Managing the lifetime of distributed resource data using temporal scopes

Abstract

A method and system for enabling a client to programmatically manage the lifetime of groups of distributed resources is herein provided. The method includes grouping client-specific resource data usage generated from blocks of instruction sequences bounded by scope instructions. A 'begin scope' instruction invokes a method initiating the temporal scope. Client-specific resource data generated during execution of subsequent instructions is tracked by the distributed infrastructure. When an 'end scope' instruction is received, the client-specific resource data tracked under the temporal scope is deleted from the distributed infrastructure. Client-specific resource data may be tracked under two types of temporal scopes: a transient and a persistent temporal scope. Data tracked under a transient scope does not survive beyond the lifetime of the client connection, whereas data tracked under a persistent scope may survive beyond the lifetime of the client connection. Lastly, temporal scopes may generally be nested.