Sequential information integration service for automatically transferring a most recent data entity between a plurality of program modules and a storage in a computer

• US 5,692,194 A
• Filed: 05/24/1993
• Issued: 11/25/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hughes Aircraft Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Nguyen, Ha T., Barrett, Willard H.
• Primary Examiner(s): TOPLU, LUCIEN
• Application Number:
  US08/069,053
• Time in Patent Office: 1,646 Days
• Field of Search: 364/DIG. 1, 364/DIG. 2, 364/963, 364/974.5, 364/948.2, 364/286, 364/286.5, 395/650, 395/700, 395/600, 395/155, 395/161, 395/619, 395/620, 395/680, 395/617
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45512 Command shells
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A number of program modules (32,34,36) are sequentially controlled by a procedural user interface (PUI) 38 and an operating system (40) to perform tasks. Transfer of files or other data entities between the modules (32,34,36) and a storage (13) is seamlessly integrated by a sequential information integration service (SIIS) (50). For reading a file from the storage (13), a the PUI 38 or the operating system (40) generates a read command including a filename designation which can include a pathname, complete filename or wildcard characters. The read command can also include one or more arguments such as a user or group access code and an error message to display if the required file is not found. In an automatic mode, the service (50) automatically selects the most recent file corresponding to the filename designation and arguments, or displays the error message if a file meeting these criteria is not found. In a manual mode, the read command includes a manual selection argument which controls the service (50) to display a list of files (64) corresponding to the filename designation and arguments in a dialog box or window (60) for manual selection. The read command can further include a prompt message (62) for display in the window (60) together with the list of files (64).

Claims

1. A sequential information integration service for transferring files between a plurality of program modules and a storage of a computer, said computer having a control system and multiple files with different filenames in its storage, each said file having at least one version that is stamped with the date and time it was last modified by any one of said program modules, said program modules using said files to execute program functions, comprising:

a command parser for parsing a read command, which supports one or more filename designations and one or more file arguments that together designate a complete filename or a partial filename, from a requesting program module to specify a subset of the files in the storage, when said read command designates the complete filename, said subset includes only said one file, with its one or more versions, whose filename matches said complete filename, and when said read command designates the partial filename, said subset includes a plurality of said files, with their one or more versions, whose different filenames each include said partial filename; and

an automatic file selector connected to automatically search said subset, compare the dates and time of the most recent versions of each said file, select the one file that was most recently modified, and transfer the most recent version of the selected file from the storage to the requesting program module.

2. A service as in claim 1, in which:

files are stored in the storage in accordance with access codes;

a first one of said file arguments is a specific access code; and

the automatic file selector selects said most recent file only from files which are stored in the storage in accordance with said specific access codes.

3. A sequential information integration service for transferring data entities between a plurality of program modules and a storage of a computer having a control system and multiple data entities with associated specifiers in its storage, said program modules using said data entities to execute program functions, comprising:

a command parser for parsing a read command, that supports one or more data entity designations and one or more data entity arguments including a manual selection argument as a first one of said data entity arguments, from a requesting program module to specify a data entity group which includes a subset of the data entities in the storage;

an automatic;

data entity selector connected to automatically search said data entity group, select the one data entity that was most recently used by any of the program modules, and transfer the selected data entity from the storage to the requesting program module;

a display controller for disabling the automatic data entity selector from transferring the most recent data entity and for displaying the specifiers in the storage that are associated with the data entities in said data entity group in response to said manual selection argument; and

a manual data entity selector for enabling manual selection of a displayed specifier for transferring the associated data entity from the storage into said module.

4. A service as in claim 3, in which:

data entities are stored in the storage in accordance with access codes;

said read command includes a specific access code as a second one of said data entity arguments; and

the display controller displays only specifiers of data entities which are stored in the storage in accordance with said specific access code.

5. A service as in claim 3, in which said display controller disables the automatic data entity selector after it performs the search, the display controller displaying the specifiers for the data entities in said data group and highlighting the most recent one.

6. A sequential information integration service for transferring data entities between a plurality of program modules and a storage of a computer having a control system and multiple data entities in its storage, said program modules using said data entities to execute program functions, comprising:

a command parser for parsing a read command, that supports one or more data entity designations and one or more data entity arguments of which a first one of said data entity arguments is an error argument that has an associated error message, from a requesting program module to specify a data entity group which includes a subset of the data entities in the storage;

an automatic data entity selector connected to automatically search said data entity group, select the one data entity that was most recently used by any of the program modules, and transfer the selected data entity from the storage to the requesting program module; and

a display controller that displays said error message in response to said data entity group being empty.

7. A sequential information integration service for transferring data entities between a plurality of program modules and a storage of a computer having a control system and multiple data entities in its storage, said program modules using said data entities to execute program functions, comprising:

a command parser for parsing a read command, that supports one or more data entity designations and one or more data entity arguments of which a first one of said data entity arguments is an error argument that has an associated error message, from a requesting program module to specify a data entity group which includes a subset of the data entities in the storage;

an automatic data entity selector connected to automatically search said data entity group, select the one data entity that was most recently used by any of the program modules, and transfer the selected data entity from the storage to the requesting program module; and

a display controller that displays said error message in response to said error argument being included in said read command and said data entity group being empty, and otherwise displays a default error message in response to said data entity group being empty.

