Data integration by object management

• US 5,634,124 A
• Filed: 05/25/1995
• Issued: 05/27/1997
• 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., San Soucie, Marc, Stern, Laura O., Surprenant, Carolyn E., Khoyi, Dana
• Primary Examiner(s): Kriess, Kevin A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Richey, Michael T.
• Application Number:
  US08/450,457
• Time in Patent Office: 733 Days
• Field of Search: 395/700, 395/650, 395/600, 364/DIG. 1, 364/DIG. 2, 364/283.4, 364/979.4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 9/50 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]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

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 objects for storing data, each object being of a type defined by the type of data stored in the object, and a processor for performing operations upon the data in the objects under the control of object managers, a data integration mechanism for linked integration of data from a first object into a second object, comprising:

(A) a plurality of object managers, each object manager controlling the processor for performing at least one operation upon a corresponding type of data, including

(a) an object manager corresponding to the second object and responsive to a user request for the insertion of linked data from the first object for inserting a link marker into the data in the second object, the link marker

indicating the location of the linked data in the second object, and

including a link identification identifying the link within the first object,

(b) object manager corresponding to the first object and responsive to a user request for the linked data for identifying the location and extent of the linked data within the first object,

(B) a link manager, including

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

(b) a data identification memory for storing information identifying the type, location and extent of the linked data, and

(c) an object manager table for storing information relating each type of object to at least one corresponding object manager, wherein

(C) the object manager corresponding to the second object is responsive to a request for an operation to be performed upon the linked data for

(a) reading the link identification from the link marker, and

(b) providing the link identification to the link manager,

(D) the link manager is responsive to the link identification for providing to the object manager corresponding to the second object

(a) the identification of the linked data from the link memory,

(b) an identification of an object manager corresponding to the linked data from the object manager table, and

(c) the information identifying the location and extent of the linked data from the data identification memory,

(E) the object manager corresponding to the second object is responsive to the identification of the object manager corresponding to the linked data for invoking the object manager corresponding to the linked data and passing to the object manager corresponding to the linked data an identification of the requested operation, the identification of the second object and the information identifying the linked data, and

(F) the object manager corresponding to the linked data is responsive to the identification of the requested operation, the identification of the second object and the information identifying the linked data for performing the requested operation on the linked data.

2. The data integration mechanism of claim 1, wherein the linked data is of a type compatible with the type of data of the second object and wherein:

the object manager corresponding to the first object is responsive to the request for the linked data for providing a copy of the linked data to the object manager corresponding to the second object, and

the object manager corresponding to the second object stores the copy of the linked data in the second object in association with the link marker so that linked data appears to reside in the first object.

3. The data integration mechanism of claim 1, wherein the linked data is of a type incompatible with the type of data of the second object and wherein:

the link manager is responsive the incompatibility of data types between the linked data and the data type of the second object for

(a) generating a new object of the type of the linked data,

(b) storing the linked data in the new object,

(c) storing the information identifying the new object in the link memory and storing the identification of the type, location and extent of the copy of the linked data in the new object in the data identification memory, and wherein

(d) the link identification in the link marker in the second object identifies a link to the copy of the linked data in the new object.