layer, where each of the plurality of processing layers includes a request processing component and a response processing component, where the request processing component of the parsing layer is configured for parsing the request and for indicating that processing is to continue with the response processing component of the parsing layer or with the request processing component of the security layer that is configured for determining an identity associated with the request and for indicating that the processing is to continue with the response processing component of the security layer or with the request processing component of the cryptography layer that is configured for decrypting the request and for indicating that the processing is to continue with the response processing component of the cryptography layer or with the request processing component of the service layer that is configured for performing a method indicated by the request for indicating that the processing is to continue with the service response component; and

dynamically associating, by a computer in response to the identifying, at least one of a plurality of functions with at least one of the plurality of processing blocks, wherein the plurality of functions is configured to include predefined functions, custom functions, logging functions, and filtering functions, wherein the filtering functions are each configured to terminate further processing based on content in a request, wherein the dynamically associating is based on an action association list that indicates which of the plurality of filtering functions is to be assigned to which of the plurality of functional processing blocks, wherein the action association list identifies various of the plurality of processing blocks within various of the plurality of processing layers of the service, wherein the action association list specifies some of the plurality of functions to be executed before some of the plurality of processing blocks, and wherein the action association list further specifies others of the plurality of functions to be executed after others of the plurality of processing blocks.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the dynamically associating comprises evaluating whether each of the plurality of filtering functions is to be applied before or after its assigned of the plurality of functional processing blocks.

13. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the method further comprises responding to a client system in response to a request from the client system for a service.

14. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein a request from a client system and a response to the client system each comprise data organized hierarchically within a network message, the hierarchically organized data comprising eXtensible Markup Language (“

XML”

) formatted data, and the network message comprising a Simple Object Access Protocol (“

SOAP”

) network message.

15. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the server system comprises data that can be manipulated with eXtensible Markup Language (“

XML”

), and wherein access to the data is governed by the identity of the requestor.

16. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the server system comprises a plurality of processing layers, and wherein the plurality of layers comprise at least one of a security layer, a cryptography layer, and a service layer, and wherein each of the plurality of filtering actions is configured to terminate processing of the request wherein the request includes spam or pornographic material or unsolicited content.

17. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the method further comprises dynamically disassociating at least one of the plurality of filtering functions from at least one of the plurality of functional processing blocks.