System, method and article of manufacture for universal transaction processing

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to transaction processing in a heterogeneous transaction processing system, and more specifically, to a system, method and article of manufacture for providing interoperability between different transaction processing systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A significant number of customers and vendors are either rewriting their current transaction-oriented business applications or writing new ones, using object-oriented methodology and languages. This reengineering has caused many of them to look not only at object-orientation, but also at distributed object-computing infrastructure, such as Object Request Brokers (ORBs) and related services, for deploying applications. Using ORBs provides an “open” (platform and vendor-independent) style of application.

Object oriented programming (OOP) has become increasingly used to develop complex applications. As OOP moves toward the mainstream of software design and development, various software solutions require adaptation to make use of the benefits of OOP. A need exists for these principles of OOP to be applied to a universal transaction interface for a plurality of heterogeneous transaction processing systems such that a set of OOP classes and objects for the messaging interface can be provided. OOP is a process of developing computer software using objects, including the steps of analyzing the problem, designing the system, and constructing the program. An object is a software package that contains both data and a collection of related structures and procedures. Since it contains both data and a collection of structures and procedures, it can be visualized as a self-sufficient component that does not require other additional structures, procedures or data to perform its specific task. OOP, therefore, views a computer program as a collection of largely autonomous components, called objects, each of which is responsible for a specific task. This concept of packaging data, structures, and procedures together in one component or module is called encapsulation.

In general, OOP components are reusable software modules which present an interface that conforms to an object model and which are accessed at run-time through a component integration architecture. A component integration architecture is a set of architecture mechanisms which allow software modules in different process spaces to utilize each others capabilities or functions. This is generally done by assuming a common component object model on which to build the architecture. It is worthwhile to differentiate between an object and a class of objects at this point. An object is a single instance of the class of objects, which is often just called a class. A class of objects can be viewed as a blueprint, from which many objects can be formed.

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) allows the programmer to create an object that is a part of another object. For example, the object representing a piston engine is said to have a composition-relationship with the object representing a piston. In reality, a piston engine comprises a piston, valves and many other components; the fact that a piston is an element of a piston engine can be logically and semantically represented in OOP by two objects.

OOP also allows creation of an object that “depends from” another object. If there are two objects, one representing a piston engine and the other representing a piston engine wherein the piston is made of ceramic, then the relationship between the two objects is not that of composition. A ceramic piston engine does not make up a piston engine. Rather it is merely one kind of piston engine that has one more limitation than the piston engine; its piston is made of ceramic. In this case, the object representing the ceramic piston engine is called a derived object, and it inherits all of the aspects of the object representing the piston engine and adds further limitation or detail to it. The object representing the ceramic piston engine “depends from” the object representing the piston engine. The relationship between these objects is called inheritance.

When the object or class representing the ceramic piston engine inherits all of the aspects of the objects representing the piston engine, it inherits the thermal characteristics of a standard piston defined in the piston engine class. However, the ceramic piston engine object overrides these ceramic specific thermal characteristics, which are typically different from those associated with a metal piston. It skips over the original and uses new functions related to ceramic pistons.

Different kinds of piston engines have different characteristics, but may have the same underlying functions associated with it (e.g., how many pistons in the engine, ignition sequences, lubrication, etc.). To access each of these functions in any piston engine object, a programmer would call the same functions with the same names, but each type of piston engine may have different/overriding implementations of functions behind the same name. This ability to hide different implementations of a function behind the same name is called polymorphism and it greatly simplifies communication among objects.

With the concepts of composition-relationship, encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism, an object can represent just about anything in the real world. In fact, our logical perception of the reality is the only limit on determining the kinds of things that can become objects in object-oriented software. Some typical categories are as follows:

Objects can represent physical objects, such as automobiles in a traffic-flow simulation, electrical components in a circuit-design program, countries in an economics model, or aircraft in an air-traffic-control system.

Objects can represent elements of the computer-user environment such as windows, menus or graphics objects.

An object can represent an inventory, such as a personnel file or a table of the latitudes and longitudes of cities.

An object can represent user-defined data types such as time, angles, and complex numbers, or points on the plane.

With this enormous capability of an object to represent just about any logically separable matters, OOP allows the software developer to design and implement a computer program that is a model of some aspects of reality, whether that reality is a physical entity, a process, a system, or a composition of matter. Since the object can represent anything, the software developer can create an object which can be used as a component in a larger software project in the future.

If 90% of a new OOP software program consists of proven, existing components made from preexisting reusable objects, then only the remaining 10% of the new software project has to be written and tested from scratch. Since 90% already came from an inventory of extensively tested reusable objects, the potential domain from which an error could originate is 10% of the program. As a result, OOP enables software developers to build objects out of other, previously built, objects. This process closely resembles complex machinery being built out of assemblies and sub-assemblies. OOP technology, therefore, makes software engineering more like hardware engineering in that software is built from existing components, which are available to the developer as objects. All this adds up to an improved quality of the software as well as an increased speed of its development.

Programming languages are beginning to fully support the OOP principles, such as encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and composition-relationship. With the advent of the C++ language, many commercial software developers have embraced OOP. C++ is an OOP language that offers a fast, machine-executable code. Furthermore, C++ is suitable for both commercial-application and systems-programming projects. For now, C++ appears to be the most popular choice among many OOP programmers, but there is a host of other OOP languages, such as Smalltalk, common lisp object system (CLOS), and Eiffel. Additionally, OOP capabilities are being added to more traditional popular computer programming languages such as Pascal.

The benefits of object classes can be summarized, as follows:

Objects and their corresponding classes break down complex programming problems into many smaller, simpler problems.

Encapsulation enforces data abstraction through the organization of data into small, independent objects that can communicate with each other. Encapsulation protects the data in an object from accidental damage, but allows other objects to interact with that data by calling the object's member functions and structures.

Subclassing and inheritance make it possible to extend and modify objects through deriving new kinds of objects from the standard classes available in the system. Thus, new capabilities are created without having to start from scratch.

Polymorphism and multiple inheritance make it possible for different programmers to mix and match characteristics of many different classes and create specialized objects that can still work with related objects in predictable ways.

Class hierarchies and containment hierarchies provide a flexible mechanism for modeling real-world objects and the relationships among them.

Libraries of reusable classes are useful in many situations, but they also have some limitations. For example:

Complexity. In a complex system, the class hierarchies for related classes can become extremely confusing, with many dozens or even hundreds of classes.

Flow of control. A program written with the aid of class libraries is still responsible for the flow of control (i.e., it must control the interactions among all the objects created from a particular library). The programmer has to decide which functions to call at what times for which kinds of objects.

Duplication of effort. Although class libraries allow programmers to use and reuse many small pieces of code, each programmer puts those pieces together in a different way. Two different programmers can use the same set of class libraries to write two programs that do exactly the same thing but whose internal structure (i.e., design) may be quite different, depending on hundreds of small decisions each programmer makes along the way. Inevitably, similar pieces of code end up doing similar things in slightly different ways and do not work as well together as they should.

Class libraries are very flexible. As programs grow more complex, more programmers are forced to reinvent basic solutions to basic problems over and over again. A relatively new extension of the class library concept is to have a framework of class libraries. This framework is more complex and consists of significant collections of collaborating classes that capture both the small scale patterns and major mechanisms that implement the common requirements and design in a specific application domain. They were first developed to free application programmers from the chores involved in displaying menus, windows, dialog boxes, and other standard user interface elements for personal computers.

Frameworks also represent a change in the way programmers think about the interaction between the code they write and code written by others. In the early days of procedural programming, the programmer called libraries provided by the operating system to perform certain tasks, but basically the program executed down the page from start to finish, and the programmer was solely responsible for the flow of control. This was appropriate for printing out paychecks, calculating a mathematical table, or solving other problems with a program that executed in just one way.

