Multitask subscription data retrieval method

Claim 2

In a multitask data processing system having means for receiving data of different types in response to nonmonitoring requests for data and specific monitoring requests for data, the specific monitoring requests requiring the remote data base to monitor data base sources with respect to specific indenti­fiers, a method for distributing the data to plural user tasks subscribing to the data comprising: in a first provider task dividing a data stream of plural data types from the remote data base into plural data streams according to the data types; transferring from the first provider task at least one selected data stream in response to nonmonitoring requests directly to user tasks subscribing to the data streams and transferring at least one selected data stream in response to specific monitor­ing requests to at least a second provider task; and in the second provider task, dividing the data stream in response to specific monitoring requests into further data streams and transferring the further data streams to user tasks requesting the data streams.

Claim 3

In a multitask data processing system having means for receiving data of different types, a method of distributing the data from a provider task to plural user tasks subscribing to the data, the method comprising: by means of a common code module linked to each user task, establishing data paths between the provider task and the user tasks, each data path being specific to a type of data trans­ferred to a single user; and by means of the provider task, dividing a data stream from the remote data base into plural data streams according to the data type and transferring the plural data streams to the user tasks through the established data paths.

Claim 4

In a multitask data processing system having means for receiving data of different types, a method of distributing the data from a provider task to plural user tasks subscribing to the data, the method comprising: by means of a common code module linked to each user task, establishing data paths between the provider task and the user tasks, each data path being specific to a type of data trans­ferred to a single user; and by means of the provider task, dividing a data stream from the remote data base into plural data streams according to the data type and transferring the plural data streams to the user tasks through the established data paths.

Claim 5

In a multitask data processing system having means for receiving data of different types a method of distributing the data from a provider task to plural user tasks subscribing to the data, the method comprising: in response to calls from the user tasks, establishing data paths between the provider task and the user tasks, each data path being specific to a type of data transferred to a single user; and by means of the provider task, dividing a data stream from the remote data base into plural data streams according to the data type and transferring the plural data streams to the user tasks through the established data paths.

Claim 6

In a multitask data processing system having means for receiving data of different types a method of distributing the data from a provider task to plural user tasks subscribing to the data, the method comprising: in response to calls from the user tasks, establishing data paths between the provider task and the user tasks, each data path being specific to a type of data transferred to a single user; and by means of the provider task, dividing a data stream from the remote data base into plural data streams according to the data type and transferring the plural data streams to the user tasks through the established data paths.

Claim 7

In a multitask data processing system having means for receiving data, a method of distributing the data to plural user tasks comprising in a provider tasks: receiving specific data requests from the user tasks and compiling information correlating user tasks with specific data requests; for each data request, determining whether a like request is pending for another task; only if a like request is not pending, transferring to the remote data base the specific data request; receiving specific data from the remote data base; determining from the compiled information all user tasks which have requested the received specific data; and transferring the specific data to user tasks which have reques­ted the data.

Claim 8

In a multitask data processing system having means for receiving data, a method of distributing the data to plural user tasks comprising in a provider tasks: receiving specific data requests from the user tasks and compiling information correlating user tasks with specific data requests; for each data request, determining whether a like request is pending for another task; only if a like request is not pending, transferring to the remote data base the specific data request; receiving specific data from the remote data base; determining from the compiled information all user tasks which have requested the received specific data; and transferring the specific data to user tasks which have reques­ted the data.

Claim 9

In a multitask data processing system having means for receiving data of different types, a method of distributing the data from provider task to plural user tasks subscribing to the data, the method comprising: by means of a common code module linked to each user task, establishing data paths between the provider tasks and the user tasks, each data path being specific to a type of data being transferred to a single user, the data paths being established by each user task using a configuration list for each user task from a configuration file, each configuration list including the name of a provider task mailbox to which requests for data of each type are to be transferred and an indication of whether the task has access to a particular type of data; motoring, by means of a wait list established in an operating system mailboxes with respect to each type of data to the pro­vider task to identify request from user tasks and to user tasks to identify data being transferred to the user tasks; receiving in a monitor provider task specific data requests from the user tasks and compiling information correlating user tasks with specific data requests, determining whether a like request is pending for another task, and only if a like request is not pending transferring through a primary provider task to the remote data base the specific data request; in the primary provider task, dividing a data stream of plural data types from the remote data base into plural data streams according to the data types; transferring to nonmonitoring requests directly to user tasks subscribing to the data streams and transferring at least one selected data stream in response to specific monitoring requests to the monitor provider task; and in the monitor provider task, dividing the data stream in response to specific monitoring requests into further data streams and transferring the further data streams to user tasks requesting the data streams.

Claim 10

In a multitask data processing system having means for receiving data of different types, a method of distributing the data from provider task to plural user tasks subscribing to the data, the method comprising: by means of a common code module linked to each user task, establishing data paths between the provider tasks and the user tasks, each data path being specific to a type of data being transferred to a single user, the data paths being established by each user task using a configuration list for each user task from a configuration file, each configuration list including the name of a provider task mailbox to which requests for data of each type are to be transferred and an indication of whether the task has access to a particular type of data; motoring, by means of a wait list established in an operating system mailboxes with respect to each type of data to the pro­vider task to identify request from user tasks and to user tasks to identify data being transferred to the user tasks; receiving in a monitor provider task specific data requests from the user tasks and compiling information correlating user tasks with specific data requests, determining whether a like request is pending for another task, and only if a like request is not pending transferring through a primary provider task to the remote data base the specific data request; in the primary provider task, dividing a data stream of plural data types from the remote data base into plural data streams according to the data types; transferring to nonmonitoring requests directly to user tasks subscribing to the data streams and transferring at least one selected data stream in response to specific monitoring requests to the monitor provider task; and in the monitor provider task, dividing the data stream in response to specific monitoring requests into further data streams and transferring the further data streams to user tasks requesting the data streams.

