Patent ID: 8289838

Claim:
A source messaging system comprising: a queue for receiving messages; a data processor coupled to a memory and operable for executing instructions in the memory to perform steps of: the queue receiving a message; responsive to receiving the message, determining whether the message should be permitted to become INDOUBT, wherein the determining comprises: retrieving a maximum value denoting a maximum number of messages that may be permitted to become INDOUBT at any one time; determining whether the message falls within the range denoted by the maximum value; responsive to determining that the message falls within the range, permitting the message to become INDOUBT; responsive to determining that a failure has occurred: (i) using the maximum value to determine the maximum number of messages that may be INDOUBT; (ii) negotiating with a target messaging system to determine how many of the messages falling within the range denoted by the maximum value at the time of failure have been received by the target system; and (iii) transmitting messages outside the range denoted by the maximum INDOUBT value to another data processing system.