Patent ID: 7356616

Claim:
In a distributed system including a message processor capable of initiating an electronic message and routing the electronic message along a routing path towards a destination message processor, wherein the routing path may include one or more intermediary message processors, a method for the initiating message processor or any of the one or more intermediary message processors to process time related message data included in an electronic message, the method comprising: an act of accessing an electronic message that includes a header and a body, the header including a plurality of schema-based time markers that correspond to a schema shared between message processors in the distributed system, wherein the schema-based time markers each include a time element and an attribute group corresponding to the respective time element, the attribute group including an actor attribute field, a signature attribute field, and an encryption attribute field for the respective time element; an act of identifying from within the electronic message at least one of the schema-based time markers having a time element including time related message data associated with the accessing message processor; an act of determining if a schema-based time marker within the electronic message should be modified by the accessing message processor; an act of storing the electronic message on a computer-readable storage medium; and an act of transmitting the electronic message to another message processor included in the routing path.