Methods and systems for providing platform-independent shared software components for mobile devices

• US 20030018825A1
• Filed: 07/17/2001
• Published: 01/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Appforge, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Lummus, Anthony Mark, Blum, Scott A., Tyburski, John Christopher, Mendez, Miguel, Patisaul, Charles Edward, Hurewitz, Kevin Jay, Johnson, Hollis Bruce Jr., Martin, David Robert
• Granted Patent: US 6,986,148 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

Systems and methods integrate and provide platform independence to shared component objects. A host is targeted for a mobile device and registers software components. Upon a request for services by an application program, the host finds and facilitates the creation of instances requested by the application program, thereby providing platform independence to the application program and the developer thereof. A module, deployable unit of software components, is also an addressable and programmable object during a run time, thereby facilitating implicit registry of software components on the target device and reducing storage space required on a target device, as well as the CPU processing power. The module also provides module-wide variables, thereby enabling distinct instances constructed from classes contained within the module to share common variables.

Claims

1. A method for providing platform independence for software products comprising:

storing a host on a target device, said host having a host-communication interface;

storing a module on the target device, wherein the module is a deployable unit having a plurality of executable codes and is an addressable and programmable object at run-time; and

implicitly registering the module with the host.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of implicitly registering the module comprises:

the host invoking a create-module function to create an instance of the module and passing a pointer referencing to the host-communication interface to the module;

in response to the invoked create-module function, the module returning a pointer referencing to a module-communication interface;

in response to receiving the pointer to the module-communication interface, the host invoking a module-register function;

in response to the invoked module-register function, the module registering itself with the host.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the action of the module registering itself comprises the module invoking a host-register-module function.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of implicitly registering the module further comprises:

the module comprising a class;

the module facilitating the registration of the class with the host by invoking a host-register-class function for the class.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of implicitly registering the module further comprises:

the module comprising a plurality of classes;

the module facilitating the registration of the plurality of classes by invoking a host-register-class function for each of the plurality of classes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the host comprises a module-to-class table providing a mapping of at least one class to the module.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the module-to-class table is a result of the module facilitating a registration of each class contained within the module by invoking a host-register-module function for each class contained within the module.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the module comprises a class and a module-wide variable, wherein said module-wide variable facilitates a plurality of instances constructed from the class to share the module-wide variable.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the module comprises a plurality of classes and a module-wide variable, wherein said module-wide variable facilitates a plurality of instances constructed from the plurality of classes to share the module-wide variable.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the target device comprises a mobile device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the host is compiled for an operating system residing on the target device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of service managers, each service manger providing a code common to all software component comprising a specific component category.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of service managers are compiled for an operating system residing on the target device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the host runs automatically upon a system reset.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the host runs automatically upon a synchronization of data between the target device and another computing device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the module specifies a dependency on a class not contained within the module.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein an installer follows the dependency specified by the module and installs the class not contained within the module.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the host deletes the module based on the dependency specified by the module.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the module keeps track of when it is in use and notifies the host when it is not in use.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the host unloads the module upon being notified by the module that the module is no longer in use.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the module is compiled for an operating system residing on the target device.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the module comprises a class having a unique identifier, and the class is updated by registering with the host a new class having the same unique identifier.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the action of implicitly registering the plurality of modules comprises:

the host invoking a create-module function for each of the plurality of modules and passing a pointer to the host-communication interface to each of the plurality of modules; and

each module, in response to the create-module function invoked by the host, creating an instance of the module and passing a pointer to its module-communication interface.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the action of implicitly registering the modules further comprises:

the host requesting each of the plurality of modules to register itself; and

in response, each of the plurality of modules registering itself with the host.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the action of the host requesting each of the plurality of modules to register itself comprises the host invoking a module-register function for each of the plurality of modules;

and

the action of each of the plurality of modules registering itself with the host comprises each module invoking a host-register-module function.

