AGENT AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR A MESSAGING SYSTEM

1 . A method comprising:

determining, at a management system of a publish/subscribe messaging system, processing to be carried out in respect of messages within the publish/subscribe messaging system, wherein the publish/subscribe messaging system comprises a data broker which receives and publishes messages in accordance with a publish/subscribe messaging protocol and a publisher client which publishes messages in accordance with the publish/subscribe messaging protocol, and wherein the management system is additionally connected to a plurality of agents operable to access and process messages at respective locations within the publish/subscribe messaging system,

selecting one or more agents within the publish/subscribe messaging system to perform the processing based on the relative locations within the publish/subscribe messaging system of the one or more agents and a data source which generates a data stream, and

transmitting to the one or more agents respective instructions which cause the one or more agents to perform the processing in respect of the messages,

wherein the instructions comprise mapping information indicating how data associated with the data stream is encoded within messages in the publish/subscribe messaging system,

and wherein the instructions comprise instructions to extract data associated with the data stream from one or more of the messages using the mapping information, and to transmit an indication to the management system based on the data extracted from the one or more messages.

2 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein one of the selected one or more agents is

a standalone agent not associated with a publisher client or a data broker, the standalone agent having access to messages published in the publish/subscribe messaging system,

an agent associated with the data broker, or

an agent associated with the publisher client.

3 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the processing further comprises one or more of:

performing operations based on data extracted from one or more of the messages;

generating one or more of the messages for publication within the publish/subscribe messaging system; and

suppressing further transmission of one or more of the messages.

4 . (canceled)

5 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the processing comprises generating, by an agent, one or more of the messages for publication, and

the instructions transmitted to the agent comprise an indication of one or more of a topic and a message format for the generated messages.

6 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the processing comprises

generating, by a first agent of the one or more agents, a message for publication and

extracting, by a second agent of the one or more agents, data from the message generated by the first agent.

7 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting the one or more agents is based on the ability of the one or more agents to access the messages.

8 . (canceled)

9 . (canceled)

10 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the respective instructions are transmitted via the publish/subscribe messaging system.

11 . A method according to claim 1 , the method comprising:

determining a plurality of nodes in an information hierarchy, the nodes corresponding to respective data streams, the location of a node in the information hierarchy corresponding to a data stream in the information hierarchy being in accordance with a relative location of a data source, associated with the data stream, within a topology representing an arrangement of data sources,

associating, with each node, a node type selected from a set of pre-defined node types, each of the set of pre-defined node types defining one or more parameters, and

determining, for each node, a value of each of the parameters defined for nodes of the node type associated with the respective node.

12 . A method according to claim 11 , the method comprising generating at the management system, for an agent, an indication of a portion of the hierarchy associated with the agent and

transmitting the indication of the portion of the hierarchy associated with the agent to the agent.

13 . A method according to claim 11 , wherein a node in the information hierarchy associated with a data stream is associated with mapping information indicating how data associated with the data stream is encoded within messages in the publish/subscribe messaging system.

14 . A method according to claim 11 , wherein the information hierarchy comprises nodes corresponding to the one or more agents.

15 . A method according to claim 11 , the method comprising displaying a representation of the information hierarchy on a user interface.

16 . A method according to claim 11 , wherein the determining the processing to be carried out in respect of messages within the publish/subscribe messaging system is based on the information hierarchy.

17 . (canceled)

18 . (canceled)

19 . (canceled)

20 . A management system, comprising

a network interface,

one or more memories, and

one or more processors,

the one or more memories having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the management system to

determine, at the management system, processing to be carried out in respect of messages within a publish/subscribe messaging system, wherein the publish/subscribe messaging system comprises a data broker which receives and publishes messages in accordance with a publish/subscribe messaging protocol and a publisher client which publishes messages in accordance with the publish/subscribe messaging protocol,

select one or more agents within the publish/subscribe messaging system in addition to the data broker and publisher client to perform the processing based on the relative locations within the publish/subscribe messaging system of the one or more agents and a data source which generates a data stream, and

transmit to the one or more agents respective instructions which cause the one or more agents to perform the processing in respect of the messages,

wherein the instructions comprise mapping information indicating how data associated with the data stream is encoded within messages in the publish/subscribe messaging system,

and wherein the instructions comprise instructions to extract data associated with the data stream from one or more of the messages using the mapping information, and to transmit an indication to the management system based on the data extracted from the one or more messages.