Patent ID: 8863149

Claim:
A message processing apparatus which communicates with a plurality of software components, said apparatus comprising: at least a processor and memory, cooperating to function as: a holding unit configured to hold a message received from a software component, the received message including a predetermined number of transmissions which need to be performed for the received message; a transmission unit configured to transmit the received message held by said holding unit to another software component in response to a delivery request from the other software component; a management unit configured to manage a number of transmissions still to be performed for the received message and a holding period of the received message, wherein said management unit decrements the number of transmissions still to be performed in response to a transmission of the received message by said transmission unit; a deletion unit configured to delete the received message, for which the number of transmissions still to be performed has become zero, from said holding unit if no new delivery request is received until the holding period has elapsed after the number of transmissions still to be performed has become zero; and a destination information management unit configured to accept a reservation request from a software component and register the software component which has made the reservation request, wherein said transmission unit transmits the received message to the software component registered by said destination information management unit at a reception timing of the received message, said deletion unit deletes the received message from said holding unit if no new delivery request is received until the holding period has elapsed after transmitting the received message to all components registered by said destination information management unit and performing at least the predetermined number of transmissions for the received message, and when a new delivery request is received during the holding period, said deletion unit resets said holding period.