Customization restrictions for multi-layer XML customization

• US 20090205013A1
• Filed: 02/12/2008
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Lowes, Christopher David
• Granted Patent: US 8,875,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for customizing aspects of a metadata-driven software application. In particular, embodiments of the present invention provide (1) a self-contained metadata engine for generating customized metadata documents from base metadata documents and customizations; (2) a customization syntax for defining customizations; (3) a customization creation/update component for creating and updating customizations; (4) a customization restriction mechanism for restricting the creation of new customizations by specific users or groups of users; and (5) memory and caching optimizations for optimizing the storage and lookup of customized metadata documents.

Claims

1. A method for restricting the customizability of a base metadata document, the base metadata document defining one or more characteristics of at least a portion of a software application, the method comprising:

receiving a type-level customization policy defined for an object type of an object included in the base metadata document, the type-level customization policy indicating whether instances of objects having the object type may be customized by users of the software application; and

enforcing the type-level customization policy at runtime of the software application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of enforcing the type-level customization policy comprises:

determining a policy value from a session context of the software application, the policy value indicating a username, group, or role of a current user of the software application; and

determining, based on the policy value, the type-level customization policy, and a set of default behavior rules, whether an instance of the object included in the base metadata document may be customized by the current user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein if no customization policy is defined for the object type, the set of default behavior rules indicates that instances of objects having the object type may not be customized by users of the software application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the base metadata document is an XML document, and wherein the object is an element or an attribute.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the type-level customization policy is implemented as one or more type annotations to the object type.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the object type is defined in an XML Schema Definition (XSD) file, and wherein the one or more type annotations are included in the XSD file.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the object type is defined in an XML Schema Definition (XSD) file, and wherein the one or more type annotations are included in an XML file separate from the XSD file.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the type-level customization policy further indicates what type of customization may performed on instances of objects having the object type by users of the software application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the type of customization is selected from a list consisting of:

modify, insert, move, and replace.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving an instance-level customization policy defined for the object included in the base metadata document, the instance-level customization policy indicating whether an instance of the object may be customized by users of the software application; and

enforcing the instance-level customization policy at the runtime of the software application.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the steps of enforcing the type-level customization policy and enforcing the instance-level customization policy comprise:

determining, based on the policy value, the type-level customization policy, the instance-level customization policy, a set of precedence rules, and a set of default behavior rules, whether the instance of the object may be customized by the current user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein if there is a conflict between the type-level customization policy and the instance-level customization policy, the set of precedence rules indicate that the type-level customization policy overrides the instance-level customization policy.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein if no customization policy is defined for the object type or the instance of the object, the set of default behavior rules indicate that the instance of the object may not be customized by users of the software application.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the instance-level customization policy is implemented as one or more object annotations to the object.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more object annotations are included in the base metadata document.

16. A system for restricting the customizability of a base metadata document, the base metadata document defining one or more characteristics of at least a portion of a software application, the system comprising:

a declarative syntax for defining a customization policy, the customization policy indicating whether an instance of an object included in the base metadata document may be customized by users of the software application; and

an evaluation engine configured to enforce the customization policy at runtime of the software application.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein enforcing the customization policy comprises:

determining a policy value from a session context of the software application, the policy value indicating a username, group, or role of a current user of the software application; and

determining, based on the policy value, the customization policy, a set of precedence rules, and a set of default behavior rules, whether the instance of the object may be customized by the current user.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the base metadata document is an XML document, and wherein the object is an element or an attribute.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the object has an object type, and wherein the customization policy is a type-level policy that applies to instances of all objects having the object type.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the type-level policy is implemented as one or more type annotations to the object type.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the customization policy is an instance-level policy that applies to the instance of the object.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the instance-level policy is implemented as one or more object annotations to the object.

23. The system of claim 16 further comprising a design tool for viewing and editing the customization policy.

24. The system of claim 16 further comprising an application programming interface (API) for programmatically determining whether the instance of the object is customizable by a given user of the software application.

25. A machine-readable medium for a computer system, the machine-readable medium having stored thereon a series of instructions which, when executed by a processing component, cause the processing component to restrict the customizability of a base metadata document, the base metadata document defining one or more characteristics of at least a portion of a software application, by:

receive a type-level customization policy defined for an object type of an object included in the base metadata document, the type-level customization policy indicating whether instances of objects having the object type may be customized by users of the software application; and

enforcing the type-level customization policy at runtime of the software application.