Method and apparatus to control translatable properties of metadata

• US 20070226687A1
• Filed: 06/25/2002
• Published: 09/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Hastings, Mark, Shroff, Vipul, Kulkarni, Jayant, Fallen-Bailey, Tim, Jindal, Bharat, Thorson, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 7,596,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/110
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/526 Mutual exclusion algorithms

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing a translation locking mechanism comprising a locking system to permit locking of translatable properties of an object within a project. The apparatus further comprises a lock tester to determine whether the locking system prevents edits to a particular property; and an editing tool to prohibit alteration of the properties that are affected by translation.

Claims

1. A translation locking mechanism comprising:

a lock tester to determine whether a translation lock prohibits changes to translatable properties of an object without locking non-translatable properties of the object, wherein the object is part of a software application, and wherein the translatable properties comprise data affected by a language translation;

an editing tool, wherein the editing tool is configured to permit changes to non-translatable properties of the object without separating the object from the software application and even though the translation lock prohibits changes to the translatable properties; and

a display system to display data, the display system identifying data that is not editable.

2. The translation locking mechanism of claim 1, wherein the translation lock is applied on a per-object basis.

3. The translation locking mechanism of claim 1, wherein the translation lock is applied on a per project basis.

4. The translation locking mechanism of claim 1, further comprising:

the lock tester to determine an identity of a user that translation locked the object; and

if the identity of the user matches the a current user'"'"'s identity, the lock tester to permit editing access to all data having translatable properties.

6. The translation locking mechanism of claim 1, wherein the display system dims out data that is not editable.

7. The translation locking mechanism of claim 1, wherein the display system does not permit a user to select any data that is not editable.

8. The translation locking mechanism of claim 1, wherein the lock tester continuously tests whether a property of an object is editable.

9. The translation locking mechanism of claim 1, wherein the lock tester determines whether a property of an object is editable when a changed dataset containing the object is checked-in.

10. The translation locking mechanism of claim 9, further comprising:

the display system alerting a user that the changed dataset includes unacceptable alterations to locked properties of the object.

11. The translation locking mechanism of claim 1, wherein the lock tester determines whether a property of a project is editable when the project is checked-out for editing.

5. (canceled)

12. A method comprising:

receiving a request to edit a project that is part of a software application, wherein

the project comprises a plurality of objects having translatable properties and non-translatable properties, and

the translatable properties comprise data affected by a language translation;

determining whether a translation lock has been applied to at least a portion of the project containing one or more of said plurality of objects;

if the translation lock has been applied,

prohibiting alteration of the translatable properties of those objects to which the translation lock has been applied, and

allowing editing of the non-translatable properties of all of said plurality of objects and allowing editing of the translatable properties of only those objects to which the translation lock has not been applied, without separating an object to be edited from the software application; and

displaying data for said software application on a display system and, in the displayed data, identifying non-editable data associated with those objects to which the translation lock has been applied.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the translation lock is applied on a per-object basis.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the translation lock is applied on a per project basis.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining an identification of who locked said portion of the project; and

if the identification of who locked said portion of the project matches the a current user'"'"'s identity, permitting the current user an editing access to all locked data.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the data that is not editable is dimmed out.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising preventing a user from selecting any data that is not alterable.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

continuously testing whether a property is editable.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

testing whether a property of an object is editable when a changed dataset containing the object is checked-in.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

alerting a user that the changed dataset includes unacceptable alterations to locked properties of the object.

22. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

testing whether a property is editable when a project is checked-out for editing.

24. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

identifying a translatable property of an object using a translation flag.

16. (canceled)

23. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable physical storage medium having the following sets of instructions encoded therein;

a first set of instructions, executable on a computer system, configured to receive a request to edit a project that is part of a software application, wherein

the project comprises a plurality of objects comprising translatable properties and non-translatable properties, and

the translatable properties comprises comprise data affected by a language translation;

a second set of instructions, executable on the computer system, configured to determine whether a translation lock has been applied to at least a portion of the project containing one or more of said plurality of objects;

when the translation lock has been applied. a third set of instructions, executable on the computer system and configured to prohibit alteration of the translatable properties of those objects to which the translation lock has been applied, and

further configured to allow editing of the non-translatable properties of all of said plurality of objects and to allow editing of the translatable properties of only those objects to which the translation lock has not been applied without separating an object to be edited from the software application; and

a fourth set of instructions, executable on the computer system, configured to display data for said software application on a display system and further configured to identify, in the displayed data, non-editable data associated with those objects to which the translation lock has been applied.