The development of graphical user interfaces began to turn this procedural programming arrangement inside out. These interfaces allow the user, rather than program logic, to drive the program and decide when certain actions should be performed. Today, most personal computer software accomplishes this by means of an event loop which monitors the mouse, keyboard, and other sources of external events and calls the appropriate parts of the programmer's code according to actions that the user performs. The programmer no longer determines the order in which events occur. Instead, a program is divided into separate pieces that are called at unpredictable times and in an unpredictable order. By relinquishing control in this way to users, the developer creates a program that is much easier to use. Nevertheless, individual pieces of the program written by the developer still call libraries provided by the operating system to accomplish certain tasks, and the programmer must still determine the flow of control within each piece after it's called by the event loop. Application code still “sits on top of” the system.

Even event loop programs require programmers to write a lot of code that should not need to be written separately for every application. The concept of an application framework carries the event loop concept further. Instead of dealing with all the nuts and bolts of constructing basic menus, windows, and dialog boxes and then making these things all work together, programmers using application frameworks start with working application code and basic user interface elements in place. Subsequently, they build from there by replacing some of the generic capabilities of the framework with the specific capabilities of the intended application.

Application frameworks reduce the total amount of code that a programmer has to write from scratch. However, because the framework is really a generic application that displays windows, supports copy and paste, and so on, the programmer can also relinquish control to a greater degree than event loop programs permit. The framework code takes care of almost all event handling and flow of control, and the programmer's code is called only when the framework needs it (e.g., to create or manipulate a proprietary data structure). A programmer writing a framework program not only relinquishes control to the user (as is also true for event loop programs), but also relinquishes the detailed flow of control within the program to the framework. This approach allows the creation of more complex systems that work together in interesting ways, as opposed to isolated programs, having custom code, being created over and over again for similar problems.

Thus, as is explained above, a framework basically is a collection of cooperating classes that make up a reusable design solution for a given problem domain. It typically includes objects that provide default behavior (e.g., for menus and windows), and programmers use it by inheriting some of that default behavior and overriding other behavior so that the framework calls application code at the appropriate times.

There are three main differences between frameworks and class libraries:

Behavior versus protocol. Class libraries are essentially collections of behaviors that you can call when you want those individual behaviors in your program. A framework, on the other hand, provides not only behavior but also the protocol or set of rules that govern the ways in which behaviors can be combined, including rules for what a programmer is supposed to provide versus what the framework provides.

Call versus override. With a class library, the code the programmer instantiates objects and calls their member functions. It's possible to instantiate and call objects in the same way with a framework (i.e., to treat the framework as a class library), but to take full advantage of a framework's reusable design, a programmer typically writes code that overrides and is called by the framework. The framework manages the flow of control among its objects. Writing a program involves dividing responsibilities among the various pieces of software that are called by the framework rather than specifying how the different pieces should work together.

Implementation versus design. With class libraries, programmers reuse only implementations, whereas with frameworks, they reuse design. A framework embodies the way a family of related programs or pieces of software work. It represents a generic design solution that can be adapted to a variety of specific problems in a given domain. For example, a single framework can embody the way a user interface works, even though two different user interfaces created with the same framework might solve quite different interface problems.

Thus, through the development of frameworks for solutions to various problems and programming tasks, significant reductions in the design and development effort for software can be achieved. A preferred embodiment of the invention utilizes an object-oriented paradigm that is seen by customers and vendors to provide significantly cheaper application development, in terms of resources required and re-usability of functions and code. However, nearly everyone who has business-and mission-critical applications currently uses a Transaction Processing (TP) monitor system. Today, the most prevalent TP monitor is the Customer Information Control System (CICS) from IBM, followed closely by Information Management System (IMS) from IBM. Other key TP monitors are Pathway from Tandem and Tuxedo from BEA systems. TP monitoring systems are of increasing importance to major banks and airlines.

In the future, the Object Management Group (OMG)-defined Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Object Request Broker (ORB) and CORBA Object Transaction Services (OTS), and Microsoft's OLE TP/Network TP will be used to deploy distributed applications. These tools may eventually replace today's special purpose TP monitors. CORBA is a standard for distributed objects being developed by the OMG. The OMG is a consortium of software vendors and end users. Many OMG member companies are developing commercial products that can support these standards and/or are developing software that uses this standard. CORBA provides the mechanisms by which objects transparently make requests and receive responses, as defined by OMG's ORB. The CORBA ORB provides interoperability between applications built in (possibly) different languages, running on (possibly) different machines in heterogeneous distributed environments. It is the cornerstone of OMG's CORBA architecture.

Interoperability between existing TP monitors and new styles of distributed computing using ORBs will be key to an orderly and low-risk migration to new business applications. Thus, there is a requirement for a product that provides transaction interoperability components that run on the popular client platforms, e.g. NT, Sun, HP and DEC and inter-operate with large server systems, e.g. MVS, Tandem, SP

2

and HP. These components must allow new (object-oriented) business applications to inter-operate with current TP monitors, using APIs based on a standard object model. The goal of the API design is to allow an application programmer access to services and data residing in an existing TP monitor environment, without requiring the programmer to understand the TP monitor programming model.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A computer implemented universal, user interface to a plurality of heterogeneous transaction processing systems which allows an application program to access transactions and data residing in an existing transaction processing system is disclosed. The system utilizes a communication link between the application and a transaction processor interoperability component. Then, the system determines which of the one or more transaction processors will process transactions for the application and establishes a communication link between the transaction processor interoperability component and the transaction processor that will process transactions for the application. Then, as the application transmits a transaction from the application to the transaction processor interoperability component, the transaction is formatted by the transaction processor interoperability component for compatability with the transaction processor that will process transactions for the application, and finally transmitting the formatted transaction to the transaction processor that will process transactions for the application.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages are better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1

illustrates a typical hardware configuration of a workstation in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 2A

illustrates the three major architectural components in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIGS. 2B & 2C

illustrate block diagrams of a system architecture in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 3

is an object model system diagram in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 4

is an illustration of a diagram for an application starting a transaction in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 5

is an illustration of an application setting a default context in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 6

is an illustration of an application invoking a service in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 7

is an illustration of an application continuing a service conversation with a TP in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 8

illustrates an application commit on a transaction in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 9

illustrates a scenario where the naming context is known in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 10

illustrates a case where the naming context is unknown in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 11

is a Booch diagram of an object model of TPInterop in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 12

is a Booch diagram of externalization processing in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 13

illustrates a simple interaction for an application object using a request object to help the TPXXX object build a request buffer, invoke the request and send back the response in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 14

is a Booch diagram illustrating the relationship between objects in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 15

is a Booch diagram illustrating the Interaction processing in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 16

is a Booch diagram setting forth the architecture of the TP monitor in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIGS. 17 and 18

set forth some details of CICS processing in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIGS. 19 and 20

set forth some details of IMS processing in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIGS. 21 and 22

set forth some details of Pathway processing in accordance with a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 23

illustrates a Tuxedo request/response transactions within an explicit transaction in accordance with a preferred embodiment; and

FIG. 24

illustrates a Tuxedo conversational transaction within an implicit transaction in accordance with a preferred embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A preferred embodiment of a system in accordance with the present invention is preferably practiced in the context of a personal computer such as the IBM PS/2, Apple Macintosh computer or a UNIX-based workstation. A representative hardware environment is depicted in

FIG. 1

, which illustrates a typical hardware configuration of a workstation

100

in accordance with a preferred embodiment having a central processing unit

102

, such as a microprocessor, and a number of other units interconnected via a system bus

108

. The workstation

100

shown in

FIG. 1

includes: a Random Access Memory (RAM)

106

, Read Only Memory (ROM)

104

; an I/O adapter

110

for connecting peripheral devices such as disk storage units

113

to the bus

108

; a user interface adapter

116

for connecting a keyboard

120

, a mouse, a speaker, a microphone, and/or other user interface devices such as a touch screen (not shown) to the bus

108

; a communication adapter for connecting the workstation to a communication network (e.g., a data processing network); and a display adapter

118

for connecting the bus

108

to a display device

122

. The workstation typically has resident thereon an operating system such as the Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 95 Operating System (OS), the IBM OS/2 operating system, the MAC OS, or UNIX operating system. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may also be implemented on platforms and operating systems other than those mentioned.

