MECHANISMS TO SUPPORT OBJECT-ORIENTED VERSION CONTROL OPERATIONS

• US 20090307278A1
• Filed: 06/05/2008
• Published: 12/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Novell Intellectual Property Holdings, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Lowry, Lee Edward, Street, William, Thurgood, Brent, Scheuber-Heinz, Volker Gunnar, Vasudevan, Rajesh, Grossbart, Zack, Lundberg, Karin Stella
• Granted Patent: US 8,055,619 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor

Abstract

Mechanisms to support object-oriented version control operations are provided. A user manipulates and views a project from an object viewpoint and within an object module. The user performs version control operations using object handles. The object handles are resolved to specific file references and the specific file references are used to process legacy version control commands utilizing a legacy version control system in a manner that is transparent to the user.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for processing a version control operation against an object, comprising:

determining that a definition for the object spans multiple files;

changing the version control operation into multiple version control operations; and

processing the multiple version control operations against the multiple files.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, receiving a system event raised within a project processing environment that identifies a user that submits the version control operation, the object, and the control operation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining further includes identifying the multiple files for the definition in response to an object type associated with the object.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising, consulting a specific object adapter to identify the multiple files, wherein the specific object adapter is identified in response to the object type associated with the object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein changing further includes identifying some of the multiple version control system operations as being associated with a different version control system, and interacting with the different version control system to process those particular version control system operations on behalf of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein processing further includes processing the multiple version control system operations unbeknownst to the user and in a manner that is transparent to the user.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising,

supplying an object adapter with different files provided by a user in a different transaction;

receiving back from the object adapter one or more different object handles for one or more different objects defined in the files; and

returning to the user the one or more different object handles.

8. A machine-implemented method, comprising:

receiving from a framework driver service an object handle for an object;

parsing an object definition for the object to resolve multiple file names and file paths associated with the object; and

returning to the framework driver service the multiple file names and the file paths for the framework driver service to perform legacy version control operations on behalf of a user that initiated a version control operation using just the object handle and not the multiple file names and the file paths.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising,

subsequently receiving from the framework driver service a set of different file names;

parsing files associated with the different file names to resolve different object handles for different objects defined in the files; and

returning to the framework driver service the different object handles for delivery to a user that is attempting to find object associations to particular known files via the different file names via interaction with the framework driver service.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein parsing further includes dynamically and in real time parsing the object definition.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein parsing further includes acquiring preconfigured parsing rules specific to an object type that is associated with the object, wherein the parsing rules provide dynamic instructions for parsing the object definition.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein parsing further includes identifying an embedded object in the object definition for a different object type and consulting an adapter service for that different object type, and asking the adapter service to parse that embedded object.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein parsing further includes locating the object definition in response to the object handle.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein returning further includes returning to the framework driver service content data associated with the multiple file names.

15. A machine-implemented system, comprising:

object adapters implemented in a machine-accessible and readable medium to process on machines of a network; and

an object framework service implemented in a machine-accessible and readable medium and to process on one of the machines of the network;

wherein the object framework service interacts with users to permit the users to perform version control operations against objects using object handles and wherein the object framework service selects object adapters that when supplied the object handles return back file names and file paths, and wherein the object framework service translates the version control operations into legacy version control system commands using the file names and the file paths and processes the legacy version control commands against one or more legacy version control systems to satisfy the version control operations initiated by the users.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the object framework service is transparent to the users.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the object framework service selects a particular object adapter for a particular version control operation in response to a particular object type that is associated with a particular object handle.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the object framework service processes as a front-end interface to the one or more legacy version control systems.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein each object adapter is preconfigured to dynamically parse a particular object type and its definition to locate specific file names and file paths, which are returned upon request to the object framework service.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein each object adapter is also preconfigured to return content data associated with the file names to the object framework service upon the request.

21. A machine-implemented system, comprising:

an object modeling interface implemented in a machine-accessible and readable medium and that processes on a machine of a network; and

an object driver service implemented in a machine-accessible and readable medium and to process on the machine or a different machine of the network;

wherein the object modeling interface is a graphical user interface that a user interacts with to visually discern objects and object relationships for a project, and wherein the object modeling interface permits the user to load and perform version control operations on the objects, the object driver service interacts with the object modeling interface to translate load and version control operations into specific file references that are processed as legacy version control commands against a legacy version control system.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the object driver service permits the user via the object module interface to supply specific file names and in response thereto resolves specific object handles for specific objects that are defined in those specific file names.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the object driver service interacts with a plurality of object adapters to resolve the file references, each object adapter associated with a unique object type.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the object driver service communicates the specific file references to the object module interface when the user performs a right mouse click or selects a particular option within the GUI for a particular object being displayed within the GUI, and wherein the object module interface generates a popup window within the GUI that displays the specific file references back to the user in response to the right mouse client or selection of the particular option.