Claim 11

A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the step of decoding the data stream in the second provider task.

Claim 12

A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising, by means of a common code module linked to each user task, estab­lishing data paths between the provider tasks and the user tasks, each data transfer path being specific to a type of data transferred to a single user task.

Claim 13

A method as claimed in claim 7 further comprising the step of generating in at least the first provider task, a subscri­bers list for identifying, relative to each type of data, the tasks which are to receive the type of data.

Claim 14

A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the step of monitoring,

Claim 15

A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the second provider task receives specific data requests from the user tasks and compiles information correlating user tasks with specific data requests, the data being compiled by generating a user tree and a data-type tree, each user node of the user tree pointing to a list of data types requested by that user and each node of the data-type tree pointing to the users which have requested that type of data.

Claim 16

A method as claimed in claim 1, 3, 7 or 9 further compri­sing, in establishing data paths, the step of generating a configuration list for each of the privider tasks and the user tasks from a configuration file, each configuration list in­cluding the name of a provider task mailbox to which requests for data of each type are to be transferred and an indication of whether the task has access to a particular type of data.

Claim 17

A method as claimed in claim 1, 3, 7 or 11 further comprising the step of monitoring, by means of a wait list established in an operating system, mailboxes with respect to each type of data to the provider tasks to identify requests from user tasks and to user tasks to identify data being transferred to the user tasks.

Claim 19

A method as claimed in claim 13 further comprising transferring stock quotation requests from the user tasks to the first provider task, providing each such request with a sequence number in the first provider task and transferring the request to the remote data base, the first provider task main­taining a record of users requesting the data with respect to sequence numbers and, by means of sequence numbers returned with the data, confirming receipt of data responses to the requests and forwarding the received data to the users which made the quotation requests.

Claim 20

A method as claimed in claim 2 further comprising the step of monitoring, by means of a wait list established through the common code module in an operating system, a mailbox to a user task with respect to each type of data to notify the user task of data being transferred to the user task.

Claim 21

A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the data paths are established by routines of the common code module based on system configuration information available to the common code module routine, the routine being called by a user task without regard for the provider task architecture.

Claim 22

A method as claimed in claim 16 wherein the configuration information is available through a configuration list which includes the name of a provider task mailbox to which requests for data of each type are to be transferred and an indication of whether the task has access to a particular type of data.

Claim 23

A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein data streams of a first type are transferred to specific user tasks depending on the content of the data streams, and data streams of a second type are transferred to all user tasks from a list of user tasks.

Claim 24

A method as claimed in claim 15 further comprising the step of including in the wait list events specified by the user other than data transfers from a provider task.

Claim 25

A method as claimed in claim 2 or 15 further comprising, in establishing data paths, the step of generating a configura­tion list for each user task from a configuration file, each configuration list including the name of a provider task mail­box to which requests for data of each type are to be trans­ferred and an indication of whether the task has access to a particular type of data.

Claim 26

A method as claimed in claim 20 wherein each configuration list indicates whether the task is a provider of data to other tasks, the method further comprising the step of limiting pro­vider specific routines of the common code module to provider tasks.

Claim 27

A method as claimed in claim 15 or 20 further comprising the step of monitoring, by means of a wait list established through the common code module in an operating system, a mail­box to a provider task with respect to each type of data to notifiy the provider task of data being transferred to the provider task.

Claim 28

A method as claimed in claim 22 further comprising the step of generating a configuration list for each provider task from a configuration file, each configuration list including the name of a provider task mailbox to which requests for data of each type are to be transferred.

Claim 29

A method as claimed in claim 2 or 22 further comprising the step of generating in at least the provider task, a sub­scribers list for identifying, relative to each type of data, the tasks which are to receive that type of data.

Claim 30

A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the information is compiled by generating a user tree and a symbol tree, each user node of the user tree pointing to a list of symbols identifying data requested by that user and each node of the symbol tree pointing to the users which have requested the data represented by the symbol.

Claim 31

A method as claimed in claim 25 wherein each node of the user tree includes a listing of services to which that user has subscribed.

Claim 32

A method as claimed in claim 25 wherein each node of the symbol tree includes a listing of services through which users have made requests for the data identified by the symbol.

Claim 33

In a data processing system, a data structure comprising: a first tree structure (Fig. 6A) of data of a first data type, each node of the first tree structure able to point to a list referencing data of a second data type; and a second data type, each node of the second tree structure able to point to a list referencing data of the first data type.

Claim 34

In a data processing system, a data structure comprising: a first tree structure (Fig. 6A) of data of a first data type, each node of the first tree structure able to point to a list referencing data of a second data type; and a second data type, each node of the second tree structure able to point to a list referencing data of the first data type.

Claim 35

A data structure as claimed in claim 28 wherein the data of the first data type identifies services, and the data of the second data type identifies users of the services.

Claim 36

A data structure as claimed in claim 29 wherein a list referencing data of the second data type is a list referencing all users of a service, and a list referencing data of the second data type is a list referencing all services used by a user.