FIG. 2A

illustrates the three major architectural components in accordance with a preferred embodiment. A client

200

consists of C, C++, Java and Smalltalk applications which converse with an Object Request Broker (ORB) or an Object Transaction System (OTS) to prepare transactions to the Gateway

201

. The Gateway

201

provides the interoperability functioning to interface with any of a number of TP monitors on the Server

202

, such as CICS, IMS, Pathway and Tuxedo.

FIGS. 2B and 2C

illustrate block diagrams of a system architecture in accordance with a preferred embodiment. The application programmer is provided with a single model for accessing existing TP monitor services and data. The model has a gateway side

215

and a server side

205

. The server side

205

contains each of the TP servers for CICS

270

, IMS

280

, Tuxedo

290

and Pathway

295

.

Underlying the TP interoperability component are three TP monitor specific components (concrete implementations of TP monitor independent interfaces): LU 6.2

230

, Tuxedo

240

and the Pathway

250

. The LU6.2

230

component is used for the CICS and IMS interaction. The Tuxedo

240

component is used to support both native and/WS interface. The Pathway

250

component is used to support the RSC interface. Applications

209

are connected via a runtime

210

or ORB

260

to a TP interoperability/externalization component

220

to the appropriate TP component (

230

,

240

or

250

) based on application requirements.

FIG. 3

is an object model system diagram in accordance with a preferred embodiment. Each of the individual objects are described in more detail later in the specification, so for now, an overview of their interconnection and function is provided. The OMG naming service

300

is the principal means for objects to locate other objects. The names given to the objects should be easily recognizable and readable within the problem domain of the application. The naming service will map these user-defined “names” to object references. The name-to-object association is called a “name binding”. A “naming context” is an object that contains a set of “name bindings” in which each name is unique. Every object has a unique object ID or reference. One or more names can be associated with the same object reference at the same time, however there is no requirement for all objects to be named.

The admin tool

305

is used to provide an interface between a human administrator and programmatic interfaces offered by internal classes. Processing comprises the following basic steps. First, get a name context from the user, then present the user with either an existing or default set of property values for modification, and finally store the name context and set of property values.

The property list classes

308

encapsulate property list handling for various concrete TPInterop classes. TPInterop::TPmgr

320

executes on the gateway and accepts a request along with a description of the destination from front-end clients and delegates them to a specific interoperable object

340

(

370

)(e.g. TPCICS::CallContext

385

, TPIMS::CallContext

390

, TPTux::CallContext

380

and TPPW::CallContext

395

) according to the destination. Since the whole invocation is carried out in a distributed environment, parameters are passed via Extern::Streamable objects

350

.

The TPTx class category

360

supports a “mini” transaction interface, useful until OTS can be used. A TPxxx::callMgr

340

inherits from TxRcvr to get the transaction commit signals and registers itself with the TPxxx::callMgr

340

using its factory name as the “id”. Applications

330

communicate with the various system objects via transactions.

Scenarios

The following scenarios provide descriptions of sample interaction between major objects of the system.

FIG. 4

is an illustration of a diagram for an application starting a transaction in accordance with a preferred embodiment. When an application

400

starts a transaction, an application request

405

is transmitted to the TP manager

410

.

FIG. 5

is an illustration of an application setting a default context in accordance with a preferred embodiment. Processing commences when an application

500

sends a setDefaultContext transaction to the TPInterop::TPMgr

520

which results in the default context being set by the service resolver

530

.

FIG. 6

is an illustration of an application invoking a service in accordance with a preferred embodiment. Processing commences when an application

601

transmits a write request to a TP. The request generates an invoke transaction

602

to the TPInterop which results in a resolution of the name

603

. The resolved name is utilized in another invoke

604

to register the name via the call manager to the TP transmit manager

605

. Then the call manager transmits the registered name

606

, which results in a creation operation

607

for the particular transaction. The call manager for the particular TP allocates a buffer

608

and then sets the buffer

609

in preparation for the write operation

611

.

Then, the call manager externalizes the write operation

610

in preparation for the actual write operation

611

performed by the external object stream IO processor. Next, the call manager must get the buffer

612

that the external object has streamed back from the target TP. Then, the call manager performs a do operation

613

and sets the buffer

614

in preparation for internalizing

615

the information. Finally, a read is requested from the application

616

and the information is read

617

.

FIG. 7

is an illustration of an application continuing a service conversation with a TP in accordance with a preferred embodiment. In the scenario illustrated in

FIG. 6

, the invoke

602

on the TPInterop::TPMgr, and the subsequent invoke

604

on the TPxxx::callMgr, may return a CallContext object. For the purposes of this scenario, the invokes

602

,

604

returned a CallContext object and the application is now invoking an operation on it

702

. The invoke operation

702

was initiated in response to the write request

701

and initially must create an object for streaming the information externally

703

. Then a buffer must be allocated

704

and the buffer must be set

705

for the upcoming externalize

706

and write

707

operations. To read the reply

713

, first the buffer length must be obtained

708

and a d operation

709

must be performed to set the buffer

710

and internalize

711

the results. Then, the read

712

operation can transpire, resulting in the reply being read

713

.

FIG. 8

illustrates an application commit on a transaction in accordance with a preferred embodiment. Processing commences with a commit operation

801

from the application to the transaction manager. This action results in the TP call manager preparing

802

utilizing a prepare operation

803

. Then, the TP manager commits

804

and the commit operation is performed

805

.

TPTX

The TPTx class category supports a “mini” transaction interface, useful until OTS can be used. A TPxxx::callMgr inherits from TxRcvr to get the transaction commit signals and registers itself with the TPxxx::Mgr using its factory name as the “id”.

Source code for the module is provided below for detailed logic.

Public TxMgr Interfaces

namespace ISTx {

PUBLIC_NAMESPACE

enum CompletionStatus {COMPLETED_YES, COMPLETED_NO,

COMPLETED_MAYBE};

/ /

/ / Completion Status of Current operations

/ /

enum ReportHeuristics { kReportYes, kReportNo };

/ /

/ / Flags to pass into Current::commit. If kReportYes is specified,

/ / all delegated commits will wait for the 2nd phase to complete

/ / before returning.

enum MinorError {

/ /

/ / Minor error returned by Current operations.

/ /

SubtransactionUnavailable,

/ /

/ / Returned when Current::begin is called when there is

/ / already a current transaction

/ /

NoTransaction,

/ / Returned when there is not a current transaction

/ /

HeuristicMixed,

/ /

/ / Returned from Current::commit when a transaction has

/ / a mix of commits and rollbacks

/ /

HeuristicHazard,

/ /

/ / Returned from Current::commit when a transaction may have

/ / a mix of commits and rollbacks

/ /

NO_PERMISSION };

/ /

/ / Returned from Current::commit or Current::rollback when

/ / the caller is not the owner of the transaction

/ /

/ /

/ / Exception thrown by Current Interface

/ /

class CurrentException

{

public:

CompletionStatus completed( ) { return pCompleted; };

/ /

/ / Status of action. Currently only YES is ever returned.

/ /

MinorError minor( ) { return pMinor; };

/ /

/ / Minor error of exception

/ /

CurrentException( ) : pCompleted( COMPLETED_YES ) { };

CurrentException( MinorError aMinor ) :

pCompleted( COMPLETED_YES ),

pMinor( aMinor ) { };

private:

CompletionStatus pCompleted;

MinorError pMinor;

};

/ /

/ / Current interface. All operations may throw a CurrentException

/ / exception, except where noted.

