Remote database technique

• US 20060116991A1
• Filed: 10/13/2005
• Published: 06/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ciphergrid Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Ciphergrid Ltd.
• Inventors: Calderwood, Alastair
• Application Number:
  US11/249,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20060116991A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services

Abstract

Systems, methods, software applications and virtual machines for creating, holding, referencing and/or accessing data objects from an application on a remote machine. The system allows a software application to read, write and perform transactions using data stored in one or more distributed databases. Methods are described for accessing a data object of a resource from an application located remotely from the resource. Methods are also described for issuing and servicing a method call from an application to a data object in a remote database. A virtual machine is yet further described for running a software application implemented using an object-oriented language for performing an operation on a plurality of data objects of a remote virtual machine. Still further described is a software application implemented using an object-oriented language to instantiate, store and access data objects on a remote virtual machine.

Claims

1. A method for accessing a data object of a resource from an application located remotely from the resource, the method comprising:

issuing a method call from the application;

receiving the issued method call at a proxy driver located remotely from the resource;

generating a proxy command comprising a reference to the corresponding data object;

sending the proxy command over a communication channel to the resource; and

accessing the data object of the resource based on the proxy command.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication channel provides two-way communication between an application and the remote resource so that commands can be sent and received over the channel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication channel is a TCP/IP link.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the application and proxy driver are located in a client computer and the remote resource located is located in a server computer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the server computer comprises a bridge for receiving the proxy commands sent to the resource.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the bridge is capable of operating in a synchronous mode whereby the command awaits a return of a result from the resource before a new command is generated.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the bridge is capable of operating in an asynchronous mode whereby the step of generating a new command does not depend on a return of the result of the previous command

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the server computer also comprises a database proxy with interface between the bridge and resource.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the client computer also comprises an interface associated with the proxy driver, said interface is the same as that of the database driver, and wherein both meet the same specification, which is a DBC API interface,

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is a database.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the data object is of a class that belongs to a same specification of an interface associated with a database driver located remotely from the specification.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the proxy command generated includes the properties of the method call.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein each method call sent across the interface is wrapped in a format that allows serialization/deserialisation and forwarding across a wire protocol.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the proxy component is accessed from the application through the same method call on a same class that the application would make if it were calling the resource directly, and wherein the method call having a signature that specifies a return type.

15. The method of claim 5, wherein the bridge comprises a registry for storing data objects returned by the resource accessed by the application and for indexing the data objects by means of a unique key.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein each data object is synchronized with its corresponding proxy data object by means of a numerical reference, which is held both as an attribute of the proxy data object and an index key in the registry.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the application and proxy driver are located in a first communication network and the resource is located in a second network, said first and second networks being connected by the communication channel.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication channel comprises security privileges determined by an administrator of the database.

19. The method of claim 5, wherein each method call is:

converted to a form suitable for sending across a communication protocol for a channel;

wrapped in an object, together with an index reference to the object to which the method call was made;

serializing the wrapped object;

sending to the bridge;

deserialized and unwrapped, and wherein information contained therein is converted to a method object that may be invoked using an established reflection mechanism.

20. A virtual machine running a software application implemented using an object-oriented language for performing an operation on a plurality of data objects of a remote virtual machine, the application comprising a memory arranged to store a plurality of proxy data objects each of which corresponding to the data objects of the remote virtual machine and implementing an interface which is the same as that for the remote data objects, wherein the application is arranged to call methods on the proxy data objects, which perform the operation on the data objects of the remote virtual machine.

21. The virtual machine of claim 20, wherein the interfaces conform to a specific database connectivity specification having classes that are implemented in a pre-existing database driver.

22. The virtual machine of claim 21, wherein the interface of the database driver on the remote virtual machine is the same as the interface accessible by the virtual machine running the software application, both being defined by the database connectivity specification.

23. The virtual machine of claim 20, wherein the operation performed is capable of instantiating a new data object, operating on or consulting an existing data object.

24. The virtual machine of claim 20, wherein the operation performed is capable of returning data objects, non-data objects and values to the application.

25. The virtual machine of claim 20, wherein the remote virtual machine comprises a bridge having a registry where the data objects are capable of being looked up, extracted from and returned to the registry using an index reference.

26. The virtual machine of claim 25, wherein the each of the data objects is synchronized with said corresponding proxy objects by a numerical reference, which is held both as an attribute of the proxy data object and as said index reference for the registry.

27. The virtual machine of claim 25, wherein look-ups of the registry are performed using the index reference held in the corresponding proxy data object.

28. The virtual machine of claim 20, wherein each proxy data object is smaller than the corresponding data object.

29. The virtual machine of claim 20, wherein each proxy data object comprises a reference to the corresponding data object.

30. A software application implemented using an object-oriented language to instantiate, store and access data objects on a remote virtual machine, the software application runs on a second virtual machine distinct from the remote virtual machine and connected thereto by means of TCP/IP, wherein the application having an proxy interface and the remote virtual machine having a database interface that conforms to a specific database connectivity specification having classes implemented in a pre-existing database driver.

31. A system for allowing an application to access a data object in a remote database, wherein a proxy driver component, also located remotely from the remote database, is accessed from the application program through a method call on a same class that the application would make if it were calling the remote database driver directly, wherein subsequent application code will require a return type specified in the signature.

32. A method of issuing and servicing a method call from an application to a data object in a remote database, wherein a proxy driver and bridge reside close to the application and database respectively, and wherein the proxy driver component is accessed from the application through the same method call on a same class that the application would make if it were calling the database driver directly.

33. A system for accessing remote data objects, the system comprising:

a first machine comprising an application and a proxy driver with an interface, wherein the interface receiving method calls from the application;

a network connecting the first machine to a second machine;

the second machine comprising a bridge, a database driver with an interface and a database, wherein the bridge stores data objects returned by the database driver from the database in response to previous method calls and the bridge further comprising a registry with an index reference to the data objects stored in the bridge.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the proxy driver with interface and the database driver with interface meet the same specification, which is a DBC API, and wherein such an arrangement allows the application using an object-oriented language to read, write to, manipulate and return results from the database using objects of said language.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein a new data object of a certain class is created and returned by the database driver having the same class, and is stored in the bridge of the second machine, said bridge returning a unique reference of the new data object to the proxy driver on the first machine, thereby allowing the new data object to accessed by the application as if it were stored in the first machine.

36. A method of issuing and servicing a method call on a data object, the data object being defined according to a recognized database connectivity standard, wherein the database servicing the method call is remote from the application issuing the method call, the method comprising:

(a) generating a command object in a proxy driver API component interfacing the application, the command object comprising properties of the method called by the application and an index to a relevant data object;

(b) receiving the command object at a command handler component interfacing a data base by means of a database driver, and invoking the method properties of the command object such that the relevant data object is accessed based on the index;

(c) transferring the issued method and relevant data object to the database driver; and

(d) performing an operation in the database.