System and method for providing extensible controls in a communities framework

• US 20070112835A1
• Filed: 03/02/2006
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Olson, Nathan, McMullen, Cindy, Polk, Ray, Bales, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 8,078,597 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A communities framework is disclosed which contains resources in a repository. The repository contains data stored in nodes wherein each node has data associated with a collaboration resource and each resource has a set of properties or attributes. A server can provide a content object for wrapping the node wherein the content object defines the type of resource contained by the data in the node. An extensible control is provided that performs operations on the node thereby providing an interface to manipulating the node'"'"'s data. The extensible controls can allow developers to easily create new resources. A generic control can further wrap the extensible control and be adapted to provide an abstracted interface to the content object. An extensible portlet can implement the extensible controls in order to provide users with the ability to add new properties and edit existing properties of the resource.

Claims

1. A system for providing extensible controls for a communities framework, comprising:

a repository containing data stored in nodes wherein each node has data associated with a collaboration resource, the resource having one or more properties;

a server that provides a content object for wrapping the node wherein the content object defines the type of resource contained in the node;

an extensible control that performs operations on the node and provides an interface to manipulating the node'"'"'s data; and

a generic control that wraps the extensible control, the generic control adapted to provide an interface to the content object.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an extensible portlet for editing and creating new properties for the resource wherein the extensible portlet implements the extensible control in order to manipulate the node data associated with the resource.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

annotations for describing the structure of the node.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein input from the annotations are used by the extensible controls in order to create the structure of a new node and store the new node in the repository.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a community accessed via a portal, the community maintaining user membership in the environment and including one or more members having access to the repository and capable of sharing the resource.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the one or more members are capable of using the extensible controls in order to create new resources with new properties.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the extensible control performs at least on of create, update, read and delete operations on the node via content management AP is.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the extensible control is configured to map the content object to the node in the repository.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the generic control implements the extensible control in order to manipulate the node data associated with the content object.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the extensible control is implemented as a Java class and managed at runtime by a J2EE EJB container.

11. A method of providing extensible controls for a communities framework, comprising:

providing a repository containing a resource, the resource having one or more properties;

storing data of the resource in a node within the repository,

wrapping the node with a content object to represent the type of resource the node contains;

providing an extensible control for performing operations on the node;

wrapping the extensible control with a generic control, the generic control configured to perform operations on the content object.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

providing an extensible portlet for editing and creating new properties for the resource wherein the extensible portlet implements the extensible control in order to manipulate the node data associated with the resource.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

providing annotations for describing the structure of the node.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein input from the annotations are used by the extensible controls in order to create the structure of a new node and store the new node in the repository.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

providing a community for maintaining user membership in the environment, said community including one or more members having access to the repository and sharing the resource.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the one or more members are capable of using the extensible controls in order to create new resources with new properties.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the extensible controls perform at least on of create, update, read and delete operations on the node via content management APIs.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the extensible control is configured to map the content object to the node in the repository.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein the generic control implements the extensible control in order to manipulate the node data associated with the content object.

20. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by one or more processors cause a system to:

provide a repository containing a resource, the resource having one or more properties;

store data of the resource in a node within the repository,

wrap the node with a content object to represent the type of resource the node contains;

provide an extensible control for performing operations on the node;

wrap the extensible control with a generic control, the generic control configured to perform operations on the content object.