Method and system for maintaining forward and backward compatibility in flattened object streams
First Claim
1. A method for object-oriented management of serializable objects, the method comprising:
- identifying an object, wherein the object comprises a set of attributes;
associating a class version identifier with the object, wherein the class version identifier identifies the object as an instance of a specific version of a class; and
associating an attribute version identifier with an attribute in the set of attributes.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method, a system, an apparatus, and a computer program product are presented for object-oriented management of serializable objects. An object has a set of attributes and a class version number, which identifies the object as an instance of a specific version of a class. In addition, each attribute in the object has an attribute version number, which may represent a version of a class in which the associated attribute was initially declared within the class. The object may be serialized into a data stream, and the data stream has the class version number of the object, an attribute value for each attribute in the set of attributes, and an attribute version number for each attribute in the set of attributes. The data stream may also have a class identifier for the class of the object and an attribute count for the set of attributes into the data stream.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method for object-oriented management of serializable objects, the method comprising:
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identifying an object, wherein the object comprises a set of attributes;
associating a class version identifier with the object, wherein the class version identifier identifies the object as an instance of a specific version of a class; and
associating an attribute version identifier with an attribute in the set of attributes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29)
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12. A method for providing backwards and forwards compatibility between different versions of serialized object data, the method comprising:
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identifying an object, wherein the object comprises a set of attributes, wherein each attribute in the set of attributes is associated with a version identifier, and wherein the object is an instance of a first version of a class;
writing a data stream representing serialization of the object'"'"'s attributes and associated version identifiers;
reading a data stream representing a serialized object into a new object instance of a second version of a class; and
refraining from storing attributes from the data stream into the new object instance that are not represented in the new object instance while reading the data stream.
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14. A computer program product on a computer readable medium for use in a data processing system for object-oriented management of serializable objects, the computer program product comprising:
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instructions for identifying an object, wherein the object comprises a set of attributes;
instructions for associating a class version identifier with the object, wherein the class version identifier identifies the object as an instance of a specific version of a class; and
instructions for associating an attribute version identifier with an attribute in the set of attributes.
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25. A computer program product on a computer readable medium for use in a data processing system for providing backwards and forwards compatibility between different versions of serialized object data, the computer program product comprising:
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instructions for identifying an object, wherein the object comprises a set of attributes, wherein each attribute in the set of attributes is associated with a version identifier, and wherein the object is an instance of a first version of a class;
instructions for writing a data stream representing serialization of the object'"'"'s attributes and associated version identifiers;
instructions for reading a data stream representing a serialized object into a new object instance of a second version of a class; and
instructions for refraining from storing attributes from the data stream into the new object instance that are not represented in the new object instance while reading the data stream.
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27. An apparatus for object-oriented management of serializable objects, the apparatus comprising:
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means for identifying an object, wherein the object comprises a set of attributes;
means for associating a class version identifier with the object, wherein the class version identifier identifies the object as an instance of a specific version of a class; and
means for associating an attribute version identifier with an attribute in the set of attributes.
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30. An apparatus for providing backwards and forwards compatibility between different versions of serialized object data, the apparatus comprising:
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means for identifying an object, wherein the object comprises a set of attributes, wherein each attribute in the set of attributes is associated with a version identifier, and wherein the object is an instance of a first version of a class;
means for writing a data stream representing serialization of the object'"'"'s attributes and associated version identifiers;
means for reading a data stream representing a serialized object into a new object instance of a second version of a class; and
means for refraining from storing attributes from the data stream into the new object instance that are not represented in the new object instance while reading the data stream.
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Specification