Link mechanism for linking data between objects and for performing operations on the linked data in an object based system

• US 5,303,379 A
• Filed: 08/28/1992
• Issued: 04/12/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/1987
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Original Assignee: Wang Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Pham, Ly-Huong T., Stern, Laura O., Surprenant, Carolyn E., Khoyi, Dana, Soucie, Marc S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lall, Parshotam S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ELLIS, RICHARD L
• Application Number:
  US07/937,911
• Time in Patent Office: 592 Days
• Field of Search: 395/425, 395/725, 395/700
• US Class Current: 717/166
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/76 Adapting program code to run in a different environment; Porting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/449 Object-oriented method invocation or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/543 User-generated data transfer, e.g. clipboards, dynamic data exchange [DDE], object linking and embedding [OLE]

Abstract

An object based data processing system including an extensible set of object types and a corresponding set of "object managers" wherein each object manager is a program for operating with the data stored in a corresponding type of object. The object managers in general support at least a standard set of operations. Any program can effect performance of these standard operations on objects of any type by making an "invocation" request. In response to an invocation request, object management services (which are available to all object managers) identifies and invokes an object manager that is suitable for performing the requested operation on the specified type of data. A mechanism is provided for linking data from one object into another object. A object catalog includes both information about objects and about links between objects. Data interchange services are provided for communicating data between objects of different types, using a set of standard data interchange formats. A matchmaker facility permits two processes that are to cooperate in a data interchange operation identify each other and to identify data formats they have in common. A facility is provided for managing shared data "resources". Customized versions of resources can be created and co-exist with standard resources. A resource retrieval function determines whether a customized or a standard resource is to be returned in response to each request for a resource.

Claims

1. In a data processing system including means for storing data in objects, each object being of a type defined by the type of data stored in the object, and including at least one object manager for each type of object in the system for performing operations on the corresponding object types, a link mechanism for linking data from a first object into a second object, comprising:

(A) in the second object, a means for storing a link marker, wherein

(i) the link marker indicates the location in the second object of a link of data from the first object, and

(ii) the link marker includes a link identification identifying the link within the second object,

(B) a link means for storing information relating the link identification to an identification of the first object,

(C) a data identification means for storing information identifying the linked data in the first object, and

(D) an access means for accessing the link means and the data identification means, wherein

(i) an object manager corresponding to the second object is responsive to the link marker for providing the link identification to the access means and

(ii) the access means is responsive to the link identification for

(a) reading the identification of the first object from the link means and the linked data in the first object from the data identification means and

(b) providing the identification of the first object and the identification of the linked data in the first object to an object manager corresponding to the first object, and wherein

(iii) the object manager corresponding to the first object is responsive to the identification of the first object and to identification of the linked data in the first object for providing the linked data

so that the linked data appears to reside in the second object, and wherein

(F) the object manager corresponding to the second object includes means for requesting an operation to be performed with respect to the linked data by

(i) providing the link identification and

(ii) an indication of the requested operation to the access means, and

the link mechanism further includes

(G) an object type means for storing information relating an identification of an object to an identification of the type of the object, and

(H) an object management means for storing information relating each type of object to an identification of the corresponding at least one object manager for performing operations on the type of object, and wherein

(i) the access means is responsive to the identification of the first object for

(a) reading from the object type means the identification of the type of the first object,

(b) reading from the object management means the identification of the at least one object manager for performing the requested operation on the objects of the type of the first object, and

(c) invoking the object manager for performing the requested operation on the objects of the type of the first object,

whereby the object manager for performing the requested operation on the objects of the type of the first object is responsive to the access means to perform the requested operation on the linked data.

2. The link mechanism of claim 1 wherein one request to which the link management means is responsive is a link update request, whereby the object manager for performing the operation on the objects of the type of the first object will provide to the second object linked data representing the current version of the linked data from the first object.

3. In a data processing system including means for storing data in objects, each object being of a type defined by the type of data stored in the object, and including at least one object manager for each type of object in the system for performing operations on the corresponding object types, a link mechanism for liming data from a first object into a second object, comprising:

(A) in the second object, a means for storing a link marker, wherein

(i) the link marker indicates the location in the second object of a link of data from the first object, and

(ii) the link marker includes a link identification identifying the link within the second object,

(B) a link means for storing information relating the link identification to an identification of the first object,

(C) a data identification means for storing information identifying the linked data in the first object, and

(D) an access means for accessing the link means and the data identification means, wherein

(i) an object manager corresponding to the second object is responsive to the link marker for providing the link identification to the access means and

(ii) the access means is responsive to the link identification for

(a) reading the identification of the first object from the link means and the linked data in the first object from the data identification means and

(b) providing the identification of the first object and the identification of the linked data in the first object to an object manager corresponding to the first object, and wherein

(iii) the object manager corresponding to the first object is responsive to the identification of the first object and to identification of the linked data in the first object for providing the linked data

so that the linked data appears to reside in the second object, and

a means for copying data from the first object to the second object wherein the data to be copied is of a type which cannot be internalized into the second object and is to be independent of the data in the fist object, including

(e) an object generation means responsive to a request from the object manager for the second object for

(i) generating a new first object of the type of the first object,

(ii) invoking the object manager corresponding to the type of the first object to copy the data to be copied into the new first object, and

(F) a link manager means for

(i) generating a link identification corresponding to new first object, and

(ii) inserting the link identification corresponding to the new first object into the second object,

(iii) inserting information relating the link identification of the link between the second object and the first new object into the link means, and

(iv) inserting the identification of the copied data stored in the new first object into the data identification means, whereby

the copied data from the first object and stored in the new first object is independent from the data in the first object and appears to reside in the second object.

4. In a data processing system including means for storing data in objects, each object being of a type defined by the type of data stored in the object, and including at least one object manager for each type of object in the system for performing operations on the corresponding object types, a link mechanism for linking data from a first object into a second object, comprising:

(A) in the second object, a means for storing a link marker, wherein

(i) the link marker indicates the location in the second object of a link of data from the first object, and

(ii) the link marker includes a link identification identifying the link within the second object,

(B) a link means for storing information relating the link identification to an identification of the first object,

(C) a data identification means for storing information identifying the linked data in the first object, and

(D) an access means for accessing the link means and the data identification means, wherein

(i) an object manager corresponding to the second object is responsive to the link marker for providing the link identification to the access means and

(ii) the access means is responsive to the link identification for

(a) reading the identification of the first object from the link means and the linked data in the first object from the data identification means and

(b) providing the identification of the first object and the identification of the linked data in the first object to an object manager corresponding to the first object, and wherein

(iii) the object manager corresponding to the first object is responsive to the identification of the first object and to identification of the linked data in the first object for providing the linked data

so that the linked data appears to reside in the second object, and

a means for moving data from the first object to the second object wherein the data to be moved is of a type which cannot be internalized into the second object and is to be independent of the data in the first object, including

(E) an object generation means responsive to a request from the object manager for the second object for

(i) generating a new first object of the type of the first object,

(ii) invoking the object manager corresponding to the type of the first object to copy the data to be moved into the new first object and deleting the data from the first object, and

(F) a link manager means for

(i) generating a link identification corresponding to new first object, and

(ii) inserting the link identification corresponding to the new first object into the second object,

(iii) inserting information relating the link identification of the link between the second object and the first new object into the link means, and

(iv) inserting the identification of the copied data stored in the new first object into the data identification means, whereby

the copied data is moved from the first object and stored in the new first n the first object and appears to reside in the second object.