Claims
- 1. An Application Middleware Framework, comprising:
a plurality of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for enabling a software application to communicate with system resources through a transmitted interface event; and a plurality of Application Middleware Framework (AMF) components each offering services to applications and associated with one or more of the plurality of APIs, wherein an AMF component includes;
a unique set of associated services offered to the applications; an AMF component API for providing access to the associated services; an interceptor for intercepting the transmitted interface event; a rules database for storing AMF component service modifying rules; an adaptor for modifying a service offered by the AMF component based on the AMF component service modifying rules stored in the rules database; and a policy engine for attempting to match the interface event with the AMF component service modifying rules stored in the rules database, and for subsequently coordinating the modifying of the service of the AMF component by the adaptor when the interface event is matched with at least one of the AMF component service modifying rules stored in the rules database.
- 2. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 1, wherein the interceptor is further for indicating to the AMF component that the service of the AMF component has been modified by the adaptor; and the policy engine is further for coordinating the indicating to the AMF component by the interceptor that the service of the AMF component has been modified by the adaptor.
- 3. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 1, wherein the rules database comprises a semantic format rules database for storing AMF component service modifying rules.
- 4. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 3, further comprising a parser located between the semantic format rules database and the policy engine for parsing the semantic format AMF component service modifying rules stored in the semantic format rules database to match the interface event with the AMF component service modifying rules stored in the semantic format rules database for the policy engine.
- 5. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 4, wherein the parser is further for providing information to the policy engine on what action to take after the parser parses the semantic format AMF component service modifying rules stored in the semantic format rules database.
- 6. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 4, further comprising a detailed action rules database linked to both the semantic format parser and the policy engine for storing detailed action rules that further define the semantic format AMF component service modifying rules.
- 7. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 6, wherein the parser is further for informing the policy engine on what action to take after the parser matches the interface event with one or more of the semantic format AMF component service modifying rules stored in the semantic format rules database, and the semantic format AMF component service modifying rules stored in the semantic format rules database with the detailed action rules stored in the detailed action rules database.
- 8. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 6, wherein the detailed action rules define specific atomic actions to be taken by the adaptor and the interceptor in connection with the semantic format AMF component service modifying rules parsed by the parser.
- 9. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 8, wherein the semantic format rules database is reconfigurable to modify the detailed action rules and therefore the interface event.
- 10. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 8, wherein the detailed action rules database is reconfigurable to modify the semantic format rules and therefore the interface event.
- 11. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 6, wherein the detailed action rules database is externally located in the each of the AMF components.
- 12. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 6, wherein the detailed action rules database is located within the each of the AMF components.
- 13. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 3, wherein the semantic format rules database is located in a directory mediated by a common information model.
- 14. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 3, wherein the AMF component includes an inter-AMF interface for enabling the AMF component to communicate with others of the plurality of AMF components.
- 15. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 14, wherein the AMF component is dependent on functionality of one or more of the plurality of AMF components in communication with the AMF component through the inter-AMF component interface.
- 16. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 14, wherein the AMF component comprises one of the following:
an AMF Communications component for providing services required for the software application to access the system resources through one or more of the plurality of APIs; an AMF Coordination component for providing services that coordinate behavior of the plurality of AMF components to ensure compliance with framework specifications; a AMF Security component for providing a set of security services to the software application, others of the plurality of AMF components and to framework users; an AMF Web Services component for providing services that enable World Wide Web access and access to related services; an AMF Policy component for providing services that enable services of others of the plurality of AMF components to be controlled as the others of the plurality of AMF components react to interface events; an AMF Information component for providing services that enable access and management of data, profiles, and any other stored application support information; and a AMF Management component for providing all necessary management services to deploy, provision, operate, administer and maintain the application and the programmable Application Middleware Framework.
- 17. The Application Middleware Framework of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of AMF components is extensible.
- 18. A method of modifying Application Middleware Framework (AMF) component services in a programmable Application Middleware Framework, comprising:
intercepting an interface event being transmitted from a software application to a software component; attempting to match the interface event with stored AMF component service modifying rules; and modifying a service of an AMF component correlated with the interface event based on the stored AMF component service modifying rules if the attempting to match the interface event with stored AMF component service modifying rules results in a match.
- 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the attempting to match the interface event with stored AMF component service modifying rules comprises:
parsing semantic format AMF component service modifying rules in attempting to match the interface event with stored AMF component service modifying rules; and if the parsing of semantic format AMF component service modifying rules in attempting to match the interface event with stored AMF component service modifying rules results in the match, correlating a matched semantic format AMF component service modifying rule with one or more detailed action rules that further define the matched semantic format AMF component service modifying rule.
- 20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:
further modifying the interface event with a second set of stored AMF component service modifying rules subsequent to the modifying of the interface event based on stored AMF component service modifying rules if the attempting to match the interface event with stored AMF component service modifying rules results in a match.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application for patent is related to co-pending application Ser. No. 10/128,077 by Yanosy, assigned to the same assignee, and titled Programmatic Universal Policy Based Software Component System for Software Component Framework.