/ /

class Current

{

public:

/ /

virtual void begin( )=0;

/ /

/ / Begin the transaction

/ /

virtual void commit(ReportHeuristics report=kReportYes)=0;

/ /

/ / Commit the transaction

/ /

virtual void rollbacks( )=0;

/ /

/ / Rollback the transaction (if caller is owner of transaction)

/ /

virtual void rollback_only( )=0;

/ /

/ / Mark the transaction to be rolled back at prepare time

/ / (used if caller is not owner of transaction)

/ /

virtual char* get_transaction_name( )=0;

/ /

/ / Return ascii, null terminated name of transaction. Returns

/ / NULL when there isn't a current transaction.

/ /

};

/ /

/ / Return a pointer to the singleton Current object

/ /

class TXMgrFactory {

public:

static Current * getTXMgr(void);

};

};

Private TXMgr Interfaces

namespace ISTxP {

PUBLIC_NAMESPACE

enum TransactionsVote { kCommit, kRollback };

enum RegisterOutcome { kSuccess, kAlreadyRegistered,

kNoTransactionStarted };

enum Wait2ndPhase { kWaitYes=ISTx::kReportYes ,

kWaitNo=ISTx::kReportNo };

enum ExceptionCondition { kNoTransaction, kHeuristicMixed,

kHeuristicHazard };

enum CommitStatus { kOk, kFailed, kHazard };

class TXMgrRcvr {

public:

virtual TransactionsVote prepare( )=0;

virtual CommitStatus commit(Wait2ndPhase wait=kWaitYes)=0;

virtual void rollback( )=0;

};

class TXMgrX : public ISTx::Current {

public:

TXMgrX( );

˜TXMgrX( );

RegisterOutcome registerRcvr(const char* string , TXMgrRcvr* rcvObj);

void begin( );

void commit(ISTx::ReportHeuristics report=ISTx::kReportYes);

void rollback( );

void rollback_only( );

char* get_transaction_name( );

unsigned isTransaction( );

void setLogData(const char* rcvrld, char* logData);

};

};

#endif

Admin

The admin tool is used to bridge an interface between a human administrator and programmatic interfaces offered by internal classes. The general algorithm is to do the following:

get a name context from the user

present the user with either an existing or default set of property values for modification

store the name context and set of property values. This module presents no new objects.

Usage Scenarios

FIG. 9

illustrates a scenario where the naming context is known in accordance with a preferred embodiment. An initial transaction querying for the name context

901

triggers a get property transaction

902

from the admin tool to the Service resolver which returns the “known” property. Then the admin tool sends out another transaction to get the factory

903

from the interoperability tool. The values are returned from the admin tool to the user

904

. Then, a check of the values

905

is initiated by the admin tool and the properties are set

906

in the service resolver.

FIG. 10

illustrates a case where the naming context is unknown in accordance with a preferred embodiment. An initial transaction querying for the name context

1011

triggers a get property transaction

1002

from the admin tool to the Service resolver which returns an “unknown” property. The user is queried for the factory type

1003

. Then the admin tool sends out another transaction using the factory type

1003

to the interoperability tool to get the factory

1004

and to get the defaults from the TP manager

1005

. The values are returned from the admin tool to the user

1006

to determine if they meet user approval. Then, a check of the values

1007

is initiated by the admin tool and the properties are set

1008

in the service resolver.

PropList

The property list classes encapsulate property list handling for various concrete TPInterop classes.

IDL

module propList {

/ /

/ / valueList operates on the dynamic portion

/ / of a property list. A valueList consists of

/ / “type”, or “svcName” and a number of name/value

/ / pairs that make up the property list.

/ /

interface valueList {

string getValue( in string name );

/ /

/ / Returns the value for a name.

/ / Memory ownership retained by callee

/ /

setValue( in string aName, in string aValue );

/ /

/ / Sets the value for a name.

/ / Memory ownership retained by caller.

/ /

addName( in string aName, in string aValue );

/ /

/ / Adds a name and defaultValue

/ / Memory ownership retained by caller

string writeToString( );

/ /

/ / All name/values are written to a string.

/ / Memory ownership passes to caller

readFromString( in string buffer );

/ /

/ / All name/values are read from a string

/ / Memory ownership retained by caller

};

typedef RWHashDictionary ValueSequence;

typedef RWHashDictionaryIteratorValueSequenceIterator;

typedef RWCollectableIntValueSequenceItem;

/ /

/ / Dict of possible values, with room for an int enum for each value

/ / key is RWCollectableString

/ / value is ValueSequenceItem

/ /

class HelpListItem: public RWCollectable{

public:

HelpListItem( ): possibleValues(5) {};

HelpListItem(const char *sh) : shortHelp(sh), possibleValues(5) {};

RWCString shortHelp;

ValueSequence possibleValues;

};

typedef RWHashDictionary HelpList;

typedef RWHashDictionaryIteratorHelpListIterator;

/ /

/ / Dict of help list items.

/ / key is RWCollectableString

/ / value is HelpListItem

/ /

class CallMgrHelp {

public:

CallMgrHelp( ) { };

virtual ˜CallMgrHelp( ) { };

virtual const ISPropListP::ValueList*getDefaultValueList( )const=0;

/ /

/ / return the list of default values for this call mgr

/ /

virtual HelpList & getHelpList( )=0;

/ /

/ / return the help list for this call mgr

/ /

virtual ReturnCode verifyValueList(constISPropListP::ValueList*aList,

RWCString* offendingValue,

ISError* offendingReason)=0;

/ /

/ / verify the specified valuelist, return error if it is incorrect.

/ / “offendingValue” is the name of the property that caused the error.

/ / offendingValue may be NULL to stifle return value

/ /

virtual RWCString getTPName( ) const=0;

/ /

/ / return the name used the callMgr with ISInteropP::TPMgrX

/ /

virtual void verifyItem(const char *propertyName,

constISPropListP::ValueList*aList,

const char **propertyString,

int checkValue, int *propertyEnum,

RWCString* offendingValue);

/ /

/ / Implemented by this base class.

/ /

/ / Given a propertyName, returns the propertyString stored in the

/ / value list. throws an ISError if it can't get the propertyString

/ / propertyString may be NULL to stifle the return.

/ /

/ / If checkValue is TRUE, look up the value & return the value of

/ / one of the “possibleValues” of the helpListItem for this propertyName.

/ / throws an ISError if it isn't in range.

/ /

/ / offendingValue is set to the propertyName that caused the error.

/ /

};

/ /

/ / Implementation of CallMgrHelp should be in a file named xxxhelp.cpp,

/ / with no

/ / references to external libs or DLLs. The object should be created with

/ / the

/ / following method.

/ /

/ /ISInteropP::CallMgrHelp*IScreateCallMgrXxxHelp(RWCString

/ /&regname)

/ /

/ /

Code Implementation

TuxCallMgrProperties::TuxCallMgrProperties( ): theHelpList(5)

{

/ /

/ / Create help list

/ /

ISInteropP::HelpListItem*reqItem=newISInteropP::HelpListItem(“Request Type”);

reqItem->possibleValues.insertKeyAndValue(new RWCollectableStri ng(“REQUEST/RESPONSE”),new RWCollectableInt(kReqResp));

reqItem->possibleValues.insertKeyAndValue(new RWCollectableString(“CONVERSATIONAL”),new RWCollectableInt(kConv ) );

theHelpList.insertKeyAndValue(new RWCollectableString(“REQUESTTYPE”), reqItem);

defaultValueList.addName(“REQUESTTYPE”,“REQUEST/RESPONSE”);

ISInteropP::HelpListItem*bufItem=new ISInteropP::HelpListItem(“Buffer Type”);

bufItem->possibleValues.insertKeyAndValue( newRWCollectableString(“FML”), new RWCollectableInt(0) );

bufItem->possibleValues.insertKeyAndValue(new RWCollectabl eString(“FML32”), new RWCollectableInt( 1 ) );

bufltem->possibleValues.insertKeyAndValue( newRWCollectableString(“VIEW”), new RWCollectableInt( 2 ) );

bufItem->possibleValues.insertKeyAndValue( new RWCollectableString(“VIEW32”),new RWCollectableInt( 3 ) );

bufItem->possibleValues.insertKeyAndValue(new RWCollectableString(“CARRAY”),new RWCollectableInt( 4 ) );

theHelpList.insertKeyAndValue( newRWCollectableString(“BUFFERTYPE”), bufItem);

defaultValueList.addName(“BUFFERTYPE“,”FML”);