8. A sequential information integration service (SIIS) for transferring data entities between a plurality of program modules and a storage of a computer, said computer having a control system and multiple data entities in its storage, said program modules using said data entities to execute program functions, comprising:

an operating system which is capable of generating a read command that supports one or more data entity designations and one or more data entity arguments from a requesting program module; and

a procedural user interface which interacts with the operating system for controlling the program modules and is also capable of generating said read command,

a command parser for parsing said read command to specify a data entity group which includes a subset of the data entities in the storage; and

an automatic data entity selector connected to automatically search said data entity group, select the one data entity that was most recently used by any of the program modules, and transfer the selected data entity from the storage to the requesting program module.

9. A method of selecting a data entity to be read from a storage of a computer into any one of a plurality of program modules in accordance with a read command generated by a requesting program module, said storage storing a plurality of data entities with different entity names, each said data entity having at least one version that is stamped with the date and time it was last modified by one of the program modules, said read command supporting one or more data entity designations and one or more data entity arguments that together designate a complete or partial entity name, comprising the steps of:

(a) parsing said read command into its constituent parts to extract said data entity designations and said data entity arguments that are included in said read command to specify a subset of the data entities in the storage, when said read command designates the complete entity name, said subset includes only said one data entity, with its one or more versions, whose entity name matches said complete entity name, and when said read command designates the partial entity name, said subset includes a plurality of said data entities, with their one or more versions, whose different entity names each include said partial entity name;

(b) searching the storage to discover all data entities that are members of said subset;

(c) selecting the one data entity that was most recently used by any of the program modules by comparing the dates and times of the most recent versions of each said data entity in the subset; and

(d) transferring the most recent version of the selected data entity from the storage into the requesting program module.

10. A method as in claim 9, in which no data entity designation is discovered in step (a), further comprising replacing step (b) with the following step:

(e) searching the storage to discover all data entities corresponding to a default data entity designation and said extracted data entity arguments.

11. A method of selecting a data entity to be read from a storage of a computer into any one of a plurality of program modules in accordance with a read command generated by a requesting program module, said read command supporting one or more data entity designations and one or more data entity arguments of which a first one of said data entity arguments is a manual selection argument, comprising the steps of:

(a) parsing said read command into its constituent parts to extract said data entity designations and said data entity arguments that are included in said read command to specify a data entity group which includes a subset of the data entities in the storage and to extract said manual selection argument;

(b) searching the storage to discover all data entities that are members of said data entity group;

(c) selecting the one data entity that was most recently used by any of the program modules;

(d) in the absence of said manual selection command, transferring the selected data entity from the storage into the requesting program module; and

(e) in response to said manual selection command, displaying all data entities discovered in step (b) and highlighting the data entity selected in step (c) for manual selection of a data entity for transfer from the storage into the requesting program module.

12. A method of selecting a data entity to be read from a storage of a computer into any one of a plurality of program modules in accordance with a read command generated by a requesting program module, said read command supporting one or more data entity designations and one or more data entity arguments in which a first one of said data entity arguments is an error argument that has an associated error message, comprising the steps of:

(a) parsing said read command into its constituent parts to extract said data entity designations and said data entity arguments that are included in said read command to specify data entity group which includes a subset of the data entities in the storage and to extract said error argument;

(b) searching the storage to discover all data entities that are members of said data entity group;

in response to at least one data entity being discovered in step(b),

(c) selecting the one data entity that was most recently used by any of the program modules and

(d) transferring the selected data entity from the storage into the requesting program module and

in response to no data entities being discovered in step (b),

(e) displaying said error message in response to said error argument and otherwise displaying a default error message.

13. A sequential information integration service, comprising:

a computer that includes (a) a storage for storing a plurality of program modules that represent respective sub-tasks and for storing a plurality of data entities that have respective specifiers, (b) a control system for generating for a requesting program module a read command that supports one or more data entity designations and one or more data entity arguments, including an automatic mode argument and a manual mode argument, and for executing said program modules, and (c) a display;

a command parser for parsing said read command into its constituent data entity designations and arguments to specify a particular data entity group which includes a subset of the data entities in the storage;

an automatic data entity selector for automatically searching said data entities in said data entity group, selecting the one data entity that was most recently used by any of the program modules, and in response to the automatic mode argument transferring the selected data entity from the storage into one of said modules;

a display controller that disables the transference of the most recent data entity in response to the manual mode argument, displays the specifiers in the storage that are associated with the data entities in said entity group on said display, and highlights the selected data entity; and

a manual data entity selector for enabling manual selection of a displayed specifier for transferring the associated data entity from the storage into said requesting program module.