Method for mapping data between a relational format and an object-oriented format

• US 5,694,598 A
• Filed: 10/12/1994
• Issued: 12/02/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Qwest Communications International Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: US West Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Durand, Jacques, Salinas, Ricardo, Ganti, Murthy
• Primary Examiner(s): Kulik, Paul V.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US08/321,714
• Time in Patent Office: 1,147 Days
• Field of Search: 395/600, 395/400, 395/700, 395/413, 395/614, 395/611, 395/612, 364/242.94, 364/243, 364/280, 364/282.1, 364/222.81
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A first method is disclosed for mapping data from a plurality of objects to a relational database. The method begins with the step of generating a transit object and its structure (TO_-- schema, dataGraph and dataBlocks). The next step of the method is populating the transit object based on the data of the plurality of objects. The method continues with the step of transmitting the transit object from the client object broker (COB) to the server object broker (SOB) using a communication server. The method next includes the step of populating a data structure based on the dataBlock object. The method concludes with the step of populating the relation&l database based on the data structure. A second method is also disclosed for mapping data from a relational database to a plurality of objects.

Claims

1. In a data processing system including a processor, a memory, a client object broker ("COB") responsible for object data stored in an object-oriented application object, a communication server and a server object broker ("SOB") responsible for relational data stored in a relational database, a method for mapping data from a plurality of objects to the relational database, the method comprising:

generating in the memory a transit object corresponding to a generic intermediate form of data independent of the object data and the relational data, the transit object including at least one dataBlock object;

populating the at least one dataBlock object of the transit object based on the data of the plurality of objects stored in the COB;

transmitting the transit object from the COB to the SOB using the communication server;

populating a data structure based on the at least one dataBlock object; and

populating the relational database based on the data structure.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of objects is a compositional hierarchy including parent objects and component objects, the step of populating the at least one dataBlock object includes the steps of:

traversing the component objects of each parent object;

opening a datalist for each component object; and

populating the datalist based on each component object.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of traversing is performed in depth-first order.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the data structure is an array.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the data structure is a list.

6. In a data processing system including a processor, a memory, a client object broker ("COB") responsible for object data stored in an object-oriented application object, a communication server and a server object broker ("SOB") responsible for relational data stored in a relational database, a method for mapping data from the relational database to a plurality of objects, the method comprising:

generating in the memory a transit object corresponding to a generic intermediate form of data independent the object data and the relational data, the transit object including at least one dataBlock object;

generating in memory a data structure;

populating the data structure based on the data of the relational database stored in the SOB;

populating the at least one dataBlock object of the transit object based on the data structure;

transmitting the transit object from the COB to the SOB using the communication server; and

populating the plurality of objects based on the at least one dataBlock object.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the plurality of objects is a compositional hierarchy including parent objects and component objects, the step of populating the at least one object includes the steps of:

generating a component object of a parent object;

attaching each component to the parent;

populating the component object based on data from the dataBlock object.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of generating is performed in depth-first order.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the data structure is an array.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the data structure is a list.