Patent ID: 8032913

Claim:
A system for booking events and initiating actions corresponding to said events, said system comprising: an event broker configured to register a plurality of event bookings in response to requests from one or more clients, wherein each said event booking identifies an event which may occur in the future and an action to be taken should the identified event occur; one or more event managers, wherein each of said one or more event managers is configured to detect particular types of events; and one or more action handlers, wherein each of said one or more action handlers is configured to initiate particular types of actions; wherein each of said event broker, said clients, said event managers, and said action handlers comprise distinct functional entities; wherein a first event manager of said one or more event managers is configured to notify said event broker of a first event which corresponds to a first event booking, in response to detecting said first event; wherein the event broker is configured to notify a first action handler which corresponds to the first event booking, in response to receiving notification from the first event manager of the detected first event; and wherein the first action handler is configured to initiate a first action, in response to receiving notification from the event broker of the detected first event; wherein a first request of the requests for an event booking identifies a first event which may occur in the future and a first action to be taken upon occurrence of said first event, wherein the first request includes a description of the first event using a syntax which is unintelligible to the event broker, but which is intelligible to a first event manager of the event managers, wherein subsequent to receiving notice of said event booking, said first event manager is configured to determine whether said event booking will be accepted by said first event manager, and provide a positive acknowledgement to said event broker in response to determining said event booking is accepted.