Extensible architecture for project development systems

• US 20050240640A1
• Filed: 06/30/2005
• Published: 10/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kaler, Christopher G., Lovell, Martyn S., Bartz, Bradley J., Grier, Michael J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,631,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3306 Optical measuring means
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/1689 Drip counters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A software-development system or versioning system has a collection of modules for performing individual development functions such as document editing, keyword processing, and private-copy management. Each module has an interface compatible with that of the others, so that modules can be added to or substituted for the original modules, if the new modules conform to the interface. The architecture of this system supports the performance of development actions such as document merging and keyword expansion at any location within the system. The system operates upon documents and files as objects in an object space, rather than in name spaces.

Claims

1. A system for developing software, comprising:

a version store for storing a plurality of development documents;

a plurality of service providers performing different development functions, and each having a mutually compatible interface;

a client having the same compatible interface, for receiving commands from a user and for routing them to various ones of the service providers for execution upon the development documents from the version store; and

a keyword subsystem for providing keyword-expansion services, said keyword subsystem operable connected to said client, said keyword subsystem receiving a client request for keyword expansion using a plurality of keyword expanders, said client request comprising at least one keyword, selecting one of said expanders in response to said client request, and identifying one or more of said service providers in response to said client request.

2. The system of claim 1 where all of the service providers and the client are replaceable by a third party.

3. The system of claim 1 where the version store is a database.

4. The system of claim 1 where the interface comprises an API having a set of methods.

5. The system of claim 4 where at least one of the service providers implements less than all of the methods in the set.

6. The system of claim 4 where the API includes at least a subset of OLE DB.

7. The system of claim 1 further including an object model also exposing the same compatible interface.

8. The system of claim 1 further including a command-line utility for passing user commands to service providers through the same compatible interface.

9. The system of claim 1 where the version store and the client are physically located in different computers.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising a merge subsystem for providing merge/differencing services.

11-38. -38. (canceled)

39. A keyword expansion subsystem for a software development system comprising a plurality of service providers performing different development functions, and each having a mutually compatible interface, said keyword expansion subsystem comprising:

a plurality of keyword expanders for expanding keywords in a development document;

a keyword broker for receiving a command to expand the development document and for selecting one of the providers in response to the command.

40. The keyword expansion subsystem of claim 39 where a parameter in the command specifies a keyword domain for the development document.

41-66. -66. (canceled)