ISInteropP::HelpListItem*subItem=new ISInteropP::HelpListItem(“Buffer Sub Type”);

theHelpList.insertKeyAndValue( new RWCollectableString(“BUFFERSUBTYPE”), bufItem);

defaultValueList.addName(“BUFFERSUBTYPE“,””);

ISInteropP::HelpListItem*txItem=new ISInteropP::HelpListItem(“Start Transaction”);

txItem->possibleValues.insertKeyAndValue(new RWCollectableString(“IMPLICIT”),new RWCollectableInt(kImplicit) );

txItem->possibleValues.insertKeyAndValue( new RWCollectableString(“NONE”), new RWCollectableInt( kNone ) );

theHelpList.insertKeyAndValue(

new RWCollectableString(“STARTTRANSACTION”), txItem);

defaultValueList.addName(“STARTTRANSACTION“,”NONE”);

ISInteropP::HelpListItem*svcItem=new ISInteropP::HelpListItem(“Service Name”);

theHelpList.insertKeyAndValue( new RWCollectableString(“SERVICENAME”), svcItem);

defaultValueList.addName(“SERVICENAME“,””);

ISInteropP::HelpListItem*lenItem=new ISInteropP::HelpListItem(“Buffer Length”);

theHelpList.insertKeyAndValue( new RWCollectableString(“BUFFERSIZE”), lenItem);

defaultValueList.addName(“BUFFERSIZE“,”1000”);

};

TuxCallMgrProperties::˜TuxCallMgrProperties( )

{

};

RWCString TuxCallMgrProperties::getTPName( )const

{

RWCString name(“TPTUX”);

return name;

};

const ISPropListP::ValueList*TuxCallMgrProperties::getDefaultValueList( )

const

{

return &defaultValueList;

};

ISInteropP::HelpList&TuxCallMgrProperties::getHelpList( )

{

ISInteropP::HelpList&helpList=theHelpList;

return helpList;

};

ISInteropP::ReturnCodeTuxCallMgrProperties::verifyValueList(const

ISPropListP::ValueList*aList,

RWCString* offendingValue,

ISError* offendingReason)

{

try {

verifyItem(“REQUESTTYPE”,aList, NULL, 1, (int *) &reqType,

offendingValue);

int junk;

const char *buf;

verifyItem(“BUFFERTYPE”,aList, &buf, 1, &junk, offendingValue);

buffertype=buf;

if((bufferType==“VIEW”)| |(bufferType==“VIEW32”)) {

const char *subbuf;

verifyItem(“BUFFERSUBTYPE”,aList, &subbuf, 0, NULL,

offendingValue);

bufferSubType=subbuf;

}

verifyItem(“STARTTRANSACTION”,aList, NULL, 1, (int *) &startTxType, offendingValue);

const char *name;

verifyItem(“SERVICENAME”,aList, &name, 0, NULL, offendingValue);

serviceName=name;

const char *size;

verifyItem(“BUFFERSIZE”,aList, &size, 0, NULL, offendingValue);

verifyBufferSize(size, “BUFFERSIZE”);

}

catch(ISError ise) {

memcpy( offendingReason, &ise, sizeof( ISError ) );

return ISInteropP::kFailure;

}

return ISInteropP::kOk;

};

void TuxCallMgrProperties::verifyBufferSize(const char *propValue, const char *propName)

}

if (sscanf( propValue, “%d”, &bufferSize) !=1) {

throwISError(“ISMGEN”, 3001, propName, propValue);

}

}

admin UI code:

/ /

/ / Assume user has told us factoryType=“TUXEDO” and

/ / nameContext=“/accounts/checking/debit”

/ /

tuxMgr=TpMgr::getCallMgr(factoryType);

/ / Check the svcResolver for an existing value string.

/ / if it exists, convert it, else create a new one

/ / with defaults.

PropList::valueList *aPropList;

SvcResolver->getAttributes( nameContext, aPropList, factoryType );

if (aPropList==NULL)

aPropList=tuxMgr->getDefaultValueList( );

}

/ / get the static help properties

anHPropList=tuxmgr->getHelpList( );

/ / update the values somehow, use helpList if

/ / needed

/ / write the values

svcResolver->setAttributes( nameContext, aPropList, factoryType );

TP Interoperability

TPInterop::TPmgr executes on the gateway and accepts a request along with a description of the destination from front-end clients and delegates them to a specific interoperable object (e.g. TPCICS::CallContext, TPIMS::CallContext, TPTux::CallContext and TPPW::CallContext) according to the destination. Since the whole invocation is carried out in a distributed environment, parameters are passed via Extern::Streamable objects. Externalization referred in this section is based on OMG's Object Externalization Service Specification.

Detail Object Model

FIG. 11

is a booch diagram of an object model of TPInterop in accordance with a preferred embodiment. TPInterop::CallContext is an abstract base class. All subclasses have to override invoke method and the method invokeObject on TPInterop::CallMgr

1102

. TPInterop::TPmgr

1104

is the interface exported to the application. Since registerCallMgr is specific for TPInterop::CallMgr

1102

, TPInterop::TPMgr_Ex is used internally. There is only one instance of TPInterop::TPMgr

1104

per process. Each TPInterop::CallMgr

1102

object within the process registers itself with TPInterop::TPMgr

1104

object. RegisterCallMgr and unregisterCallMgr are the facilities provided by the TPInterop::TPMgr

1104

object.

An externalization service is a standard service for streaming objects to and from transport streams, persistent storage, etc. It consists of two main pieces: an abstract Extern::Streamable class

1112

, from which an application object inherits, and an abstract Extern::StreamIO class

1110

, for which the externalization service provides an implementation. Externalize is called by a TPInterop:TPConversation class

1106

, which passes an Extern::TPStreamIO

1108

subclass object. The Extern::TPStreamIO object

1108

is expected to write its state out using the Extern::StreamIO::writeXxx calls

1110

. When internalize is called, the object is expected to read its state from the Extern::Streamable object

1112

using the Extern::StreamIO::readXxx calls. The Extern::StreamIO

1110

class is similar in function to a C++ iostream class, but uses explicit method calls to read and write data types rather than using operator overloading.

ISInterop

class TPMgr {

public:

TPMgr( );

virtual ˜TPMgr( );

virtual ISError invoke( CallContext** cxt,

const char* destination,

ISExtern::Streamable* request,

ISExtern::Streamable* Response)=0;

/ /

/ / Call a service indicated by destination. Destination must

/ / be a valid entry in the service name resolver database.

/ /

/ / If cxt is not NULL, it may be set to a returned CallContext

/ / whose memory is owned by the caller. If cxt is not NULL and

/ / if no CallContext is returned, *ctx will be set to NULL.

/ /

/ / request will be called with either the

/ / Streamable::externalize_to_streamor externalize_to_tokenStream

/ / methods, depending on the type of service.

/ /

/ / response will be called with either the

/ / Streamable::internalize_from_streamor internalize_from_tokenStream

/ / methods, depending on the type of service.

/ /

virtual ISError setServiceNameDirectory(const char* aNameDirectory)=0;

/ /

/ / Sets the service name “directory” used to resolve destinations

/ / on the invoke method.

/ /

};

class CallContext {

public:

CallContext( );

virtual ˜CallContext( );

virtual ISError invoke(ISExtern::Streamable*Request,

ISExtern::Streamable*Response)=0;

/ /

/ / Continuation of a service initiated by TPMgr::invoke.

/ / request and response parameters are handled the same

/ / as the TPMgr::invoke method.

