System and method for importing and exporting data between an object oriented computing environment and an external computing environment

• US 5,497,491 A
• Filed: 01/26/1993
• Issued: 03/05/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rich, William L., Mitchell, Herman, Shackelford, Floyd W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kriess, Kevin A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Banankhah, Majid A.
• Application Number:
  US08/009,592
• Time in Patent Office: 1,134 Days
• Field of Search: 395/700, 395/500, 395/600, 395/200
• US Class Current: 719/315
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented

Abstract

A system and method for importing and exporting data between an object oriented computing environment and an external computing environment encapsulates the validation, conversion, and update control mechanisms for objects in metadata about the objects. Metadata logic operates identically on a variety of internal objects, freeing the object oriented computing environment from the need to duplicate the same control logic for each user interface. During program generation, metadata objects are generated to link an external computing environment data field name, a corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute name and a corresponding external data format for each external data field which is imported and exported. An external class object is defined, including conversion parameters for converting the corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute into the corresponding external data format. External object class metadata objects contain the object oriented computing environment attributes which are used for import and export.

Claims

1. A system for importing and exporting data between an external computing environment operating on one or more computer platforms and an object oriented computing environment operating on one or more computing platforms, said data importing and exporting system comprising:

datalist generating means for generating datalist objects which list an external computing environment data field name, a corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute and a corresponding external data format for each external data field in the external computing environment which is imported and exported between external computing environment and the object oriented computing environment;

metadata generating means for generating a metadata object for each object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes, said metadata object including conversion parameters for converting the corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute into said corresponding external data format, said conversion parameters including at least one of default conversion parameters and alternate conversion parameters;

importing means, responsive to a request from said external computing environment to import external data into said object oriented computing environment, for identifying an object oriented computing environment attribute from said datalist objects and for identifying a corresponding metadata object, and for applying the alternate conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said external data if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said external data in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert said external data into object oriented data and place said object oriented data into a corresponding data object which is associated with said corresponding metadata object; and

exporting means, responsive to a request from said object oriented computing environment to export object oriented data from an object in said object oriented computing environment to said external computing environment, for identifying a metadata object corresponding to said object and for identifying said external data name corresponding to said metadata object from said datalist, and for applying the alternate conversion parameters in the corresponding metadata object to said object oriented data from said object if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in the corresponding metadata object to said object oriented data from said object in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert object oriented data into external data.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an external object class including external object class methods for importing data, exporting data, and finding objects; and

means for causing each said object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes, to inherit from said external object class, to thereby inherit said external object class methods.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for adding tags to each said object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said exporting means further comprises means for placing said external data into an output data file.

5. A system for importing and exporting data between an external computing environment operating on one or more computer platforms and an object oriented computing environment operating on one or more computing platforms, said data importing and exporting system comprising:

means for identifying each object in said object oriented computing environment from which data is exported and into which data is imported;

metadata generating means for generating a metadata object for each identified object, said metadata object including conversion parameters for converting attributes of each identified object into a corresponding external data format, said conversion parameters including at least one of default conversion parameters and alternate conversion parameters;

importing means, responsive to a request from said external computing environment to import external data into said object oriented computing environment, for identifying a corresponding metadata object, and for applying the alternate conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said external data if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said external data in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert said external data into object oriented data and place said object oriented data into a corresponding data object which is associated with said corresponding metadata object; and

exporting means, responsive to a request from said object oriented computing environment to export object oriented data from an object in said object oriented computing environment to said external computing environment, for identifying a metadata object corresponding to said object and for applying the alternate conversion parameters in the corresponding metadata object to said object oriented data if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in the corresponding metadata object to said object oriented data from said object in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert said object oriented data into external data.

6. The system of claim 5 further comprising:

an external object class including external object class methods for importing data, exporting data, and finding objects; and

means for causing each identified object to inherit from said external object class, to thereby inherit said external object class methods.

7. The system of claim 5 further comprising means for adding tags to each identified object.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein said exporting means further comprises means for placing said external data into an output data file.

9. A system for importing and exporting data between an external computing environment operating on one or more computer platforms and an object oriented computing environment operating on one or more computing platforms, said object oriented computing environment including datalist objects which list an external computing environment data field name, a corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute and a corresponding external data format for each external data field in the external computing environment which is imported and exported between the external computing environment and the object oriented computing environment, said object oriented computing environment further including a metadata object for each object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes, said metadata object including conversion parameters for converting the corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute into said corresponding external data format, said conversion parameters including at least one of default conversion parameters and alternate conversion parameters, said data importing and exporting means comprising:

importing means, responsive to a request from said external computing environment to import external data into said object oriented computing environment, for identifying an object oriented computing environment attribute from said datalist objects and for identifying a corresponding metadata object, and for applying the alternate conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said external data if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said external data in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert said external data into object oriented data and place said object oriented data into a corresponding data object which is associated with said corresponding metadata object; and

exporting means, responsive to a request from said object oriented computing environment to export object oriented data from an object in said object oriented computing environment to said external computing environment, for identifying a metadata object corresponding to said object and for identifying said external data name corresponding to said metadata object from said datalist, and for applying the alternate conversion parameters in the corresponding metadata object to said object oriented data from said object if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in the corresponding metadata object to said object oriented data from said object in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert said object oriented data into external data.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

an external object class including external object class methods for importing data, exporting data, and finding objects; and

means for causing each said object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes, to inherit from said external object class, to thereby inherit said external object class methods.

