Plugin architecture for extending polices

• US 20040070604A1
• Filed: 10/10/2002
• Published: 04/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Cui, Hua, Ranganathan, Aravindan, Luo, Ping, Bhat, Shivaram, Arumugam, Dilli Dorai Minnal
• Granted Patent: US 7,296,235 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77

Abstract

An architecture for allowing extensibility to policies. The architecture has a policy component program that is able to evaluate and enforce polices. The architecture also has plugin modules for allowing a user to customize the polices. The policy component program is able to present interfaces to the user for customizing the polices. The policy component program is further able to integrate customized polices into a framework of the policy component program in response to user input that is based on the interfaces presented to the user. The presented interfaces may be for defining subjects in the policy program, defining conditions in the policy program, defining referrals in the policy program, defining resource names in the policy program, and defining how conflicts will be resolved in the policy program. The interfaces may be compliant with the JAVA programming language.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium having stored therein computer implementable instructions for executing a policy component, said policy component comprising:

a policy program for evaluating and enforcing pre-defined policies;

a plurality of interfaces for defining customized policies in said policy program; and

wherein said policy component is operable to receive user defined customized policies and integrate said customized policies into said policy program.

2. A computer readable medium as in claim 1, wherein said plurality of interfaces comprise an interface for defining subjects in said policy program.

3. A computer readable medium as in claim 1, wherein said plurality of interfaces comprise an interface for defining conditions in said policy program.

4. A computer readable medium as in claim 1, wherein said plurality of interfaces comprise an interface for defining referrals in said policy program.

5. A computer readable medium as in claim 1, wherein said plurality of interfaces comprise an interface for defining a structure for resolving conflicts in said policy program.

6. A computer readable medium as in claim 1;

wherein said plurality of interfaces comprise an interface for defining resource names in said policy program.

7. A computer readable medium as in claim 1, wherein said plurality of interfaces are implemented in a substantially compliant version of the JAVA programming language.

8. An architecture for extending policies comprising:

a computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for implementing;

a policy component program for evaluating and enforcing polices; and

a plurality of plugin modules for allowing a user to customize said polices;

wherein said policy component program is operable to present interfaces to said user for customizing said polices and is further operable to integrate customized polices into a framework of said policy component program in response to user input based on said interfaces.

9. An architecture as in claim 8, wherein said plurality of plugin modules comprise a plugin for customizing subjects in at least one policy of said polices.

10. An architecture as in claim 8, wherein said plurality of plugin modules comprise a plugin for customizing conditions in at least one policy of said polices.

11. An architecture as in claim 8, wherein said plurality of plugin modules comprise a plugin for customizing referrals in at least one policy of said polices.

12. An architecture as in claim 8, wherein said plurality of plugin modules comprise a plugin for customizing conflict resolution in at least one policy of said polices.

13. An architecture as in claim 8, wherein said plurality of plugin modules comprise a plugin for customizing resource names in at least one policy of said polices.

14. A computer implemented method for allowing policy customization, comprising:

a) providing an interface for defining customized policies in a policy program, in response to a request for said interface;

b) receiving a user supplied policy definition that is compliant with said interface; and

c) integrating said user supplied policy definition into said policy program.

15. A computer implemented method as in claim 14, wherein said interface is for defining subjects in said policy program.

16. A computer implemented method as in claim 14, wherein said interface is for defining conditions in said policy program.

17. A computer implemented method as in claim 14, wherein said interface is for defining referrals in said policy program.

18. A computer implemented method as in claim 14, wherein said interface is for defining a structure for resolving conflicts in said policy program.

19. A computer implemented method as in claim 14, wherein said interface is for defining resource names in said policy program.

20. A computer implemented method as in claim 14, wherein said interface is implemented in a substantially compliant version of the JAVA programming language.

21. A computer readable medium having stored therein instructions which when executed on a processor implement a method of allowing policy extension, said method comprising the steps of:

a) instantiating a policy program for executing a plurality of pre-defined policies;

b) providing an interface for extending a first policy of said plurality of pre-defined policies;

c) receiving an extension to said first policy, said extension based on said interface; and

d) integrating said extension to said first policy into said policy program.

22. A computer readable medium as in claim 21, wherein said b) of said method comprises providing a selection to a user between a plurality of interfaces for extending policies of said plurality of pre-defined policies.

23. A computer readable medium as in claim 22, wherein said b) further comprises:

b1) in response to a selection from said user, providing to said user a subject interface that is for defining subjects in said policy program.

24. A computer readable medium as in claim 22, wherein said b) further comprises:

b1) in response to a selection from said user, providing to said user a condition interface that is for defining conditions in said policy program.

25. A computer readable medium as in claim 22, wherein said b) further comprises:

b1) in response to a selection from said user, providing to said user a referral interface that is for defining referrals in said policy program.

26. A computer readable medium as in claim 22, wherein said b) further comprises:

b1) in response to a selection from said user, providing to said user a conflict resolution interface that is for defining a structure for resolving conflicts in said policy program.

27. A computer readable medium as in claim 22, wherein said b) further comprises:

b1) in response to a selection from said user, providing to said user a resource name interface that is for defining resource names in said policy program.