Electrical computers and digital processing systems: interprogra – Interprogram communication using message
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-01
2004-12-28
Courtenay III, St. John (Department: 2126)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: interprogra
Interprogram communication using message
C709S246000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06836890
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to electronic messaging and in particular, to electronic messaging in a networked environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern businesses rely heavily on computer systems. Businesses frequently need one computer system to communicate with a second computer system, or for one application to communicate with another.
Unfortunately, computer systems, operating systems, and applications often lack sufficient uniformity to allow the communication to easily occur. One of the problems that has been encountered is that different computer systems, operating systems, and applications often use different and incompatible formats and messaging standards, i.e., one computer does not speak the other computer's language. The problem can be exacerbated as platforms shift, applications and equipment become obsolete, standards change, business partners change, and so on. Proprietary message definitions are also common and can also result in incompatible message formats between systems.
One technique for addressing this problem is to use software, often termed “Middleware,” that converts or maps an inbound message from a first system to an outbound message for a second system. After conversion, the outbound message is readable by the second system.
Conventional middleware solutions have many drawbacks. Conventional middleware systems map an entire inbound message to an inbound message structure in one large resource intensive step. When the inbound message is relatively large, e.g., several megabytes, mapping of the inbound message can consume a relatively large amount of memory for a relatively long period of time. When the system is busy mapping a large inbound message in one long step, the system may not be able to service a smaller, but higher priority message in an acceptably prompt manner.
A further disadvantage of a conventional middleware solution is that data in the inbound message structure can be difficult to extract. Conventional middleware solutions follow a simple, but rigid, set of rules that maintains data only in leaves of a tree structure hierarchy. Nodes of a conventional middleware solution do not contain data. Hence, when a user or another system desires to access data, the user navigates up and down through the tree structure hierarchy until the leaves with data are found. The process can be frustrating and time consuming.
A further disadvantage of conventional middleware solutions is that the structure of the mapping operation is predefined and inflexible. Thus, a system analyst predicts all combinations of mapping structures and creates those structures. When an inbound message does not correspond to an existing predefined structure, the system analyst creates a new mapping structure to facilitate the mapping of the inbound message. As a result, the system stores a myriad of mapping structures and when needed, the system tests each structure for compatibility with the inbound message.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention efficiently parse or translate inbound messages into outbound messages such that disparate computer systems can communicate intelligibly.
Embodiments of the present invention can efficiently reuse existing message structure and advantageously adapt the behavior of the message structure to new message requirements. For example, single character delimiters of a message structure can be redefined such as to correspond to compound character delimiters, such as those found in HTML and XML messages. A user can also advantageously access data in both nodes and leaves and thus does not need to know the exact location of stored data. One method according to an embodiment of the invention advantageously updates a message structure, containing data in both nodes and leaves, without having to reparse an entire inbound message, thus preserving valuable resources such as memory space and CPU cycles for other tasks. Another method according to an embodiment of the invention recurses a message structure such that relatively fewer message structures can adapt to a relatively greater variety of message formats, thus allowing the system to reduce the amount of memory dedicated to storing message structures and to reduce the number of different message structures that are tested for compatibility with a message.
One system in accordance with the present invention flexibly permits an operator to configure the identity of characters used as delimiters in the inbound message. A delimiter can span multiple characters and includes the logical inverse of a set of delimiters.
One aspect of the present invention is a system that permits the selecting parsing of a portion of an inbound message, enhancing efficiency by preserving time and resources that would otherwise be consumed while parsing undesired portions. In one embodiment, a user is permitted to specify a byte position within a message from which to start parsing, and the user also specifies a node within a message structure used to parse the structure.
Another aspect of the present invention is a system that permits a structured event (the inbound message as mapped to an inbound message structure) to be accessed at nodes within a hierarchy, as well as leaves. Thus, a user need not know the precise location of data within the structured event. A set of-updating rules further permits the updating of an outbound message without having to re-parse an entire inbound message.
One system recursively parses the inbound message such that relatively fewer inbound message structure definitions are required and advantageously decreases the usage of resources by the system. Recursive parsing allows for the parsing of inbound messages without necessarily having to predefine a fixed message structure that fits the inbound message. One embodiment further allows access to data in a recursively generated message structure.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6067579 (2000-05-01), Hardman et al.
patent: 6529972 (2003-03-01), Coffman
patent: 6668284 (2003-12-01), Parkhurst
patent: 2002/0035606 (2002-03-01), Kenton
“Method for Parsing an Arbitrary Hierarchical Data Stream”, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Feb. 1978, vol. 20, Issue No. 9, pp. 3679-3682.
Domingo Samuel N.
Inada Nathan K.
Srihari Rangaswamy
Waldorf Jerry A.
Watts, Jr. Lealon E.
Courtenay III St. John
Seebeyond Techonogy Corporation
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