US 7,127,517 B2Granted

Protocol adapter framework for integrating non-IIOP applications into an object server container

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsStephen Heisig, Donna Dillenberger

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Abstract

In a computer system containing an object server, a method and apparatus for providing access to objects and methods via arbitrary remote protocols is disclosed. This includes a mechanism known as the protocol adapter framework that allows protocol adapters to manage remote socket sessions, encrypt communication on this session, translate text to the local character set, perform security validation of the remote user, log incoming work requests, classify the incoming work request for differentiated service purposes, and queue the work for execution. Also, included is a mechanism to invoke the protocol adapter in order to manipulate output from the execution of a method on a server object and send it back to the original requester. This allows the implementers of objects and methods that reside in the object server rather than the owner of the object server to provide a protocol adapter that allows communication with remote clients using any arbitrary protocol that the object implementer deems appropriate. In this way, the object implementer can enjoy benefits such as differentiated service, workload recording, server object process management, process isolation, error logging, systems management and transactional services of running objects in a robust object server container.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A computer system coupled to work stations operated by remote clients comprising:

an object server container that comprises a plurality of server objects relating to specific, respective object servers of said workstations, wherein said object server container provides services that run in a first protocol in said object server container, wherein said server objects are operable to access said services, and wherein said first protocol differs from arbitrary protocols between the clients and the server objects;
a protocol adapter framework that provides access to the server objects from the remote clients, that comprises a plurality of protocol adapters, that uses at least some of said protocol adapters for communication with the remote clients using a plurality of first protocols, that supports a developer of an application embodied by said server objects and methods to define one or more of said arbitrary protocols, which are different than the first protocols, for communication between the clients and the server objects, and that responds to client requests in a natural programming model in at least one of said arbitrary protocols received via said protocol adapters to derive therefrom at least one method requests on at least one of said server objects residing within at least one of said object servers, wherein said protocol adapter framework processes an output generated by one of said object servers in response to a client request for transport to said requesting client according to a transport protocol that is expected by the requesting client, wherein the transport protocol differs from an arbitrary protocol of the requesting client.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.