Method and apparatus for data item movement between disparate sources and hierarchical, object-oriented representation

• US 20070011194A1
• Filed: 09/14/2006
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Original Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Inventors: Gurevich, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,917,538 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4493 Object persistence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/543 User-generated data transfer, e.g. clipboards, dynamic data exchange [DDE], object linking and embedding [OLE]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/955 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/956 Hierarchical
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

Data moves between multiple, disparate data sources and the object-oriented computer programs that process the data. A data access server is interposed between the object-oriented programs and the data sources, and acts as an intermediary. The intermediary server receives requests for data access from object-oriented computer programs, correlates each request to one or more interactions with one or more data sources, performs each required interaction, consolidates the results of the interactions, and presents a singular response to the requesting computer program. The consolidated response from the intermediary server contains data items requested by the computer program, information regarding the hierarchical topology that relates the data items, and an indication of the possible object types that might embody the data items. The application program receives the consolidated response and builds an object hierarchy to embody the data items and to interface them to the rest of the application program. The class of an object used to embody data items is selected at execution time from a list of possible candidates.

Claims

1. An article of digital data storage media for use in a data processing system for determining during program execution the class of an object to instantiate, comprising:

instruction code for ascertaining a set of input data items;

instruction code for comparing the set of input data items with one or more members of a set of candidate object classes; and

instruction code for selecting up to one object class from among the set of candidate object classes in response to the comparison.

2. The article of claim 1 wherein a successful comparison results if a candidate object class has the capacity to represent the complete set of input data items.

3. The article of claim 2 wherein a successful comparison is assigned a degree of success and said selecting includes selecting an object class having the greatest degree of success.

4. The article of claim 3 wherein the degree of success is based, at least in part, on the capacity of a candidate object class to represent in excess of the input data item set.

5. A method for use in a data processing system for determining during program execution the class of an object to instantiate, comprising:

ascertaining a set of input data items;

comparing the set of input data items with one or more members of a set of candidate object classes; and

selecting zero or more object classes from among the set of candidate object classes in response to the comparison.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein a successful comparison results if a candidate object class has the capacity to represent the complete set of input data items.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein a successful comparison is assigned a degree of success and the selecting includes selecting an object class having the greatest degree of success.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the degree of success is based, at least in part, on the capacity of a candidate object class to represent in excess of the input data item set.

9. An article of digital data storage media for use in a data processing system for developing computer programs that determine during program execution the class of an object to instantiate, comprising:

program code related to instruction code for ascertaining a set of input data items;

program code related to instruction code for comparing the set of input data items with one or more members of a set of candidate object classes; and

program code related to instruction code for selecting up to one object class from among the set of candidate object classes in response to the comparison.

10. The article of claim 9 wherein a successful comparison results if a candidate object class has the capacity to represent the complete set of input data items.

11. The article of claim 10 wherein a successful comparison is assigned a degree of success and said selecting includes selecting an object class having the greatest degree of success.

12. The article of claim 11 wherein the degree of success is based, at least in part, on the capacity of a candidate object class to represent in excess of the input data item set.

13. A method of mediating between transient and persistent copies of a plurality of data items in a system comprising a client computer, a plurality of independent data sources, and a server computer;

said client computer executing a user object-oriented application program having program code which includes object-oriented program objects each embodying one or more transient working copies of persistent data items of which the persistent data items may be located in different independent data sources, and includes program code to initiate and respond to formatted transaction data streams exchanged with said server, said client computer providing service requests for accessing data items from said independent data sources;

said plurality of independent data sources maintaining persistent data items; and

said server computer having program code for mediating said service requests and having a configuration database storing information about the types of data access requests the application programs can make to the server, the data sources with which the server interacts, and the types of interactions that are possible;

said method comprising;

a. receiving in the server computer a data stream from the client computer, said data stream including a service request comprising an object transmuted at the client computer;

b. processing in the server computer a request for a client-server transaction supplied by the client computer, wherein said program code for mediating utilizes information from said configuration database so as to permit the interpretation of the request for the client-server transaction and the resolution of the request for the client-server transaction into a corresponding set of atomic server-source transactions;

c. for each of the server-source transactions the server computer sending a request to a data source, receiving the response of the data source, and moving a response data item into a data container of the server computer;

d. sending a data stream of response data items to the client computer wherein said data stream contains information regarding a hierarchical relationship among the response data items, said information regarding a hierarchical relationship corresponding to information in the configuration database.