Abstract: A method and a processing device may be provided for creating a shadow database, having a size being approximately a desired percentage of a size of a relational database. Referential integrity of tables of the relational database may be preserved in the created shadow database. A representation of a connected graph may be created, based on a schema description of the relational database, and may be used to find driving tables and related tables of the relational database. Portions of driving tables of the relational database may be copied to corresponding tables of the shadow database and rows of tables of the relational database, related to the copied portions of the driving tables, may be copied to corresponding tables of the shadow database in a number of iterations until the size of the shadow database is approximately the desired percentage of the size of the relational database.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system and methodology providing an automated and dynamically responsive infrastructure to support online subscription services. The system includes one or more components to coordinate and manage a plurality of services offered by multiple service providers. This can include automatically creating and managing billing accounts for customers subscribing to such services. At least one engine is provided to process multiple rules in response to subscription events that occur in connection with the services in order to facilitate service delivery. At least one rating processor is provided to process multiple rating rules in response to subscription events for currency and non-currency resources.

Abstract: The adaptive bandwidth throttling system implements a graceful diminution of services to the clients by delaying a first class of services provided by a network server in response to the effective bandwidth utilized by this network server exceeding a first threshold. If the demand for the bandwidth by this network server exceeds a second threshold, the bandwidth throttling system escalates the throttling response and blocks the first class of services from execution and can also concurrently delay execution of a second class of services. The implementation of the throttling process can be varied, to include additional levels of response or finer gradations of the response, to include subsets of a class of services. In addition, the threshold levels of bandwidth used to trigger the throttling response can be selected as desired by the system administrator.

Abstract: The subject innovation relates to a system and/or methodology that provides an automated and dynamically responsive infrastructure to support online subscription services. The system coordinates and manages services offered by service providers. This can include automatically creating and managing billing accounts for customers. At least one engine is provided to process multiple rules in response to subscription events that occur in connection with the services to facilitate service delivery. At least one rating processor is provided to process multiple rating rules in response to subscription events.

Abstract: The adaptive bandwidth throttling system implements a graceful diminution of services to the clients by delaying a first class of services provided by a network server in response to the effective bandwidth utilized by this network server exceeding a first threshold. If the demand for the bandwidth by this network server exceeds a second threshold, the bandwidth throttling system escalates the throttling response and blocks the first class of services from execution and can also concurrently delay execution of a second class of services. The implementation of the throttling process can be varied, to include additional levels of response or finer gradations of the response, to include subsets of a class of services. In addition, the threshold levels of bandwidth used to trigger the throttling response can be selected as desired by the system administrator.

Abstract: The adaptive bandwidth throttling system implements a graceful diminution of services to the clients by delaying a first class of services provided by a network server in response to the effective bandwidth utilized by this network server exceeding a first threshold. If the demand for the bandwidth by this network server exceeds a second threshold, the bandwidth throttling system escalates the throttling response and blocks the first class of services from execution and can also concurrently delay execution of a second class of services. The implementation of the throttling process can be varied, to include additional levels of response or finer gradations of the response, to include subsets of a class of services. In addition, the threshold levels of bandwidth used to trigger the throttling response can be selected as desired by the system administrator.

Abstract: The adaptive bandwidth throttling system implements a graceful diminution of services to the clients by delaying a first class of services provided by a network server in response to the effective bandwidth utilized by this network server exceeding a first threshold. If the demand for the bandwidth by this network server exceeds a second threshold, the bandwidth throttling system escalates the throttling response and blocks the first class of services from execution and can also concurrently delay execution of a second class of services. The implementation of the throttling process can be varied, to include additional levels of response or finer gradations of the response, to include subsets of a class of services. In addition, the threshold levels of bandwidth used to trigger the throttling response can be selected as desired by the system administrator.

Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods to generate stored procedure calling code. The invention includes system and methods that utilize annotation(s) included in a stored procedure. The annotations comprise attributes that indicate the intent to have stored procedure calling code generated. After the annotated stored procedure becomes available, the code is compiled and, optionally, checked for errors, and an intermediate definition with metadata is created. The definition is a stored procedure interface language (SPIL) file. The SPIL definition is then utilized to generate high-level, stored procedure calling code, or class libraries. The high level code can then be employed within an application to invoke the stored procedure.

Abstract: A transaction handling system and associated method are described for handling transactions based on a plurality of rule sets that apply to point sets (where the point sets contain points that can be consumed for goods and services, or have some other end-use connotation). Namely, the rule sets can be associated with respective point lots to define the characteristics and behavior of the respective point lots. For example, one rule in an applied rule set can determine whether a consumer is permitted to make a purchase without having sufficient points in the consumer's point lot, thus incurring a negative balance in the point lot. Another rule (e.g., a sandbox rule) can determine whether the consumer is permitted to use points only within a limited identified environment, or whether the consumer can use the points in any environment. An override rule set can override a default rule set on an individual account basis or on an individual consumer basis.

Abstract: The adaptive bandwidth throttling system implements a graceful diminution of services to the clients by delaying a first class of services provided by a network server in response to the effective bandwidth utilized by this network server exceeding a first threshold. If the demand for the bandwidth by this network server exceeds a second threshold, the bandwidth throttling system escalates the throttling response and blocks the first class of services from execution and can also concurrently delay execution of a second class of services. The implementation of the throttling process can be varied, to include additional levels of response or finer gradations of the response, to include subsets of a class of services. In addition, the threshold levels of bandwidth used to trigger the throttling response can be selected as desired by the system administrator.

Abstract: The adaptive bandwidth throttling system implements a graceful diminution of services to the clients by delaying a first class of services provided by a network server in response to the effective bandwidth utilized by this network server exceeding a first threshold. If the demand for the bandwidth by this network server exceeds a second threshold, the bandwidth throttling system escalates the throttling response and blocks the first class of services from execution and can also concurrently delay execution of a second class of services. The implementation of the throttling process can be varied, to include additional levels of response or finer gradations of the response, to include subsets of a class of services. In addition, the threshold levels of bandwidth used to trigger the throttling response can be selected as desired by the system administrator.

Abstract: The adaptive bandwidth throttling system implements a graceful diminution of services to the clients by delaying a first class of services provided by a network server in response to the effective bandwidth utilized by this network server exceeding a first threshold. If the demand for the bandwidth by this network server exceeds a second threshold, the bandwidth throttling system escalates the throttling response and blocks the first class of services from execution and can also concurrently delay execution of a second class of services. The implementation of the throttling process can be varied, to include additional levels of response or finer gradations of the response, to include subsets of a class of services. In addition, the threshold levels of bandwidth used to trigger the throttling response can be selected as desired by the system administrator.

Abstract: A server architecture includes a server program to receive a request from a client. In one aspect, an out-of-process application executing in a separate process from the server program is invoked to process the request and to generate a response to be returned to the client, and the server architecture includes a subsystem to detect when the out-of-process application fails and to recover the out-of-process application without disrupting operation of the server program. In another aspect, a method for detecting when an out-of-process application fails includes recording the request on a list as the request is passed to the application, examining the request as it is returned from the application, determining that the application has failed if the returned request contains erroneous data, and if the application has not failed then removing the request from the list.

Abstract: A session manager has a session timeout mechanism to selectively timeout client-server sessions. The session timeout mechanism has multiple timeout buckets to hold corresponding groups of sessions according to the sessions' timeout periods. Sessions located in different ones of the timeout buckets are set to timeout at different times. The session manager also has a session timeout clock that is incremented every predetermined time unit (e.g., every minute). The session timeout clock maintains a pointer to one of the timeout buckets and advances that pointer with each clock increment. The session timeout clock advances the pointer through all of the timeout buckets, one bucket at a time. The session timeout clock advances the pointer repeatedly through all the buckets. The cycle time for the session timeout clock to reference every timeout bucket is equal to the incremental time unit multiplied by the number of buckets.

