An invention for creating, sending, and using self-descriptive objects as
messages over a network is disclosed. In an embodiment of the present
invention, self-descriptive persistent dictionary objects are serialized
and sent as messages across a message queuing network. The receiving
messaging system unserializes the message object, and passes the object to
the destination application. The application then queries or enumerates
message elements from the instantiated persistent dictionary, and performs
the programmed response. Using these self-descriptive objects as messages,
the sending and receiving applications no longer rely on an a priori
convention or a special-coding serialization scheme. Rather, messaging
applications can communicate arbitrary objects in a standard way with no
prior agreement as to the nature and semantics of message contents.
