Dependency-spheres: A global transaction context for distributed objects and messages

Abstract

Many enterprise systems employ both object-oriented middleware (OOM) and message-oriented middleware (MOM). However support for the integration of object and messaging services, in particular for transaction processing across object and messaging components, is very limited. In this paper we introduce the concept of Dependency-Spheres (D-Spheres), a global transaction context for distributed objects and messages. A D-Sphere integrates standard distributed object transactions and conditional asynchronous messages in one single unit-of-work. It is a new service for transaction processing that enhances two-phase-commit ACID transactions with pre-commit message delivery, concurrent evaluations of transaction-critical message conditions, and message compensation support for recovery. D-Spheres enrich standard OOM and MOM services, uniquely providing for an increased level of reliability for their use in combination in enterprise systems.