Handling different service versions in a server

• US 20030167349A1
• Filed: 04/04/2003
• Published: 09/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Jaske, Harri, Krohn, Petri
• Granted Patent: US 7,653,914 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/311
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44536 Selecting among different versions

Abstract

This invention relates to handling of different service versions in a server that is connected to a communication network. The invention comprises means to load a desired version, two tables and additional data for handling different service versions. The first table contains service key and version information, and serialized service objects. The second table contains names of classes, version information and class files. The additional data is needed for loading the right class from among classes, with the same name, and mapping the right service object version to the right versions of classes.

Claims

1. A method for handling different versions of service applications in a service architecture including at least one service repository containing service objects and classes and at least one server, the method comprising the steps of:

grouping the service applications and the classes in the service repository such that a first group comprises entries of the service objects and a second group comprises entries of the classes,

forming each of the entries in the first group to include a field for information about the version of the service and at least one service object,

forming each of the entries in the second group to include a field for information about the version of the class, and

mapping by mapping means the service objects with the classes for provisioning of service applications.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein for executing a desired service application the method further comprises the steps of:

searching for a service entry of the desired service application from the first group,

loading a service object of the service entry of the desired service application from the first group for use by said at least one server,

using the mapping means to discover those classes of the second group which are associated with said service object of the service entry of the desired service application, and

loading those classes of class entries that associate with said service object to the server.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the mapping means compares the version information fields of the entries in the first group with the version information fields of the entries in the second group.

4. A method according to claim 2, wherein said loading of said service objects is performed using deserialization of the serialized storage format of the service objects.

5. A method according to claim 2, wherein loading of at least a part of the classes associated with the said service objects is performed using a class loader.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein at least one class loader is constructed based on the version information field of a service.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the class loader uses the mapping means for loading the classes from the second group.

8. A method according to any of claims 1 to 7, the method further comprising use of additional data when mapping service objects with classes.

9. A method according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the service repository is provided by at least one database.

10. A method according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the service repository is provided by at least one filesystem.

11. An arrangement for handling different versions of service applications in a service architecture including at least one service repository for storing information associated with service applications and at least one server, and wherein information associated with a service application comprises at least one class and at least one service object, the arrangement comprising:

a first group in the service repository comprising entries of the service objects, each of the entries comprising a field for information about the version of the service and at least one object,

a second group in the service repository comprising entries of the classes, each of the entries comprising a field for information about the version of the class, and

means for mapping the service objects with the classes for provisioning of the service application.

12. An arrangement according to claim 11, wherein the server contains a service loader for loading the service objects from the service repository.

13. An arrangement according to claim 12,further comprising a version specific class loader which is formed after the service loader loads the desired service objects of the service from the first group.

14. An arrangement according to claim 13, wherein the version specific class loader uses the means of mapping for loading the classes from the second group.

15. An arrangement according to claim 14, the means of mapping comprising the version information fields of the entries in the first group.

16. An arrangement according to claim 12, further comprising a special predeterminated class loader.

17. An arrangement according to claim 16, wherein the special predetermined class loader uses the means for mapping for loading the classes from the second group.

18. An arrangement according to claim 17, the means of mapping comprising the version information fields of the entries in the first group.

19. An arrangement according to claim 11, 14, 15, 17, or 18, further comprising additional data for use by the means of mapping when mapping the service objects with the classes.

20. A method according to any of claims 11 to 19, wherein the service repository comprises at least one database.

21. A method according to any of claims 11 to 19, wherein the service repository comprises at least one filesystem.