/ /

};

Module TPInterop

class CallMgr : public RWCollectable {

public:

CallMgr( ) {;};

virtual ˜CallMgr( ) {;};

virtual ISError invokeObject(ISInterop::CallContext**,

const ISPropListP::ValueList*aList, ISExtern::Streamable*Request, ISExtern::Streamable*Response)=0;

};

/ /

/ / The object should be created with the following method.

/ /

/ / ISInteropP::CallMgr*IScreateCallMgrXxx(void)

/ /

Major Behavior Description

A preferred embodiment provides the application developer with two transaction models: explicit model and implicit model.

The syntax of the code using the explicit model is similar to the following code segment:

tptxObject.Begin_Transaction( );

cicsObject.go(request1, response1);

cicsObject.go(request2, response2);

tptxObject.End_Transaction( );

In the implicit model, invocation of the invoke method starts and commits the transaction. The syntax of the code looks as follows:

tpinteropMgr.go(“debit1”, request1, response1);

tpinteropMgr.go(“debit2”, request2, response2);

Data and Format Conversion Between Systems

The purpose of this section is to identify the data conversion required for a specific TP component, running on the gateway platform and the server platform on which the TP server is running.

Little & Big Endian

Little and big Endian relates to the format integers (2 or 4 byte) are stored on a specific platform Floating point numbers are stored in different formats, e.g. IEEE.

Big Endian

SUN, HP, RS/6000, Tandem, System/390 systems.

Integer (2 byte)

12

Integer (4 byte)

1234

Big Endian

SUN, HP, RS/6000, Tandem, System/390 systems.

Integer (2 byte)

12

Integer (4 byte)

1234

ASCII & EBCDIC

ASCII and EBCDIC formats relate to the way character data is formatted. The IBM System/390 platform is the only platform that uses the EBCDIC data format.

CICS & IMS

Gateway

Server

Endian

Data Representation

Platform

Platform

Conversion

Conversion

Intel-

S/390

Little Endian

ASCII to EBCDIC

(NT,OS/2)

(MVS)

to Big Endian

RS\6000-

S/390

None

ASCII to EBCDIC

(AIX)

(MVS)

SPARC-

S/390

None

ASCII to EBCDIC

SUN

(MVS)

HP-PA

S/390

None

ASCII to EBCDIC

7100-HP

(MVS)

Pathway

Gateway

Server

Endian

Data Representation

Platform

Platform

Conversion

Conversion

Intel-

Tandem

Little Endian

None

(NT,OS/2)

to Big Endian

RS/6000-

Tandem

None

None

(AIX)

SPARC-

Tandem

None

None

SUN

HP-PA

Tandem

None

None

7100-HP

Externalization

The OMG Externalization Service is a standard service for streaming objects to and from transport streams, persistent storage, etc. It consists of two main pieces: an abstract Extern::Streamable class, from which an application object inherits, and an abstract Extern::StreamIO class, for which the externalization service provides an implementation.

The Extern::Streamable class provides two “to” methods: externalizeToStream and internalizeToStream. When externalize is called, an Extern::StreamIO subclass object is passed to the application object. The object is expected to write its state out using the Extern::StreamIO::writeXxx calls. When internalize is called, the object is expected to read its state from the Extern::StreamIO subclass object using the Extern::StreamIO::readXxx calls. The Extern::StreamIO class is similar in function to a C++ iostream class, but uses explicit method calls to read and write data types rather than using operator overloading.

The externalization service acts as a bridge between the TP monitor communication buffer and the ORB world. The application object creates a request and a reply object. The request object supports the externalize function to create a request buffer for the TP link object. The reply object supports the internalize function to read the reply buffer. The request and reply objects act as a bridge between the ORB world and the TP monitor world. The TP monitor buffers are never seen, but the request and reply objects know the exact order of the data in the buffer.

Data Types

The following data types are supported: char*, char, octet, short, unsigned short, long, unsigned long, float, double and bool, where both bool and octet are defined as unsigned short.

StdStreamIO's data format is OMG Object Externalization Specification compliant. TPStreamIO's data format is different. It does not have data type and data length fields. TPStreamIO is the class used for externalization and internalization at Stage

1

A.

IDL

module extern {

typedef void* bufPtr;

interface StreamIO {

/ / All the following methods should be overwritten.

void writeChar(in char aChar);

void writeOctet(in octet aOctet); . . .

char readChar( );

octet readOctet( );

};

interface TPStreamIO : StreamIO {

void setOutputBuffer(in bufPtr aBuffer, in long length);

long getOutputBufferLength( );

long getDataLength( );

void writeChar(in char aChar);

void writeOctet(in octet aOctet); . . .

char readChar( );

octet readOctet( );

};

interface streamable {

void externalize_to_stream(in streamIO aStream);

void internalize_to_stream(in streamIO aStream);

};

interface TPStreamIOFactory {

enum streamDestination { RS6000, HP, INTEL, TANDEM, IBM370,

SUNSPARC, POWERPC };

createTPStreamIO( in streamDestination theDestination );

};

TPStreamIO provides methods to set up the buffer pointer, for the reason that Tuxedo needs to use buffer allocated by its own memory allocation APIs.

Data Format Conversion

Since the Gateway platform and Server platform might be different, and different platforms might have different scheme for data representation, program running on Gateway need converting the data format to be compliant with that of the server platform. The following tables show what operations need to be performed for data conversion based upon different Gateway and Server platform configurations.

FIG. 12

is a Booch diagram of externalization processing in accordance with a preferred embodiment. Every Extern::TPStreamIO

1220

object has two internal bool type flags: flagLtoB and flagAtoE. When an Extern::TPStreamIOFactory

1270

is asked to create an Extern::TPStreamIO

1230

, it must be given the information about the Gateway platform and the Server platform. According to the message, it looks up the table and sets the flags of the Extern::TPStreamIO

1230

correspondingly. When the Extern::TPStreamIO

1230

is asked to write or read, it will check those flags also. The Extern::TPStreamIOFactory

1270

object is a singleton object.

Interactive Diagram

FIG. 13

illustrates a simple interaction for an application object using a request object to help the TPxxx object build a request buffer, invoke the request and send back the response.

CORBA ORB Portability

To minimize dependencies on the ORB, the concrete implementation of the streamIO objects should be built as stand-alone C or C++ objects, with the ORB implementation classes delegating work to the C++ classes.

Non-CORBA ORB Portability

Most distributed object managers have this notion of object streaming, and there is only so much variation. Using the same technique as for “CORBA ORB portability”, any future service, such as an Distributed OLE streaming mechanism, can be used.

ISNaming and SvcResolve

The OMG naming service is the principal means for objects to locate other objects. The names given to the objects should be easily recognizable and readable within the problem domain of the application. The naming service will map these user-defined “names” to object references. The name-to-object association is called a “name binding”. A “naming context” is an object that contains a set of “name bindings” in which each name is unique. Every object has a unique object ID or reference. One or more names can be associated with the same object reference at the same time, however there is no requirement for all objects to be named.

Because a naming context is an object, it can also be bound to a name in a naming context. Binding naming contexts to other naming contexts creates a “naming graph.” The “naming graph” is a directed graph or tree where the nodes are naming contexts and the leaves are name bindings to non-naming context objects. Given a context in a naming graph, a sequence of names can reference an object.

ISNaming

Naming Contexts and Names

In the OMG naming service, a “name component” is a structure with two attributes: an identifier, which includes the object's name string, and a kind, which includes a string that is a description of the object's name, i.e. file type, etc. A name with a single “name component” is called a “simple name.” A name with “multiple components” is called a “compound name.” Each component, except the last, is used to name a context; the last component denotes the bound object.

The kind attribute for the name component is assumed to be NULL and is omitted from the NameComponent definition. Compound names are defined as a unique string similar to a directory name in common PC file systems, with a “/” character delimiting each substring representing the NameComponent within the compound name. Names are specified without the trailing “/” character. The process of binding a name to a context is equivalent to the operation of adding the “/” character to the string. The following names refer to bound objects: BANKING/RETAIL/CHECKING/DEBIT and BANKING/RETAIL/CHECKING/CREDIT.

