DATA PACKAGING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20110219040A1
• Filed: 05/16/2011
• Published: 09/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: DeFrang, Bruce A., Lee, Patrick R., Bodine, Gregory L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,533,239 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/797
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

A method for communicating data includes selecting a portion of data for communication to a remote computer with the data portion in device-dependent format and comprising at least an integer, a real number, or a binary value. A portable buffer is generated based on the selected data portion, the portable buffer comprising at least one device-independent data representation. The portable buffer is communicated to the remote computer for processing the data portion in a second device-dependent format.

Claims

1. A data packaging method, comprising:

receiving a dataset that includes one or more data values encoded in a first device-dependent format associated with a first operating system;

determining, on a processor, one or more handles and one or more positions associated with the one or more data values in the received dataset, wherein the one or more handles combined with the one or more positions represent logical locations that the one or more data values have in a hierarchy to organize the one or more data values;

converting, on the processor, the one or more data values in the received dataset from the first device-dependent format into an intermediate device-independent format;

inserting the one or more converted data values into a data tree, wherein the processor inserts the one or more converted data values into the data tree at the logical locations that the one or more converted data values have in the hierarchy to populate the data tree; and

communicating the populated data tree to a computing device that executes a second operating system associated with a second device-dependent format incompatible with the first device-dependent format associated with the first operating system, wherein the computing device transforms the one or more converted data values in the populated data tree from the intermediate device-independent format into the second device-dependent format to process the one or more converted data values in the populated data tree.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the processor communicates the populated data tree to the computing device within a portable buffer that packages the populated data tree.

3. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising inserting one or more identifiers that identify one or more data types associated with the one or more converted data values into the data tree at the logical locations that the one or more converted data values have in the hierarchy to further populate the data tree.

4. The method recited in claim 3, wherein the intermediate device-independent format comprises a UTF-8 encoded string format and the one or more converted data values inserted into the data tree have the UTF-8 encoded string format.

5. The method recited in claim 4, wherein the one or more identifiers that identify the one or more data types associated with the one or more converted data values comprise UTF-8 character string identifiers and the populated data tree communicated to the computing device comprises the one or more converted data values having the UTF-8 encoded string format and the UTF-8 character string identifiers having the UTF-8 encoded string format.

6. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

allocating memory to the data tree in response to determining that the processor has enough available memory to store the one or more data values in the dataset; and

queuing a request to allocate the memory to the data tree in response to determining that the processor does not have enough available memory to store the one or more data values in the dataset, wherein the queued request waits to allocate the memory to the data tree until the processor has enough available memory to store the one or more data values in the dataset.

7. The method recited in claim 6, further comprising freeing the memory allocated to the data tree in response to communicating the populated data tree to the computing device.

8. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the computing device navigates to the logical locations that the one or more converted data values have in the populated data tree to retrieve and process the one or more converted data values in the populated data tree,

9. A data packaging system, wherein the system comprises a processor configured to:

receive a dataset that includes one or more data values encoded in a first device-dependent format associated with a first operating system;

determine one or more handles and one or more positions associated with the one or more data values in the received dataset, wherein the one or more handles combined with the one or more positions represent logical locations that the one or more data values have in a hierarchy to organize the one or more data values;

convert the one or more data values in the received dataset from the first device-dependent format into an intermediate device-independent format;

insert the one or more converted data values into a data tree at the logical locations that the one or more converted data values have in the hierarchy; and

communicate the populated data tree to a computing device configured to execute a second operating system associated with a second device-dependent format incompatible with the first device-dependent format associated with the first operating system, wherein the computing device is further configured to transform the one or more converted data values in the populated data tree from the intermediate device-independent format into the second device-dependent format to process the one or more converted data values.

10. The system recited in claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to communicate the populated data tree to the computing device within a portable buffer.

11. The system recited in claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to insert one or more identifiers that identify one or more data types associated with the one or more converted data values into the data tree at the logical locations that the one or more converted data values have in the hierarchy.

12. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the intermediate device-independent format comprises a UTF-8 encoded string format and the one or more converted data values inserted into the data tree have the UTF-8 encoded string format.

13. The system recited in claim 12, wherein the one or more identifiers that identify the one or more data types associated with the one or more converted data values comprise UTF-8 character string identifiers and the populated data tree comprises the one or more converted data values having the UTF-8 encoded string format and the UTF-8 character string identifiers having the UTF-8 encoded string format.

14. The system recited in claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:

allocate memory to the data tree in response to the processor having enough available memory to store the one or more data values in the dataset; and

queue a request to allocate the memory to the data tree in response to the processor not having enough available memory to store the one or more data values in the dataset, wherein the queued request waits to allocate the memory to the data tree until the processor has enough available memory to store the one or more data values in the dataset.

15. The system recited in claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to free the memory allocated to the data tree in response to communicating the populated data tree to the computing device.

16. The system recited in claim 9, wherein the computing device is further configured to navigate to the logical locations that the one or more converted data values have in the populated data tree to retrieve and process the one or more converted data values in the populated data tree.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a data tree, wherein the data tree stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprises:

one or more data values having an intermediate device-independent format; and

a hierarchy to organize the one or more data values according to one or more handles and one or more positions associated with the one or more data values, wherein the one or more data values are associated with one or more handles and one or more positions that collectively represent logical locations that the one or more data values have in the hierarchy.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium recited in claim 17, wherein the data tree further comprises one or more identifiers that identify one or more data types associated with the one or more data values.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium recited in claim 18, wherein the one or more identifiers that identify one or more data types associated with the one or more data values are stored in the data tree at the logical locations that the one or more data values have in the hierarchy.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more data types associated with the one or more data values are further stored in the data tree at the logical locations that the one or more data values have in the hierarchy.