Abstract: A scaleable hash table for shared memory multi-processor (SMP) that supports very high rates of concurrent operations (e.g., insert, delete, and lookup), while simultaneously reducing cache misses. The SMP system has a memory subsystem and a processor subsystem interconnected via a bus structure. The hash table is stored in the memory subsystem to facilitate access to data items. The hash table is segmented into multiple buckets, with each bucket containing a reference to a linked list of bucket nodes that hold references to data items with keys that hash to a common value. Individual bucket nodes contain multiple signature-pointer pairs that reference corresponding data items. Each signature-pointer pair has a hash signature computed from a key of the data item and a pointer to the data item. The first bucket node in the linked list for each of the buckets is stored in the hash table.

Abstract: A session manager has a session timeout mechanism to selectively timeout client-server sessions. The session timeout mechanism has multiple timeout buckets to hold corresponding groups of sessions according to the sessions' timeout periods. Sessions located in different ones of the timeout buckets are set to timeout at different times. The session manager also has a session timeout clock that is incremented every predetermined time unit (e.g., every minute). The session timeout clock maintains a pointer to one of the timeout buckets and advances that pointer with each clock increment. The session timeout clock advances the pointer through all of the timeout buckets, one bucket at a time. The session timeout clock advances the pointer repeatedly through all the buckets. The cycle time for the session timeout clock to reference every timeout bucket is equal to the incremental time unit multiplied by the number of buckets.

Abstract: A server architecture includes a server program to receive a request from a client. In one aspect, an out-of-process application executing in a separate process from the server program is invoked to process the request and to generate a response to be returned to the client, and the server architecture includes a subsystem to detect when the out-of-process application fails and to recover the out-of-process application without disrupting operation of the server program. In another aspect, a method for detecting when an out-of-process application fails includes recording the request on a list as the request is passed to the application, examining the request as it is returned from the application, determining that the application has failed if the returned request contains erroneous data, and if the application has not failed then removing the request from the list.

Abstract: A session manager has a session timeout mechanism to selectively timeout client-server sessions. The session timeout mechanism has multiple timeout buckets to hold corresponding groups of sessions according to the sessions' timeout periods. Sessions located in different ones of the timeout buckets are set to timeout at different times. The session manager also has a session timeout clock that is incremented every predetermined time unit (e.g., every minute). The session timeout clock maintains a pointer to one of the timeout buckets and advances that pointer with each clock increment. The session timeout clock advances the pointer through all of the timeout buckets, one bucket at a time. The session timeout clock advances the pointer repeatedly through all the buckets. The cycle time for the session timeout clock to reference every timeout bucket is equal to the incremental time unit multiplied by the number of buckets.

Abstract: The information access monitor is located at the Internet gateway of a network. The information access monitor monitors information flows between the internal data communication network and Internet to identify information requests and responses. The Information Access Monitor generates relevance indexes for these requests and responses and compiles a “corporate consciousness” of all data relevant to the organization. The information access monitor computes user/group profiles to identify information needs and interests within the organization and can then automatically associate users/groups with information of relevance. The users can be advised of information via automated “copy to” lists or can be directed to information in response to the user seeking information. The information accessmonitor thereby automatically creates “virtual bibliographies” which reflect topics of interest to the users of the system.

Abstract: A bandwidth throttling system is implemented on a server network connected to a computer network system to serve one or more clients over a network. The network server supports a service that presents multiple virtual services that can be individually requested by the clients. The bandwidth throttling system controls bandwidth on a per virtual service basis. The bandwidth throttling system has a measuring subsystem to measure the amount of bandwidth being used by each virtual service supported by the network server. The bandwidth throttling system also has a control subsystem to selectively throttle requests for a particular virtual service independently of others based upon the bandwidth used by the particular virtual service. The bandwidth throttling system utilizes an adaptive, hierarchical throttling strategy that is applied to each virtual service independently.