SvcResolve

The SvcResolve class provides a naming service and server for names and objects associated with the TPInterop:: TPMgr. It maintains naming contexts and name-object associations for TPInterop::CallMgr objects and subclasses for this release.

Object Model

FIG. 14

is a Booch diagram illustrating the relationship between the TPInterop::TPMgr

1400

, TPInterop::CallMgr

1410

, SvcResolve::Resolver

1420

and the TPxxx::CallMgr

1430

naming service components.

IDL Classes

module ISNaming {

interface Name {

attribute string name;

};

interface NamingContext {

attribute string name;

attribute popList::valueList currentPropList;

void bind( in Name name, in ObjectRef ref);

void rebind(in Name name, in ObjectRef ref);

void bindWithPropertyList( in Name name,

in SvcResolve::ObjectRef ref ,

in propList::valueList p1);

void rebindWithPropertyList(in Name name,

in SvcResolve::ObjectRef ref,

in propList::valueList p1);

void bindContext( in Name name, in NamingContext cxt);

void rebindContext( in Name name, in NamingContext cxt);

void bindContextWithPropertyList( in Name name,

in NamingContext cxt,

in propList::valueList p1);

void rebindContextWithPropertyList(in Name name,

in NamingContext cxt,

in propList::valueList p1);

SvcResolve::ObjectRef resolve( in Name name);

void unbind(in Name name);

NamingContext newContext( );

NamingContext bindNewContext(in Name name);

void setPropertyList(in Name name,

in propList::valueList propstring);

void removePropertyList(in Name name,

in propList::valueList propstring);

propList::valueList getPropertyList(in Name name);

};

interface NamingGraph {

NamingContext get_context(in NamingContext root_cxt,

in string compound_name);

void buildGraph(in NamingContext root_cxt,

in string compound_name);

void destoryGraph(in NamingContext root_cxt,

in string compound_name);

void bindGraph(in NamingContext cxt,

in string compound_name,

in SvcResolve::ObjectRef ref);

void unbindGraph(in NamingContext cxt,

in string compound_name,

in SvcResolve::ObjectRef ref);

};

};

module SvcResolve {

interface ObjectRef {

attribute string<512> ref;

};

interface Resolver {

ObjectRef resolveTPServiceDestination(in string name,

out propList::ValueList);

ISNaming::NamingContext locateGlobalNamingContext( );

void setGlobalNamingContext(in string cxt);

void addTPServiceDestination(in string name,

in ObjectRef Factory,

in propList::valueList p1);

void deleteTPServiceDestination(in string name);

void changeTPServiceDestination(in string name,

in ObjectRef Factory,

in propList::valueList p1);

};

};

Usage Examples and Scenarios

Names to Object Table

The following table maps name/naming contexts to objects.

Name/Naming Context

Reference

Property List

/BANK/RETAIL/CHK/DEBIT

TUXEDO

RequestType=request/

response BufferType =

VIEW startTx=YES

/BANK/RETAIL/CHK/CREDIT

TUXEDO

RequestType=request/

response BufferType =

VIEW startTx=YES

/BANK/COMM/TRADE/BOND/SE

CICS

CICSPGM=CICSAPP

LL

/BANK/COMM/TRADE/BOND/BU

CICS

CICSPGM=CICSAPP

Y

/BANK/RETAIL/SAV/DEBIT

IMS

TRANCODE=

SAV001TR

/BANK/RETAIL/SAV/CREDIT

IMS

TRANCODE=

SAV002TR

/ / The following objects can be assumed to be initialized ;

SvcResolver::Resolver* svc;

TPIMS::TPCallMgr* tpims;

TPTux::TPCallMgr* tptux;

TPInterop::CallMgr* tpcallmgr;

TPInterop::TPMgr* tpMgr;

/ / The following sample illustrates the maintenance functions required

/ / to define a Checking Account Debit from Tuxedo and a Savings

Account / /Credit to IMS.

/ / Assumes tptux and tpims already created by TPInterop

CallMgrFactory

tpmgr->registerCallMgr(“TUXEDO”, tptux);

tpmgr->registerCallMgr(“IMS”, tpims);

tpMgr->setGlobalNamingContext(“BANKING/RETAIL”);

aPropList* p1=new propList( );

p1->addName(“requestType”, “request/response”);

p1->addName(“bufferType”, “VIEW”);

p1->addName(“startTx”, “YES”);

aPropList* p2=new propList( );

p2->addName(“trancode”, “SAV002TR”);

svc->addTPServiceDestination(“CHECKING/DEBIT”, “TUXEDO”, p1);

svc->addTPServiceDestination(“SAVINGS/CREDIT”, “IMS”, p2);

/ / The following illustrates the sample coding of the

/ / addTPServiceDestination maintenance function

SvcResolve::Resolver::addTPServiceDestination( const char* name,

SvcResolve::ObjectRef* ref,

propList::valueList* p1)

{ . . .

ISNamingGraph graph;

ISNaming::NamingContext* cxt=getGlobalNamingContext;

graph.bindGraph(cxt, name, ref);

cxt->bindWithPropertyList(name, ref, p1); . . .

}

/ / The following sample illustrates the coding ISNaming and

SvcResolve

/ / coding required in the TPMgr::invoke method.

TPInterop::TPMgr::invoke( const char* destination, . . . )

{ . . .

SvcResolve::ObjectRef* ref;

propList::valueList p1;

ref=(string) resolveTPServiceDestination(Destination,&p1);

TPCallMgr* mgr=getCallMgr(ref); . . .

}

TPInterop::TPMgr Interaction

FIG. 15

is a Booch diagram illustrating the Interaction processing in accordance with a preferred embodiment. The TPInterop::TPMgr creates the SvcResolve::Resolver object during its initialization or startup and calls the SvcResolve::Resolver method “setGlobalNamingContext.”

1. The Application is activated, and calls the TPInterop::TPMgr method “invoke” with the following parameters as shown at

1501

.

Name representing the TPInterop::CallMgr

application streamable input object.

application streamable output object.

2. The TPInterop::TPMgr gets the input name representing the TPInterop::CallMgr object as shown at

1502

.

3. The TPInterop::TPMgr calls resolveTPServiceDestination on the SvcResolve::Resolver object with the name representing the transaction as an input parameter. The method returns an object reference, and the associated property list as shown at

1503

.

4. The TPInterop::TPMgr calls the getCallMgr method with the object reference obtained in step 3 to locate the appropriate TPInterop::CallMgr objects as shown at

1504

.

5. The property list is used as input for the invoke method on the TPInterop::TPCallMgr object as shown at

1505

.

TPxxx—Typical TP Monitor Model

This section describes a typical implementation of a set of TPxxx classes, such as TUXEDO, CICS, etc.

Object Model

FIG. 16

is a Booch diagram setting forth the architecture of the TP monitor in accordance with a preferred embodiment.

IDL

A typical implementation of TPxxx classes introduces no new methods, but overrides the abstract class interfaces shown in the object model.

Usage Scenarios

See the scenario in the overview chapter for an overview, and see the specific TPxxx chapters for specific details.

CICS

FIGS. 17 and 18

set forth some details of CICS processing in accordance with a preferred embodiment. The purpose of this component is to provide connectivity between the TP interoperability module and a CICS system running on another computer. Connectivity to CICS is achieved through the CICS LU 6.2 service. The CICS user transaction is invoked via the CICS Program Link interface. The LU 6.2 service allows a client LU 6.2 application, written to the basic LU 6.2 level or using the CPIC interface, to connect to a CICS system running on a server through the CICS LU 6.2 service. A CICS LU 6.2 transaction will be provided by this project to interoperate with the CICS LU 6.2 service and the client LU 6.2 application. The CICS LU 6.2 transaction will convert the data received from an LU 6.2 client and then perform a CICS Program Link command to invoke the appropriate CICS user application.