27. The method of claim 23 wherein at least one of the plurality of modules comprises a class and the action of implicitly registering the plurality of modules comprises:

registering the class with the host.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein at least one of the plurality of modules comprises a plurality of classes and the action of implicitly registering the plurality of modules comprises:

registering the plurality of classes with the host.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein each one of the plurality of modules comprises a class having a unique identifier, and the class is updated by registering with the host a new class having the same unique identifier.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein the action of registering the plurality of module results in the host comprising a module-to-class table for at least one of the plurality of modules.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the module-to-class table identifies each class contained within the at least one of the plurality of modules.

32. The method of claim 23, wherein at least one of the plurality of modules specifies a dependency on a class not contained within the module.

33. The method of claim 23, wherein at least one of the plurality of modules keeps track of when it is no longer in use and notifies the host.

34. The method of claim 23, wherein the host is compiled for an operating system residing on the target device.

35. The method of claim 23, further comprising a plurality of service managers, each service manager providing a code common to all software components comprising a component class.

36. The method of claim 23, wherein the target device comprises a mobile device.

38. The software module of claim 37, comprising a module-wide variable, said module-wide variable facilitating a plurality of instances constructed from a class contained within the module to share the module-wide variable.

39. The software module of claim 37, comprising a module-wide variable, said module-wide variable facilitating a plurality of instances constructed from a plurality of classes to share the module-wide variable.

40. The software module of claim 37, wherein the module registers itself upon a request from a host and facilitates a registration for each class contained within the module.

41. The software module of claim 37, wherein the module facilitates a creation of a class instance upon a request from a host and passes a pointer to an interface of the class instance to the host.

42. The software module of claim 37, wherein the module specifies a dependency on a class contained in another module.

43. The software module of claim 37, wherein the module keeps a track of when it is in use and notifies a software host when it is no longer in use.

44. The software module of claim 37, wherein the module is deployed on a target mobile device.

46. The method of claim 45, comprising:

accepting a registration of a class requested by the software component, said class contained within the software component.

47. The method of claim 45, comprising:

deleting unnecessary software components from a target device by following a chain of dependencies provided by the software component.

48. The method of claim 45, comprising:

updating a class assigned with a unique class identifier and contained with the software component by registering a new class having the unique class identifier and contained in another software component.

49. The method of claim 45, wherein the host is complied for an operating system residing on a target device.

50. The method of claim 45, comprising:

a module-to-class table providing a mapping for a class contained within the software component.

51. The software host of claim 45, comprising

delegating a creation of a class instance corresponding to a class contained within the software component to the software component.

52. The software host claim 45, wherein the host is deployed on a target mobile device.

23. A method for providing platform independence for software products comprising:

storing a host on a target device, said host having a host-communication interface;

storing a plurality of modules on the target device, wherein each of the modules is a deployable unit having a plurality of executable codes and an addressable and programmable object at a run-time; and

implicitly registering each of the plurality of modules with the host

37. A software module comprising a deployable unit having a plurality of executable codes, said module being an addressable and programmable object at a run-time.

45. A method for providing platform independence to software components by employing a host, comprising:

passing a pointer referencing to a host-communication interface to a software component, said component comprising a plurality of executable codes and being an addressable and programmable instance at a run-time;

requesting the software component to create an instance corresponding to the component;

requesting the software component to register itself with the host; and

accepting a registration from the software component.

53. A software module comprising:

a deployable unit having a plurality of executable codes, said module being an addressable and programmable object at a run-time, wherein the module registers itself in response to a host requesting a module registration, and the module facilitates a class registration for a class contained within the module.

54. The software module of claim 53, wherein the module specifies a dependency on a class not contained within itself;

and

the module keeps track of when it is in use and notifies a host when it is not in use.

55. The software module of claim 53, wherein the module facilitates a creation of a class instance corresponding to the class contained within the module.

56. The software module of claim 55, comprising a module-wide variable, said module-wide variable facilitating a plurality of instances constructed from the class contained within the module to share the module-wide variable.

57. The software module of claim 56, comprising a module-wide variable, said module-wide variable facilitating a plurality of instances constructed from a plurality of classes contained within the module to share the module-wide variable.

