Creating reference objects

• US 20090106301A1
• Filed: 12/12/2008
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Schnier, Randall Richard, Krueger, James C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,953,737 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/449 Object-oriented method invocation or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A storage medium and computer system that, in an embodiment, in response to a request to create a target object, create a reference object for the target object and bind the reference object to a name space without the target object being instantiated. In response to an invocation of a method on the reference object, a determination is made whether a target object associated with the reference object exists. If the target object does not already exist, the target object is instantiated. If the target object does already exist, the target object is returned. In this way, target objects are not instantiated until a method on the reference object is invoked, which in an embodiment increases the performance of the invoking application.

Claims

1. A storage medium encoded with instructions, wherein the instructions when executed comprise:

receiving a request comprising a target object name and a target object information to create a target object from a client;

in response to the request from the client to create the target object, creating a reference object from a class definition at a server, wherein the target object and the reference object are separate;

in response to the creating the reference object, binding the reference object to a name space at the server, wherein the binding the reference object to the name space at the server is performed while the target object associated with the reference object is not instantiated, wherein the binding the reference object to the name space at the server while the target object associated with the reference object is not instantiated further comprises saving the target object name and a pointer in the name space, wherein the pointer is associated with the target object name, and wherein the pointer points to the reference object;

in response to an invocation of a method at the client on the reference object, determining whether the target object associated with the reference object exists, wherein the client searches for the target object name and the pointer to the reference object in the name space using the target object name as an index into the name space;

if the target object does not exist, creating an instance of the target object and returning the instance of the target object to the method that was invoked on the reference object in response to the determining, wherein the target object comprises a home object; and

if the target object does exist, returning the target object to the method that was invoked on the reference object in response to the determining.

2. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the creating the reference object further comprises:

creating the reference object based on the target object name and the target object information.

3. The storage medium of claim 2, further comprising:

returning the target object to an object request broker.

4. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the target object information comprises an identifier of an IP address of the client.

5. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the target object information comprises a port number that the client uses to access a network.

6. A computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory connected to the processor, wherein the memory is encoded with instructions, and wherein the instructions when executed on the processor comprise;

receiving a request comprising a target object name and a target object information to create a target object from a client,

in response to the request from the client to create the target object, creating a reference object from a class definition at the computer system, wherein the target object and the reference object are separate,

in response to the creating the reference object, binding the reference object to a name space at the computer system, wherein the binding the reference object to the name space at the computer system is performed while the target object associated with the reference object is not instantiated, wherein the binding the reference object to the name space at the computer system while the target object associated with the reference object is not instantiated further comprises saving the target object name and a pointer in the name space, wherein the pointer is associated with the target object name, and wherein the pointer points to the reference object,

in response to an invocation of a method at the client on the reference object, determining whether the target object associated with the reference object exists, wherein the client searches for the target object name and the pointer to the reference object in the name space using the target object name as an index into the name space,

if the target object does not exist, creating an instance of the target object and returning the instance of the target object to the method that was invoked on the reference object in response to the determining, wherein the target object comprises a home object, and

if the target object does exist, returning the target object to the method that was invoked on the reference object in response to the determining.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the creating the reference object further comprises:

creating the reference object based on the target object name and the target object information.

8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the instructions further comprise:

returning the target object to an object request broker.

9. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the target object information comprises an identifier of an IP address of the client.

10. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the target object information comprises a port number that the client uses to access a network.