In

FIG. 17

, processing commences at

1701

and immediately passes to

1702

to invoke a transaction and connect to a CICS LU 6.2 service. At

1703

, a register operation occurs. The get request

1704

opperation allocates a streamIO, sets the buffer, externalizes the transaction and obtains the buffer length. Then, at

1705

, a LU 6.2 allocate operation is performed, followed by a send operation at

1706

. Finally, at

1707

, a put reply is performed to allocate streamIO, internalize the transaction and obtain the buffer length of the transaction. A second invoke operation

1708

is performed in which the first operation is a register operation

1709

that will fail since the transaction is already registered. Then, a get request

1710

is performed, initiating a send/recieve

1711

transaction that invokes a put reply

1712

and an end transaction

1713

that invokes a prepare

1714

transaction and sends a prepare message

1715

, resulting in a commit

1716

, a syncpoint message

1717

and, ultimately an LU 6.2 dealloc

1718

.

In

FIG. 18

, processing commences at

1803

where an invoke operation occurs, returning a context object. Then, at

1804

, a register operation, that will fail if there is no transaction, is performed. At

1805

, a get request is sent. Then, at

1806

, an LU 6.2 allocate operation is performed, followed by an LU 6.2 send/recieve

1807

and a put reply

1808

that is used to transmit the transaction to the CICS system. At

1809

, another invoke operation is performed. A get request

1810

is utilized to initiate a send/receive transaction

1811

that prepares a message to send

1812

and invokes a send syncpoint message

1801

, resulting in an LU 6.2 deallocate operation

1802

and a put reply

1813

.

The CICS Program Link interface requires a program name that is the name of the CICS user application that will be invoked. This program will run under the CICS transaction id associated with the user program. The Program Link interface also requires an input and output buffer, the Commarea. The Commarea is used for both input and output data. The input data will be as a result of the object attributes being streamed. The output data will be the data returned by the CICS user application.

The connectivity between the CICS interoperability module and the CICS system will be via LU 6.2. The CPIC interface can be used to perform the LU 6.2 communication using sync level 1 or confirm protocol.

Usage Scenarios

See the “overview” chapter for a generic interaction diagram. The following are some specific details.

Usage Notes

In conversational or request/response mode, it is invalid for there to be a NULL request and/or reply object.

If there is no current transaction, the StartTransaction property will be checked. If it is set to “yes, ” a transaction will be committed at the end of a successful LU 6.2 send/receive (request/response mode) or at the end of a conversation (conversational mode) initiated by an LU 6.2 allocate.

CICS transactions are started implicitly by the first EXEC CICS LINK request.

Request/ response will always return a nil callContext object. Conversational mode always returns a callContext object, unless the conversation is ended on the LU 6.2 deallocate.

Service Parameters

The following service parameters are defined:

Name

Description

Values

Partner

Name of CPIC side file

char [8]

Name

Program

Name of CICS application

char [8]

Name

program

Start

Start a transaction when

Implicit, None

Transaction

there isn't a current one

IMS

FIGS. 19 and 20

set forth some details of IMS processing in accordance with a preferred embodiment. The processing set forth in these figures corresponds very closely to the processing in

FIGS. 17 and 18

. The purpose of this component is to provide connectivity between the TP interoperability module and an IMS system running on another computer. Connectivity to IMS is achieved through the IMS LU 6.2 to LU 6.2 adapter which will place an IMS transaction in the IMS transaction queue. The IMS adapter allows a client LU 6.2 application, written to the basic LU 6.2 level or using the CPIC interface, to connect to an IMS system running on a server through the IMS LU 6.2 to LU 6.2 adapter.

Usage Notes

With IMS it is not easy to determine when an IMS transaction is started or ended, therefore whether a transaction is started explicitly or implicitly is irrelevant to the IMS transaction on the server side.

If there is no current transaction, the StartTransaction property will be checked. If it is set to “yes,” the conversation will be ended at the end of a successful LU 6.2 send/receive (request/reply mode) or at the end of a conversation initiated by an LU 6.2 allocate.

Request/response will always return a nil callContext object. Conversational mode always returns a callContext object, unless the conversation is ended after the LU 6.2 rend/receive.

Service Parameters

The following service parameters are defined:

Name

Description

Values

Partner Name

Name of CPIC side file

char [8]

TP Name

IMS Transaction name

char [8]

Pathway

FIGS. 21 and 22

set forth details of Pathway processing in accordance with a preferred embodiment. The processing set forth in these figures corresponds very closely to the processing in

FIGS. 17 and 18

. The purpose of this component is to provide interoperability between the TP inter-operability module and a Pathway system running on a Tandem computer. Connectivity to Pathway is achieved through the RSC service which runs on the client and server (Tandem) side. The RSC service allows a client application to connect to a Pathway system running on a server through TCP/IP.

Usage Notes

In conversational mode, to initiate a RscWrite, pass in a NULL reply object. Otherwise for a RscWriteRead a non-NULL response and reply objects are required.

If there is no current transaction, the StartTransaction property will be checked. If it is set to “yes,” a transaction will be started and committed at the end of a successful RscWrite or RscWriteRead (request/reply mode) or at the end of a conversation initiated by RscBeginSession.

Request/response will always return a nil callContext object. Conversational mode always returns a callContext object, unless the conversation is ended on the RscEndSession.

Service Parameters

The following service parameters are defined:

Name

Description

Values

Pathway

Name of the application

Char [16]

Server Class

Pathway server class.

Name

RSC INI File

File name for initiation

char [8]

Name

parameters

Start

Start a transaction when

Implicit, None

Transaction

there isn't a current one

Tuxedo

The Tuxedo TP interop component is a concrete implementation of several abstract classes. It supports the following features:

Request/response (tpcall) access to Tuxedo services is supported.

Conversational (tpconnect) access to Tuxedo services is supported.

The Tuxedo TP interop component will run on a machine supporting either native Tuxedo or /WS. The four types of Tuxedo communication buffers, CARRAY, String, VIEW and FML, are supported to facilitate access to transaction demarcation verbs.

Usage Scenarios

FIG. 23

illustrates Tuxedo request / response transactions within an explicit transaction in accordance with a preferred embodiment.

FIG. 24

illustrates a Tuxedo conversational transaction within an implicit transaction in accordance with a preferred embodiment. The processing set forth in these figures corresponds very closely to the processing in

FIGS. 17 and 18

.

Usage Notes

In conversational mode, to initiate a tprecv without a previous tpsend, pass in a NULL request object. To initiate a tpsend without a subsequent tprecv, pass in a NULL reply object.

If there is no current transaction, the StartTransaction property will be checked. If it is set to “yes,” a transaction will be started and committed at the end of a successful tpcall or at the end of a conversation initiated by tpconnect.

Request/response will always return a nil callContext object. Conversational mode always returns a callContext object, unless the conversation is ended on the tpconnect.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferred embodiment should not be limited by any of the above described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

Number	Name	Date	Kind
4333144	Whiteside et al.	Jun 1982	A
4525780	Bratt et al.	Jun 1985	A
4961133	Talati et al.	Oct 1990	A
5095421	Freund	Mar 1992	A
5265250	Andrade et al.	Nov 1993	A
5404523	DellaFera et al.	Apr 1995	A
5428771	Danub et al.	Jun 1995	A
5428782	White	Jun 1995	A
5485370	Moss et al.	Jan 1996	A
5745758	Shaw et al.	Apr 1998	A
5754772	Leaf	May 1998	A

System, method and article of manufacture for universal transaction processing

Information

Patent Number

Date Filed

Date Issued

Inventors

Original Assignees

Examiners

Agents

CPC

US Classifications

Field of Search

US

International Classifications

Disclaimer

Abstract

Description

Claims

US Referenced Citations (11)

Non-Patent Literature Citations (2)

Entry
OMG 93.11.16, Response to OMG'S Second Request for Proposal Object Transaction Service, Nov. 1993.*
OMG, “CORBAservices:Common object Services Specificiation”, Chapters 8 and 10, Mar. 1995.