System and method for distributed preference data services

• US 20030182362A1
• Filed: 03/22/2002
• Published: 09/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Jensen, Peter Strarup, Grigoryev, Nikolay G.
• Application Number:
  US10/104,351
• Publication Number:
  US 20030182362A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

An invention is provided for affording distributed preference data service. A plurality of storage providers is provided. Each storage provider provides access to a persistent data store that stores a set of data. In addition, each storage provider is registered with a storage provider registry. A storage provider that provides access to a particular set of data is selected using the storage provider registry, and the selected storage provider is used to access the particular set of data.

Claims

1. A method for providing distributed preference data service, comprising the operations of:

providing a plurality of storage providers, each storage provider providing access to a persistent data store storing a set of data;

registering each storage provider with a storage provider registry;

selecting a storage provider that provides access to a particular set of data using the storage provider registry; and

utilizing the selected storage provider to access the particular set of data.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the storage provider registry further stores structured information associated with each storage provider, the structured information allowing the storage provider registry to be searched using a particular search pattern.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein each storage provider is optimized for a particular purpose.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein the structured information indicates the optimized particular purpose of a particular storage provider.

5. A method as recited in claim 4, further comprising the operation of selecting a storage provider that provides access to a particular set of data using a search pattern based on a particular set of structured information.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the operation of caching the particular set of data.

7. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the particular set of data is a set of preferences.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the set of preferences is stored as a preference tree.

9. A system for distributed preference data services, comprising:

a storage provider registry; and

a plurality of storage providers, each storage provider in communication with a persistent data store storing a set of data, each service provider further optimized for a particular purpose,

wherein each storage provider is registered with the storage provider registry, and wherein the storage provider registry is capable of selecting a particular storage provider that provides access to a particular set of data.

10. A system as recited in claim 9, wherein the storage provider registry further stores structured information associated with each storage provider, the structured information allowing the storage provider registry to be searched using a particular search pattern.

11. A system as recited in claim 10, wherein the structured information indicates the optimized particular purpose of a particular storage provider.

12. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein the storage provider that provides access to a particular set of data is further selected using a search pattern based on a particular set of structured information.

13. A system as recited in claim 12, further comprising a preference cache component that caches the particular set of data.

14. A system as recited in claim 13, wherein the particular set of data is a set of preferences.

15. A system as recited in claim 14, wherein the set of preferences is stored as a preference tree.

16. A service provider for distributed preference data services, comprising:

a front-end component in communication with a plurality of preference services, each preference service providing access to a set of preferences for an application;

a preference cache component in communication with the front-end component, the preference cache component capable of locally caching a set of preferences; and

a storage provider registry that stores structure information associated with a plurality of storage providers, each structured information indicating an optimized particular purpose of a particular storage provider, wherein the preference cache component caches a set of preference data using a particular storage provider selected from the storage provider registry.

17. A service provider as recited in claim 16, wherein the storage provider registry is capable of being searched using a particular search pattern for a particular set of structured information.

18. A service provider as recited in claim 17, wherein the preference cache component can be shared by different preference services.

19. A service provider as recited in claim 16, wherein the storage provider registry is external to the service provider.

20. A service provider as recited in claim 19, wherein the external storage provider registry is configured to allow storage providers to be dynamically added during runtime.