Configurable Message Pipelines

Abstract

In accordance with certain aspects of configurable message pipelines, a service allows one or more applications running on a system to communicate with one or more other systems. The service includes a port having a send pipeline to allow the one or more applications to send messages to the one or more other systems and/or a receive pipeline to allow the one or more applications to receive messages from the one or more other systems. Each of the send pipeline and the receive pipeline is configurable by the one or more applications to include functionality desired by the one or more applications.

1 . One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions to implement a class that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, causes the one or more processors to:
 create an object exposing a first method that can be invoked by a program running on the device to allow the program to identify a first message handler to be added to a channel of a message pipeline; and   add, in response to the first method being invoked, the identified first message handler to the channel.   
   
   
       2 . One or more computer readable media as recited in  claim 1 , the class comprising a PortExtension class. 
   
   
       3 . One or more computer readable media as recited in  claim 1 , the message pipeline comprising a send message pipeline, the plurality of instructions further causing the one or more processors to:
 create the object exposing a second method that can be invoked by the program to allow the program to identify a second message handler to be added to a channel of a receive message pipeline; and   add, in response to the second method being invoked, the identified second message handler to the receive message channel.   
   
   
       4 . One or more computer readable media as recited in  claim 1 , the plurality of instructions further causing the one or more processors to:
 create the object exposing a second method that can be invoked by the program to request an identification of any aliases defined by the class; and   return, in response to the second method being invoked, the identification of any aliases defined by the class.   
   
   
       5 . One or more computer readable media as recited in  claim 1 , the plurality of instructions further causing the one or more processors to:
 create the object exposing a second method that can be invoked by the program; and   return, in response to the second method being invoked, an identification of a stage of the message pipeline to which the object adds a message handler.   
   
   
       6 . One or more computer readable media as recited in  claim 1 , the class comprising a PortExtension class. 
   
   
       7 . One or more computer readable media as recited in  claim 1 , the first message handler being able to operate on messages in the message pipeline using either a buffered approach or a streaming approach. 
   
   
       8 . One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, causes the one or more processors to implement a message handler object to:
 operate on a message in response to a process method exposed by the message handler object being invoked by a caller, the process method receiving as a parameter an identification of the message;   if the message handler object consumes the message, then return, to the caller, a value indicating that the message handler object has consumed the message; and   if the message handler object does not consume the message, then return, to the caller, a value indicating that the message handler object has finished operating on the message and that a second message handler object can operate on the message.   
   
   
       9 . One or more computer readable media as recited in  claim 8 , the message handler object comprising an IMessageHandler interface. 
   
   
       10 . One or more computer readable media as recited in  claim 8 , the caller comprising a third message handler object. 
   
   
       11 . One or more computer readable media as recited in  claim 8 , the first message handler object operating on the message using a buffered approach, and the second message handler object operating on the message using a streaming approach.