Parsing Messages with Multiple Data Formats

A message processing system including:

• a set of selectable parsers, each selectable parser being adapted for analyzing a respective set of message data formats and being selectable in response to identifying a message data format within the respective set;
• a process for invoking a parser from the set, wherein at least one of said selectable parsers includes:
• means for parsing a first component of a message having a message data format within the respective set;
• means for identifying the data format of a second component of the message;
• means, responsive to said identification, for selecting another one of said set of parsers and for invoking the selected parser to parse the second message component;
• including a repository of message format templates, each template representing the field structure of a particular format of message component, wherein said at least one parser is adapted to parse the first component and then to read a format field of a second component of the message to identify the data format of the second component, and wherein invoking the selected parser to parse the second component includes providing to the selected parser an identification of the message format template corresponding to the identified format.

A parser program stored in memory for processing a bit stream which may contain a plurality of data formats, the parser program including a set of selectable parsers, each adapted for analyzing a specific set of one or more data formats, wherein the parser program includes:

• instructions for parsing a first component of a bit stream;
• instructions for identifying the data format of a second component of the bit stream;
• instructions, responsive to said identification, for selecting another one of said set of parsers and for invoking the selected parser to parse the second components;
• wherein said instructions for invoking the selected parser includes instructions for inputting the second component to the selected parser, and
• wherein the selected parser returns control to the first parser after parsing the second component.