MODULAR DISTRIBUTED MOBILE DATA APPLICATIONS

• US 20070220089A1
• Filed: 04/11/2007
• Published: 09/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: William Aegerter
• Original Assignee: William Aegerter
• Inventors: Aegerter, William
• Granted Patent: US 7,877,682 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems

Abstract

Computer-implemented system and methods for deploying a distributed client-server system, enabling developers to rapidly create and deploy read-write distributed data interfaces for host database systems. The disclosed system is especially advantageous for mobile clients as connection to the server environment can be intermittent without unduly impeding local (disconnected) operations. One important aspect of the invention is an incremental process for executing an application servo in a client device. This process includes building and incrementally maintaining a logical context tree in which each node expresses a complete current state of the execution process.

Claims

1. A servo for realizing a predetermined function on a mobile client device having a user interface and utilizing at least intermittent communication with a server environment, the servo comprising:

a series of transformation elements expressed in a predetermined servo description language (SDL) consistent with a predetermined SDL schema;

the servo transformation elements including a data schema declaration for defining a data type on which the servo can be executed;

and the servo transformation elements further including at least two transformation rules, each rule for transforming selected elements of the data type defined by the data schema from an input document so as to provide output to the client device user interface; and

further wherein

the servo transformation elements include at least one view declaration for selecting a group of the said transformation rules so as to define at least a part of an output interface realizable on the client device user interface.

2. A servo according to claim 1 wherein the servo is declared using a standard XSLT vocabulary extended so as to include the view declaration element.

3. A servo according to claim 1 wherein the servo transformation elements include at least one storage declaration element for declaration of a persistent storage tree.

4. A servo according to claim 3 wherein the storage declaration element includes a name attribute for defining a locally scoped name for the corresponding storage tree.

5. A servo according to claim 4 wherein the storage declaration element includes identification of a predetermined storage schema to which the corresponding storage tree conforms.

6. A servo according to claim 5 wherein the storage declaration element includes at least one attribute directed to specification of a lifetime, an update policy or a destruction policy associated with the corresponding storage tree.

7. A servo according to claim 5 wherein the predetermined storage schema is defined in an extensible stylesheet language.

8. A servo according to claim 5 wherein the predetermined storage schema is defined within the servo.

9. A servo according to claim 5 wherein the predetermined storage schema is defined by an XML schema definition.

10. A servo according to claim 5 including an opportunity element to realize automatic extension of the servo through opportunity-based linking of an interface component representing an instance of a schema fragment to a template wherein the template specifies at least one of a transformation rule, a transaction handling rule and an interface object specification.

11. A servo according to claim 5 wherein the servo is declared using a standard XSLT vocabulary extended so as to include the storage declaration element.

12. A computing platform for distributed mobile applications comprising a computer-implemented server environment for interaction with a mobile client machine over a potentially intermittent communication channel, the server environment including:

a messaging service for managing potentially intermittent communication between the client machine and the server environment;

a location broker component for locating a database associated with an identifier contained in a request communicated from the client machine;

a session manager service for managing an interactive session with the client machine;

an interpreter instance for processing a request assigned to it in a current session;

storage for at least one servo, data and schema; and

a registry for managing meta data associated with servos and schemata;

wherein both the servo and the data are expressed in a markup language.

13. A computing platform according to claim 12 wherein the stored servo is declared in a servo definition language (SDL) defined by a schema that references the XSL vocabulary;

and the SDL includes a means for discovering a session environment; and

wherein the session environment includes indicia (attributes) of a physical location of the mobile client machine, identification of the mobile client hardware, and current status of the communication channel.

14. A computing platform according to claim 12 wherein the SDL defines a storage declaration instruction, and application data is available for reference in the SDL as a named input tree using a name defined in a storage declaration instruction in the servo.

15. A computing platform according to claim 14 wherein the SDL defines the following types of rules:

application data schema;

transformation rules;

transaction handling rules; and

interface object specifications.

16. A computing platform according to claim 15 wherein the SDL further defines opportunity rules to realize automatic extension a servo through opportunity-based linking of an interface component representing an instance of a schema fragment to a template.

17. A computing platform according to claim 15 wherein the SDL further defines opportunity rules to realize automatic integration of multiple servos through opportunity-based linking of an interface component representing an instance of a schema fragment to a template.

18. A computing platform according to claim 16 wherein the SDL specifies at least one of a transformation rule, a transaction handling rule and an interface object specification.

19. A computing platform according to claim 16 wherein the SDL further includes a view element for selecting a group of transformation rules to define at least a part of an output interface.

20. A computing platform according to claim 19 wherein the server environment further includes a schema translator for translating data from one schema to another.

21. A computing platform according to claim 19 wherein the registry includes at least one of the following kinds of metadata:

a schema public identifier with the corresponding schema representation;

a schema translator with a corresponding directed pair of schema public identifiers including flags for whether the translation loses information; and

a datasource public identifier with corresponding datasource declaration.