Method, system and program product for transferring program code between computer processes

• US 20040210879A1
• Filed: 12/16/2003
• Published: 10/21/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Min, Hong, Van Aerschot, Egide, Wanish, Paul J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,478,399 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/136
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449

Abstract

Method, system and computer program product are provided for facilitating transport of program code between computer processes in an object-oriented computing environment. An object is provided which includes a hashtable having at least one set of elements integrated therein. One element of the at least one set of elements of the hashtable is program code. The program code is logic which employs as data input the hashtable itself. The object can be serialized at a sender computer process and transported to a receiver computer process, where the serialized data object is received and deserialized to retrieve the hashtable. The receiver computer process can add relevant data to the hashtable prior to invoking program code within the hashtable using as data input thereto only the hashtable. A technique for merging multiple hashtables from different computer processes into a common hashtable is also provided.

Claims

1. A method of transferring program code between computer processes, the method comprising:

providing an object which comprises a hashtable, the hashtable having at least one set of elements, one element of the at least one set of elements comprising program code; and

wherein the program code comprises logic which employs as data input the hashtable.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one set of elements comprises multiple tuples, each tuple comprising a first element and a second element, and wherein the second element of at least one tuple comprises the program code, and the second element of at least one other tuple comprises data relevant to the program code.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing comprises providing the object as a serialized data object and transporting the serialized data object from a sender computer process to a receiver computer process, and wherein the method further comprises deserializing the serialized data object at the receiver computer process to obtain the hashtable, scanning the hashtable for program code, and invoking the program code with the hashtable as data input thereto.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising adding data to the hashtable at the receiver computer process, the data being relevant to the program code and being added prior to invoking of the program code using as data input only the hashtable.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing comprises providing multiple serialized objects, each serialized object having a different hashtable therein, and transporting a first serialized object from a first sender computer process to a receiver computer process and transporting a second serialized object from a second sender computer process to the receiver computer process, and deserializing the first serialized object and the second serialized object at the receiver computer process to obtain a first hashtable and a second hashtable.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first sender computer process, the second sender computer process, and the receiver computer process are on different computing units.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising merging the first hashtable received from the first sender computer process and the second hashtable received from the second sender computer process at the receiver computer process into a common hashtable, and iterating through the common hashtable for program code to be invoked using the common hashtable as the only data input thereto.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising adding data to the common hashtable at the receiver computer process, the data being relevant to program code in the common hashtable and being added prior to invoking the program code using as data input only the common hashtable.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing comprises, at a sender computer process, creating an empty hashtable, integrating program code into the hashtable, and serializing the hashtable into a serialized data object for transport to a receiver computer process.

10. A system for transferring program code between computer processes, said system comprising:

means for providing an object which comprises a hashtable, the hashtable having at least one set of elements, one element of the at least one set of elements comprising program code; and

wherein the program code comprises logic which employs as data input the hashtable.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one set of elements comprises multiple tuples, each tuple comprising a first element and a second element, and wherein the second element of at least one tuple comprises the program code, and the second element of at least one other tuple comprises data relevant to the program code.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the means for providing comprises means for providing the object as a serialized data object and for transporting the serialized data object from a sender computer process to a receiver computer process, and wherein the system further comprises means for deserializing the serialized data object at the receiver computer process to obtain the hashtable, means for scanning the hashtable for program code, and means for invoking the program code with the hashtable as data input thereto.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising adding data to the hashtable at the receiver computer process, the data being relevant to the program code and being added prior to invoking of the program code using as data input only the hashtable.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the means for providing comprises means for providing multiple serialized objects, each serialized object having a different hashtable therein, and wherein the system further comprises means for transporting a first serialized object from a first sender computer process to a receiver computer process and for transporting a second serialized object from a second sender computer process to the receiver computer process, and means for deserializing the first serialized object and the second serialized object at the receiver computer process to obtain a first hashtable and a second hashtable.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first sender computer process, the second sender computer process, and the receiver computer process are on different computing units.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising means for merging the first hashtable received from the first sender computer process and the second hashtable received from the second sender computer process at the receiver computer process into a common hashtable, and means for iterating through the common hashtable for program code to be invoked using the common hashtable as the only data input thereto.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising means for adding data to the common hashtable at the receiver computer process, the data being relevant to program code in the common hashtable and being added prior to invoking the program code using as data input only the common hashtable.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the means for providing comprises, at a sender computer process, means for creating an empty hashtable, means for integrating program code into the hashtable, and means for serializing the hashtable into a serialized data object for transport to a receiver computer process.

19. At least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of transferring program code between computer processes, the method comprising:

providing an object which comprises a hashtable, the hashtable having at least one set of elements, one element of the at least one set of elements comprising program code; and

wherein the program code comprises logic which employs as data input the hashtable.

20. The at least one program storage device of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises adding data to the hashtable at a receiver computer process, the data being relevant to the program code and being added prior to invoking of the program code using as data input only the hashtable.