INTEGRATION OF NON-COMPONENTIZED LIBRARIES IN COMPONENT-BASED SYSTEMS

• US 20070260633A1
• Filed: 05/05/2006
• Published: 11/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rapicault, Pascal, Watson, Thomas, McAffer, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 7,886,286 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

A system and method for integrating legacy code into a component-based system. A component-based system is provided that allows legacy components to locate necessary artifacts, and includes: a context finder that is installed as a context classloader, wherein the context finder analyzes an execution stack to identify a component that initiated a context classloader call during runtime; and a buddy loading system that examines the component to determine if the component requires buddy loading to locate an artifact and locates the artifact using a predefined policy.

Claims

1. A component-based system that allows legacy components to locate necessary artifacts, comprising:

a context finder that is installed as a context classloader, wherein the context finder analyzes an execution stack to identify a component that initiated a context classloader call during runtime; and

a buddy loading system that determines whether the component requires buddy loading to locate an artifact and that locates the artifact using a predefined policy.

2. The component-based system of claim 1, wherein the artifact comprises a class.

3. The component-based system of claim 1, wherein the artifact comprises a resource.

4. The component-based system of claim 1, wherein a requirement of buddy loading is determined by examining a mark-up in the component.

5. The component-based system of claim 1, wherein the predefined policy is determined by examining a mark-up in the component.

6. The component-based system of claim 1, wherein the predefined policy searches all components that depend on the component marked as requiring buddy loading, and stops when a result is found.

7. The component-based system of claim 1, wherein the predefined policy requires the component to include a mark-up that buddy loading is required, and requires a set of other components to include mark-ups that they are buddies.

8. The component-based system of claim 1, wherein the predefined policy requires the component to include a mark-up that buddy loading is required, and then searches all components in an associated running environment.

9. The component-based system of claim 1, wherein the predefined policy uses static dependencies among components to determine a set of buddies of the component by iterating over the execution stack to identify all components currently executing code.

10. A computer program product stored on a computer usable medium that allows legacy components to locate necessary artifacts in a component-based system, comprising:

program code configured for providing a context finder to be installed as a context classloader, wherein the context finder can analyze an execution stack to identify a component that initiated a context classloader call during runtime; and

program code configured for examining the component to determine if the component requires buddy loading to locate an artifact and for locating the artifact using a predefined policy.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the artifact comprises a class.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the artifact comprises a resource.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the program code configured for examining the component searches for a mark-up in the component.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the predefined policy is determined by examining a mark-up in the component.

15. A method for allowing legacy components to locate necessary artifacts in component-based system, comprising:

loading a context finder as a context classloader;

executing a legacy component in which a call is generated using the context classloader;

identifying the legacy component that made the call by searching the execution stack with the context finder;

determining if the legacy component includes a mark-up that indicates buddy loading is required;

examining the mark-up to determine a policy to be used to find an artifact required by the component; and

locating the artifact using the policy.

16. The method of claim 15, comprising an initial step of inserting the mark-up in the legacy component to indicate that the legacy component requires buddy loading.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the artifact comprises a class.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the artifact comprises a resource.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the legacy component comprises a library.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the policy is selected from the group consisting of:

a dependent policy, a named policy, a global policy and an execution stack policy.

21. A component-based system that allows legacy components to locate necessary artifacts, comprising a context finder that is installed as a context classloader, wherein the context finder analyzes an execution stack to identify a component that initiated a context classloader call during runtime.

22. A component-based system that allows legacy components to locate necessary artifacts, comprising:

a system that determines whether a component requires buddy loading to locate an artifact; and

a system that locates the artifact using a predefined policy.