Method and system for referring to and binding to objects using identifier objects

• US 5,740,439 A
• Filed: 06/06/1995
• Issued: 04/14/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Williams, Antony S., Atkinson, Robert G., Jung, Edward K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kriess, Kevin A.
• Application Number:
  US08/467,917
• Time in Patent Office: 1,043 Days
• Field of Search: 395/680, 395/682, 395/683, 395/684, 395/685, 395/701, 395/702, 395/703, 395/705, 395/709, 395/710
• US Class Current: 719/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/12 Use of codes for handling textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/131 Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/137 Hierarchical processing, e.g. outlines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/449 Object-oriented method invocation or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• 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

A method and system for referring to and binding to objects using a moniker object is provided. In a preferred embodiment, a moniker object contains information to identify linked source data and provides methods through which a program can bind to the linked source data. A binding method is provided that returns an instance of an interface through which the linked source data can be accessed. The moniker object can identify source data that is stored persistently or nonpersistently. In addition, moniker objects can be composed to form a composite moniker object. A composite moniker object is used to identify linked source data that is nested in other data. In a preferred embodiment, the moniker object provides other methods including a reducing method that returns a more efficient representation of the moniker object; equality and hash methods for comparing moniker objects; and inverse, common prefix, and relative-path-to methods for comparing and locating moniker objects from other moniker objects. Several implementations of a moniker object are provided including a file moniker, an item moniker, a generic composite moniker, a pointer moniker, and an anti moniker. Each implementation is a moniker class and has a class identifier that identifies code to manage the moniker class.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for storing references to moniker objects in a table, each moniker object having a moniker class identifier that identifies moniker code that, when executed, implements the moniker object, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

for each moniker object,

invoking a hashing function member of the moniker object code to determine a hash value for the moniker object; and

storing a reference to the moniker object in the table in a location computed from the determined hash value,

wherein the implementation of the hashing function member of one of the moniker objects is different than the implementation of the hashing function member of another one of the moniker objects.

2. A method in a computer system for comparing a requested moniker object to a plurality of moniker objects in a table, each moniker object having a class identifier that identifies moniker object code that, when executed, implements the moniker object, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

for each of the plurality of moniker objects,

invoking a hashing function member of the moniker code to determine a hash value for the moniker object; and

storing a reference to the moniker object in the table in a location computed from the determined hash value;

invoking a hashing function member of the moniker code of the requested moniker object to determine a hash value for the requested moniker object; and

determining whether there exists a reference to a moniker object stored in the table in a location computed from the determined hash value of the requested moniker object.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of, when it is determined that the reference to the moniker object stored in the table in the location computed from the determined hash value of the requested moniker object exists, invoking a comparison function member of the requested moniker object to determine whether the requested moniker object is equal to the moniker object referred to by the existing reference stored in the table in the location computed from the determined hash value of the requested moniker.

4. A computer-readable memory medium containing instructions for controlling a computer processor in a computer system to store references to a plurality of objects in a table, each object having a class identifier that identifies code that, when executed, implements the object by performing:

for each object,

invoking a hashing function member of the object code to determine a hash value for the object; and

storing a reference to the object in the table in a location computed from the determined hash value,

wherein the implementation of the hashing function member of one of the objects is different than the implementation of the hashing function member of another one of the objects.

5. A computer-readable memory medium containing instructions for controlling a computer processor in a computer system to compare a requested moniker object to a plurality of moniker objects in a table, each moniker object having a class identifier that identifies moniker object code that, when executed, implements the moniker object by performing:

for each of the plurality of moniker objects,

invoking a hashing function member of the moniker code to determine a hash value for the moniker object; and

storing a reference to the moniker object in the table in a location computed from the determined hash value;

invoking a hashing function member of the moniker code of the requested moniker object to determine a hash value for the requested moniker object; and

determining whether there exists a reference to a moniker object stored in the table in a location computed from the determined hash value of the requested moniker object.

6. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 5, further comprising, when it is determined that the reference to the moniker object stored in the table in the location computed from the determined hash value of the requested moniker object exists, invoking a comparison function member of the requested moniker object to determine whether the requested moniker object is equal to the moniker object referred to by the existing reference stored in the table in the location computed from the determined hash value of the requested moniker.

7. A method in a computer system for storing references to moniker objects in a table, the method comprising:

creating instances of a plurality of moniker objects, each moniker object having a moniker class identifier that identifies moniker code that, when executed, implements the moniker object, the moniker code having a binding function member that, when invoked, binds to a source object by locating and accessing the source object, the moniker code having a hashing function member that determines a hash value for the moniker object; and

for each moniker object instance,

invoking the hashing function member of the moniker code to determine a hash value for the moniker object; and

storing a reference to the moniker object in the table in a location computed from the determined hash value.