Method and apparatus for enabling persistent attributes in an object oriented environment
First Claim
1. A method, implemented in a computer system, for saving and restoring persistent objects on persistent storage in a distributed object-oriented data processing system, comprising the steps of:
- providing a persistent object having a plurality of attributes including TypeCode information in a memory in said distributed object-oriented data processing system;
accessing said persistent object in said memory in said distributed object-oriented data processing system and invoking one of a plurality of methods having TypeCode encoding and decoding capability against said persistent object, andstoring said plurality of attributes for said persistent object on said persistent storage as independent entries associated with said persistent object in response to said one of said methods based upon said TypeCode information while maintaining said plurality of attributes in said memory.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for saving and restoring persistent objects in a distributed object-oriented programming environment. This invention maintains persistent values for individual attributes and or instance variables. Attribute persistence is implemented using an interface that is inherited by any class that wants to have persistent attributes. The interface provides load-- attribute and store-- attribute methods that provide TypeCode based encoding and decoding. The methods provide improved performance by maintaining a cached copy of the encoded attribute and its TypeCode in memory in addition to the copy that exist in external storage. This allows the load-- attribute method to return the attribute without having to access external storage. Performance is enhanced during the object restoration process by restoring only the attribute values currently needed instead of the entire object. In addition, the invention keeps the contents of external storage in synchronization with the internal objects state thus improving the data integrity of the distributed object-oriented programming environment. This is accomplished by saving attribute data whenever it is updated.
55 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method, implemented in a computer system, for saving and restoring persistent objects on persistent storage in a distributed object-oriented data processing system, comprising the steps of:
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providing a persistent object having a plurality of attributes including TypeCode information in a memory in said distributed object-oriented data processing system; accessing said persistent object in said memory in said distributed object-oriented data processing system and invoking one of a plurality of methods having TypeCode encoding and decoding capability against said persistent object, and storing said plurality of attributes for said persistent object on said persistent storage as independent entries associated with said persistent object in response to said one of said methods based upon said TypeCode information while maintaining said plurality of attributes in said memory. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An apparatus for saving and restoring persistent objects on persistent storage in a distributed object-oriented data processing system, comprising:
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means for providing a persistent object having a plurality of attributes including TypeCode information in a memory in said distributed object-oriented data processing system; means for accessing said persistent object in said memory in said distributed object-oriented data processing system and means for invoking one of a plurality of methods having TypeCode encoding and decoding capability against said persistent object, and means for storing said plurality of attributes for said persistent object on said persistent storage as independent entries associated with said persistent object in response to said one of said methods based upon said TypeCode information while maintaining said plurality of attributes in said memory. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A computer program product having a computer readable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon for saving and restoring persistent objects on persistent storage in a distributed object-oriented data processing system, comprising:
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computer readable means for providing a persistent object having a plurality of attributes including TypeCode information in a memory in said distributed object-oriented data processing system; computer readable means for accessing said persistent object in said memory in said distributed object-oriented data processing system and invoking one of a plurality of methods having TypeCode encoding and decoding capability against said persistent object, and computer readable means for storing said plurality of attributes for said persistent object on said persistent storage as independent entries associated with said persistent object in response to said one of said methods based upon said TypeCode information while maintaining said plurality of attributes in said memory. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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Specification