Systems and methods for extensions and inheritance for units of information manageable by a hardware/software interface system
First Claim
1. A method for extending a Property, said Property constituting a complex property type that can be manipulated by a hardware/software interface system, said method comprising the utilization of a strongly typed instance (an “
- Extension”
) to extend said Property, said extension constituting a discrete storable unit of information that can be manipulated by said hardware/software interface system and which is associated with said Property.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
By modeling real-world application objects with complex structures, behaviors, and operations described by a schema which is enforced by the hardware/software interface system, various embodiments of the present invention provide rich sub-typing functionality by extending Items (and Item types) using “Extensions” which provide additional data structures (Properties, Relationships, etc.) to already existing Items type structures. Extensions are strongly typed instances that cannot exist independently and must be attached to an Item or a Nested Element. Extensions are also intended to address “multi-typing” issues by enabling the overlap of type instances (e.g., a Document may be a “legal document” as well a “secure document”).
75 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A method for extending a Property, said Property constituting a complex property type that can be manipulated by a hardware/software interface system, said method comprising the utilization of a strongly typed instance (an “
- Extension”
) to extend said Property, said extension constituting a discrete storable unit of information that can be manipulated by said hardware/software interface system and which is associated with said Property. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
- Extension”
-
6. A hardware/software interface system for manipulating a plurality of Properties, said Properties constituting complex property types that can be manipulated by a hardware/software interface system, said system comprising a subsystem for extending an Property with a strongly typed instance (an “
- Extension”
), said Extension constituting a discrete storable unit of information that can be manipulated by said hardware/software interface system. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9)
- Extension”
-
10. A hardware/software interface system for manipulating a plurality of Properties, said Properties constituting complex property types that can be manipulated by a hardware/software interface system, said system comprising a subsystem for extending an Property with a strongly typed instance (an “
- Extension”
), said Extension constituting a discrete storable unit of information that can be manipulated by said hardware/software interface system. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
- Extension”
-
14. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions for extending an Property, said Property constituting a complex property type that can be manipulated by a hardware/software interface system, said computer-readable instructions comprising instructions for the utilization of a strongly typed instance (an “
- Extension”
) to extend said Property, said Extension constituting a discrete storable unit of information that can be manipulated by said hardware/software interface system wherein said Extension is attached to said Property and wherein said Extension also ceases to exist when said Property ceases to exist.
- Extension”
Specification