11. The system of claim 9 further comprising means for adding tags to each said object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein said exporting means further comprises means for placing said external data into an output data file.

13. A method for importing and exporting data between an external computing environment operating on one or more computer platforms and an object oriented computing environment operating on one or more computing platforms, said date importing and exporting method comprising the steps of:

generating a datalist which lists an external computing environment data field name, a corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute and a corresponding external data format for each external data field in the external computing environment which is imported and exported between the external computing environment and the object oriented computing environment;

generating a metadata object for each object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes, said metadata object including conversion parameters for converting the corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute into said corresponding external data format, said conversion parameters including at least one of default conversion parameters and alternate conversion parameters;

identifying an object oriented computing environment attribute from said datalist in response to a request from said external computing environment to import said data line said object oriented computing environment;

identifying a corresponding metadata object;

applying the alternate conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said data if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said external data in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert said external data into object oriented data; and

placing said object oriented data into a corresponding data object which is associated with said corresponding metadata object.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of:

generating an external object class including external object class methods for importing data, exporting data, and finding objects; and

causing each said object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes, to inherit from said external object class, to thereby inherit said external object class methods.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of adding tags to each said object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising the steps of:

identifying an object oriented computing environment attribute from said datalist in response to a request from said external computing environment to import said data into said object oriented computing environment;

identifying a corresponding metadata object;

applying the alternate conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said data if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said external data in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert said external data into object oriented data; and

placing said object oriented data into a corresponding data object which is associated with said corresponding metadata object.

17. A method for importing and exporting data between an external computing environment operating on one or more computer platforms and an object oriented computing environment operating on one or more computing platforms, said data importing and exporting method comprising the steps of:

generating a datalist which lists an external computing environment data field name, a corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute and a corresponding external data format for each external data field in the external computing environment which is imported and exported between the external computing environment and the object oriented computing environment;

generating a metadata object for each object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes, said metadata object including conversion parameters for converting the corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute into said corresponding external data format, said conversion parameters including at least one of default conversion parameters and alternate conversion parameters;

identifying a metadata object corresponding to said object in response to a request from said object oriented computing environment to export data from an object in said object oriented computing environment to said external computing environment;

identifying said external data name corresponding to said metadata object from said datalist;

applying the alternate conversion parameters in the corresponding metadata object to said data from said object if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in the corresponding metadata object to said object oriented data from said object in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert object oriented data into external data.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of placing said external data into an output data file.

19. A method for importing data from an external computing environment operating on one or more computer platforms to an object oriented computing environment operating on one or more computing platforms, said object oriented computing environment including datalist objects which list an external computing environment data field name, a corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute and a corresponding external data format for each external data field in the external computing environment which is imported to the object oriented computing environment, said object oriented computing environment further including a metadata object for each object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes, said metadata object including conversion parameters for converting the corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute into said corresponding external data format, said conversion parameters including at least one of default conversion parameters and alternate conversion parameters, said data importing method comprising the steps of:

identifying an object oriented computing environment attribute from said datalist objects in response to a request from said external computing environment to import said data into said object oriented computing environment;

identifying a corresponding metadata object;

applying the alternate conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said external data if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in said corresponding metadata object to said external data in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert said external data into object oriented data; and

placing said object oriented data into a corresponding data object which is associated with said corresponding metadata object.

20. A method for exporting data from an object oriented computing environment operating on one or more computing platforms to an external computing environment operating on one or more computer platforms, said object oriented computing environment including datalist objects which list an external computing environment data field name, a corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute and a corresponding external data format for each external data field in the external computing environment which is exported from the object oriented computing environment, said object oriented computing environment further including a metadata object for each object in said object oriented computing environment which includes one of said corresponding object oriented computing environment attributes, said metadata object including conversion parameters for converting the corresponding object oriented computing environment attribute into said corresponding external data format, said conversion parameters including at least one of default conversion parameters and alternate conversion parameters, said data exporting method comprising the steps of:

identifying a metadata object corresponding to an object in response to a request from said object oriented computing environment to export data from the object in said object oriented computing environment to said external computing environment;

identifying said external data name corresponding to said metadata object from said datalist; and

applying the alternate conversion parameters in the corresponding metadata object to said data from said object if included in said corresponding metadata object, and for applying the default conversion parameters in the corresponding metadata object to said object oriented data from said object in the absence of said alternate conversion parameters in said metadata object, to thereby convert object oriented data into external data.