Service Contract Mediator for Cache Consistency
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Solution Overview
Problem
In large-scale business software applications, maintaining data consistency and managing the effects of operations across different components is challenging, particularly in service-oriented architectures where front-end and back-end components have different data representations and require independent lifecycles.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that provide a definition of objects representing data elements and operations, allowing clients to execute operations on data elements while updating copies in a local memory cache, ensuring cache consistency and reducing internal knowledge requirements, enabling independent software lifecycles for service providers and consumers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a service-oriented architecture with separate front-end and back-end components is used, then adaptability and independence of components are improved, but data consistency and coordination between components become more difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a service contract as an intermediary layer between the front-end client and back-end service. The service contract defines the interface, data formats, and communication protocols that both sides must adhere to, ensuring data consistency while maintaining component independence. This mediator enables services to be loosely coupled yet reliably coordinated.
Solution Approach 2:
The service contract is established in advance before the actual service execution. By pre-defining the interface specifications, data structures, and communication rules in the service contract, the system ensures that both front-end and back-end components know their responsibilities and data formats beforehand, preventing consistency issues during runtime.
2Reliability
If detailed internal knowledge of service operations is required to maintain cache consistency, then cache consistency can be maintained, but device complexity and knowledge requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The service proxy automatically manages cache consistency by intercepting service requests and responses. When a service operation is executed, the proxy automatically updates the local cache based on the service contract definitions, without requiring the client application to understand or implement cache management logic. This self-service approach maintains reliability while reducing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The service proxy acts as an intermediary between the client application and the service execution. It handles the complex task of cache synchronization by monitoring service operations and automatically updating cached data according to the service contract, shielding the application from complexity while ensuring consistency.
3Ease of operation
If services are highly specialized for specific customers, then ease of operation and customization are improved, but adaptability to different situations and reuse decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the service architecture into reusable components: service contracts, service implementations, and client proxies. Service contracts define standardized interfaces that can be reused across different customers and situations. Specific customer requirements are implemented as configurable parameters or extensions of these standardized contracts, allowing customization without sacrificing reusability.
Solution Approach 2:
The service contract framework provides universal functionality that can serve multiple customers and use cases. By defining general-purpose service interfaces and data structures in the contracts, the same service infrastructure can be adapted to different customer-specific requirements through configuration rather than rewriting, enabling both customization and reuse.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for providing to a client a definition of an object representing attributes of a first collection of data elements and an operation on the first collection, each data element having attributes and the operation in common with other data elements from the first collection, the definition comprising an effect of executing the operation on a second collection of data elements. This also includes receiving from a client a request to execute the operation on one or more data elements from the first collection, executing the operation on one or more data elements from the first collection, and updating a copy of one or more data elements from the second collection according to the effect of executing the operation.