Call Queue Mechanism Help

[Patsy Morrow]

Let me start off telling what I want to do, and then hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. I want to have a "portal" that will accept calls from clients, and then route those calls to workstations based on available IP addresses. I'm not sure how to begin development on the portal. Help is very much needed and appreciated. How can the portal be implemented using Java? Is a server needed? If so, will Apache Tomcat work?

[William Brogden]

1. Are these clients using web browsers to make the initial "call"?
2. Are the "workstations" acting as HTTP servers so they can interact with the client browsers?

IF both 1 & 2 are yes, then the "portal" can be an instance of Tomcat and the "routing" can be a simple redirect. The client would then continue talking to the "workstation."

IF 1 is NO, how do clients talk to workstations?

Are you assuming that the computation load per "workstation" is so heavy that each one has to be a separate machine?

Bill

[Patsy Morrow]

Thank you so much for your reply.


1. I would prefer the clients use web browsers. In regards to allowing the clients call queue to talk to my "portal", what recommendations do you have that the clients could use to initiate the call besides a web browsers that could make development easier?
2. If the workstations were acting as HTTP servers how would this be implemented in Java?

[surlac surlacovich]

Patsy Morrow wrote:what recommendations do you have that the clients could use to initiate the call besides a web browsers that could make development easier?

You could consider JMS - every client puts a message to a queue, which observed by workstations, or a client sends a message to a topic, which broadcasts the message to subset of workstations.

[William Brogden]

For non-web-browser connecting a client to a server, a message passing system like JMS as surlac suggests or possibly a JavaSpaces solution. JavaSpaces has the advantage of automatically distributing jobs among workers.

That said, if the client needs any kind of convenient GUI, a web browser solution is easiest to implement.

2. The best supported HTTP server is certainly Tomcat, no reason not to use it.

Bill

[Patsy Morrow]

Thanks again for of you all's recommendations.

So I've setup Eclipse, and my applications have been developed. The applications will always cause a workstation to be in a state of true/false (if button1 is selected, state=true open gateway, if button2 is selected state=false close gateway). The "gateway" is what I believe to serve as the listener. Meaning the "gateway" will look for a true state, and route calls only to that workstation.

What Java functionality do I need to implement that would serve as the "gateway" described above?

(f I am incorrect on the technical terminology, please let me know.)

[surlac surlacovich]

Patsy Morrow wrote:
What Java functionality do I need to implement that would serve as the "gateway" described above?

If I understand you correctly, you're trying to reinvent the mechanisms already provided by Java, especially by EAI. Your particular task can be done with ESB, which can route the messages to a workstation, playing role of "gateway". Have a look at this pattern and it's implementation.

Patsy Morrow wrote:(f I am incorrect on the technical terminology, please let me know.)

Yeah, you exchange/introduce new terms pretty often - client, portal, workstation, apps, gateway.

[Patsy Morrow]

Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do is reinvent the wheel so to speak! I have a habit of making things so much harder than they really are.

I looked into Mule ESB, and it seems to be a perfect fit. I will download it and play around with it. Thank you so much for this!

[Patsy Morrow]

Please help! I would like to develop a simple application that would mimic a phone call queue. I would like for the application to aknowledge the workstations logged into the server, check the status, and connect(meaning allow the server to send that workstation objects) if it is of a "true" status, and continue to search if it is of a "false" status. Does anyone have suggestions on how this can be implemented in java?