Method and system for distributing data events over an information bus

Abstract

A group of protocols is described that establish an information bus. The protocols allow various applications and components to plug into the information bus. As a member of the bus, each application or component can exchange information with any other application or component in a structured way. The information bus is especially useful in interconnecting Java beans and applets in a Java virtual machine and in a distributive computer environment. An object oriented computer system having multiple participants is disclosed that utilizes a communications bus for sharing data between the multiple participants. The communications bus comprises membership generator logic, data event builder logic, data notification logic, and data control logic. The membership generator logic is configured to grant each requesting participant membership to the communications bus. The data event builder logic is configured to prepare data events occurring the computer system. The data notification logic is responsive to the data event builder logic and is configured to notify all participant members of the data events generated by the data event builder logic. The data control logic, which is coupled to the data notification logic, is configured to prioritize the notification of data events to the multiple participants of the communications bus. The data event can serve to announce the availability of a new data element, to request a given data element located in one of the member participants, or to announce a changed data element in one of the member participants. The data control logic can be configured to prioritize the notification of data events to selected groups of the multiple participants and it can be configured to provide selected grouping of the multiple participants. In addition, the data control logic may be configured to establish a virtual machine bridge between a first data controller and a first virtual machine and a second data controller and a second virtual machine. In addition, the membership generator logic generates a list of registered applications.