Method and infrastructure for minimizing compatibility issues among interacting components of different dialect versions

摘要

A method and an infrastructure for minimizing compatibility issues among interacting components of different dialect versions. Such issues are associated with a plurality of versions of a dialect for communication in a system including a plurality of components that exchange a plurality of types of requests. Each request is formatted in accordance with one of the plurality of versions of the dialect and has a header carrying a type-version identifier indicating a corresponding type and version of the request. In the infrastructure, each component includes: an input port for receiving one of the requests; at least one handler supporting requests of a corresponding one of the plurality of types and versions; and switching logic to extract the type-version identifier carried by a received request for use in determining and invoking a selected handler. One or more of the following features also may be included: a data structure for use in managing handlers; incompatibility reporting logic for reporting receipt of incompatible data to a human operator; and a data structure for controlling sending of the data. The type-version identifier can be extended to accommodate further demand.