Method and apparatus of data exchange using runtime code generator and translator

• US 20010056504A1
• Filed: 02/26/2001
• Published: 12/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DataPower Technology, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: DataPower Technology, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Kuznetsov, Eugene
• Granted Patent: US 6,772,413 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/88 Mark-up to mark-up conversion conversion for visualization in web browsing G06F16/9577
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/51 Source to source
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45516 Runtime code conversion or optimisation

Abstract

A high level transformation method and apparatus for converting data formats in the context of network applications, among other places. A flexible transformation mechanism is provided that facilitates generation of translation machine code on the fly. A translator is dynamically generated by a translator compiler engine. The translator compiler engine implemented according to the present invention uses a pair of formal machine-readable format descriptions (FMRFDs) and a corresponding data map (DMAP) to generate executable machine code native to the translator platform CPU. When fed an input stream, the translator generates an output stream by executing the native object code generated on the fly by the translator compiler engine. In addition, the translator may be configured to perform a bi-directional translation between the two streams as well as translation between two distinct protocol sequences.

Claims

1. A method of dynamically accommodating communication between disparate data formats comprising the steps of:

selecting an input format description and an output format description;

supplying a data segment mapping for at least some data fields from said input format description to said output format description; and

generating a set of executable machine instructions according to said data segment mapping, said input format description and said output format description, where said executable machine instructions are adapted for translation of an input data stream to an output data stream.

2. The method of

claim 1

further comprising the step of executing said executable machine instructions for translation of said input data stream into said output data stream.

3. The method of

claim 1

in which at least one of said input data description and said output data description is defined in terms of a formal machine readable format description (FMRFD).

6. The method of

claim 1

in which said steps of selecting said input format description and said output format description and supplying said data segment mapping further comprise the step of interpreting an XSL stylesheet to derive at least one template, where portions of said template correspond to input format description, output format description, and a data segment mapping.

7. The method of

claim 1

wherein said executable machine instructions comprise binary object code for execution by a computer processor.

8. The method of

claim 1

wherein said executable machine instructions comprise byte-code executable by an interpreter.

9. The method of

claim 1

wherein said executable machine instructions comprise encoded inputs for programming of a field-programmable gate array.

4. The method of claim I in which said step of selecting said input data description and said output data description further comprises the steps of:

selecting said input format description, from a pre-configured set of format descriptions, according to an identification of a format used for communication with a first node; and

selecting said output format description, from a pre-configured set of format descriptions, according to an identification of a format used for communication with a second node.

5. The method of

claim 4

in which at least one of said identification of a format used for communication with a first node and said identification of a format used for communication with a second node is determined by an identification criterion selected from the list of manual operator input, automatic discovery of a format, a source node with a known format, a destination node with a known format, recognition of a known protocol or schema, and recognition of a transaction type.

10. A method of dynamically facilitating translation of data between disparate data formats comprising the steps of:

processing an XSL stylesheet to determine at least one template;

processing at least some of said at least one template using Xpath and XSLT functions; and

generating a set of executable machine instructions according to said processed template, where said executable machine instructions are adapted for translation of an input data stream to an output data stream.

11. The method of

claim 10

further comprising the steps of:

receiving information encoded in an XML format; and

executing at least some of said set of executable machine instructions to produce a steam of output information in a format determined by said XSL stylesheet.

12. The method of

claim 10

in which said step of generating a set of executable machine instructions further comprises the steps of:

selecting an optimization plan including at least one optimization pass; and

generating optimized machine code according to each of said at least one optimization pass, where the output of each optimization pass which is not a final optimization pass comprises an intermediate format which is input to a succeeding optimization pass, according the said selected optimization plan.

13. The method of

claim 12

in which at least one of said optimization passes includes a schema-driven optimization.

14. A dynamic translator compiler engine, for generating executable machine code according to an input format specification, an output format specification, and a data segment map, comprising:

a selector for selecting said input format description

a selector for selecting an output format description;

a data segment mapping resource adapted for mapping at least some data fields from said input format description to said output format description; and

a code generator for generating a set of executable machine instructions according to said data segment mapping, said input format description and said output format description, where said executable machine instructions are adapted for translation of an input data stream to an output data stream.