58. The software module of claim 53, wherein the module is deployed on a target mobile device.

60. The method of claim 59 wherein the module comprises a class;

and

the module facilitates the registration of the class with the host.

61. The method of claim 60, further comprising a plurality of service managers, each service manger providing a code common to all software component comprising a specific component category.

62. The method of claim 59, wherein the target device is a mobile device.

59. A method for providing platform independence for software products comprising:

storing a host on a target device, said host having a host-communication interface;

storing a module on the target device, wherein the module is a collection of executable codes and is an addressable and programmable object at a run-time,

the host invoking a create-module function to create an instance of the module and passing a pointer referencing to the host-communication interface to the module;

in response to the invoked create-module function, the module returning a pointer referencing to a module-communication interface;

in response to receiving the pointer to the module-communication interface, the host invoking a module-register function; and

in response to the invoked module-register function, the module registering itself with the host.

63. A method for providing platform independence for software products comprising:

storing a host on a target device, said having a host-communication interface;

storing a plurality of modules on the target device, wherein each of the modules is a collection of executable codes and an addressable and programmable object at a run-time;

the host invoking a create-module function for each of the plurality of modules and passing a pointer to the host-communication interface to each of the plurality of modules; and

each module, in response to the create-module function invoked by the host, creating an instance of the module and passing a pointer to its module-communication interface.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the host requests each of the plurality of modules to register;

in response to the host'"'"'s request, each of the plurality of modules registering itself with the host.

65. The method of claim 63, wherein at least one of the plurality of modules comprises a class and the at least one of the plurality of module facilitates a registration of the class with the host.

66. The method of claim 63, further comprising a plurality of service managers, each service manger providing a code common to all software component comprising a specific component category.

67. The method of claim 63, wherein the target device is a mobile device.

69. The computer medium of claim 68, wherein the software component comprises a class and the software component facilitates a registration of the class with the host.

70. The computer medium of claim 68, wherein the software component keeps track of when it is in use and notifies the host when it is no longer in use.

71. The computer medium of claim 68, wherein the software component specifies a dependency on a class not contained within the software component and the host deletes unnecessary software components upon a determination based on the dependency.

72. The computer medium of claim 68, wherein the software component allows a component-wide variable, said component-wide variable facilitating class instances constructed from a class contained within the software component to share the component-wide variable.

73. The computer medium of claim 68, wherein the software component allows a component-wide variable, said component-wide variable facilitating class instances constructed from a plurality of classes contained within the software component to share the component-wide variable.

74. The computer medium of claim 68, wherein the software component facilitates a creation of a class contained within the software component in response to the host'"'"'s request.

75. The computer medium of claim 68, wherein the target mobile device is a module device.

68. A computer readable medium for performing a method for providing platform independence, the method comprising:

storing a host on a target device, said host having a host-communication interface;

storing a software component on the target device, wherein the software component is a deployable unit having a plurality of executable codes and is an addressable and programmable object at a run-time,

the host requesting the software component to create an instance corresponding to the software component;

the host passing a pointer referencing to the host-communication interface to the software component;

the software component returning a pointer referencing to a module-communication interface;

the host requesting the software component to register itself with the host;

the software component registering itself with the host.

76. A computer readable mediums for performing a method for providing platform independence, comprising:

a software module comprising a deployable unit having a plurality of executable codes and being an addressable and programmable object at a run-time.

77. The computer readable medium of claim 76, wherein the module facilitates a registration of a class contained within the module.

78. The computer readable medium of claim 76, wherein the module facilitates a creation of a class instance contained within the module.

79. The computer readable medium of claim 76, wherein the module allows a module-wide variable, said module-wide variable allowing a plurality of class instances constructed from a class contained within the module to share the module-wide variable.

80. The computer readable medium of claim 76, wherein the module allows a module-wide variable, said module-wide variable allowing a plurality of class instances constructed from a plurality of classes contained within the module to share the module-wide variable.

81. The computer readable medium of claim 76, wherein the module keeps track of when it is in use and notifies a host when it is no longer in use.

82. The computer readable medium of claim 76, wherein the module specifies a dependency on a class not contained within the module.