Tier-neutral development mechanism for hypertext based applications
First Claim
1. A mechanism for enabling a developer to create a software application for execution on a network having a plurality of tiers, the mechanism comprising:
- specifying means for enabling the developer to specify a plurality of executable components; and
means for enabling the executable components to be associated with at least one hypertext-based document, such that the executable components are executable in response to requests for the at least one hypertext-based document, and such that an executable component of the plurality of executable components can be automatically and dynamically assigned to an appropriate tier for execution at run-time in response to a request for an associated hypertext-based document or can be specified to execute on a particular tier using an applet tag specifying the tier within the associated hypertext-based document.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A tier-neutral development mechanism for network-based applications is provided. An application created using the mechanism includes a plurality of hypertext-based pages, at least some of which incorporate executable components. The application is invoked by a hypertext request for a page from a browser running on a client tier. An application server responds to the request by retrieving the requested page and assigning any components incorporated therein to the proper tier for execution. The mechanism provides a single model by which any executable component can be specified by an application developer for execution on any tier on the network or made subject to an automatic, dynamic tier assignment by the application server. Components of a given application can be distributed across, and specified for execution on, three or more different tiers and moved from tier to tier. An application developer can use a conventional hypertext editor to integrate selected components into extended hypertext pages to create an application.
83 Citations
30 Claims
-
1. A mechanism for enabling a developer to create a software application for execution on a network having a plurality of tiers, the mechanism comprising:
-
specifying means for enabling the developer to specify a plurality of executable components; and means for enabling the executable components to be associated with at least one hypertext-based document, such that the executable components are executable in response to requests for the at least one hypertext-based document, and such that an executable component of the plurality of executable components can be automatically and dynamically assigned to an appropriate tier for execution at run-time in response to a request for an associated hypertext-based document or can be specified to execute on a particular tier using an applet tag specifying the tier within the associated hypertext-based document. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
-
-
5. A mechanism for enabling execution of a software application, the software application configured for execution on at least one tier of a network having a plurality of tiers, the software application including at least one hypertext-based page referencing at least one executable component, the mechanism comprising;
-
means for assigning a first executable component to a tier of the network based on an applet tag specifying the tier in one of said at least one hypertext pages; means for receiving from a remote tier a request for one of the at least one hypertext-based pages referencing a second executable component; means for dynamically and automatically determining at run time on which tier of the network the second executable component should be executed in response to the request without using information specifying a tier; and means for causing the second executable component to be executed on an appropriate tier of the network in response to the request, based on a result of said determining. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
-
-
8. A system for enabling a software application to be executed on at least one of a plurality of tiers on a network, the system comprising:
-
a processor; a first storage unit accessible to the processor and having stored therein a plurality of executable components, and a second storage unit accessible to the processor and having stored therein a plurality of pages functionally connected by hypertext links, the plurality of pages incorporating the plurality of executable components; wherein the processor is configured to; receive a request for one of the pages from a remote tier on the network; and access one of the pages and a corresponding first one of the executable components in response to the request; dynamically and automatically identify at run time an appropriate tier on which said first one of the executable components should be executed in response to the request without using information specifying a tier assignment; and cause said first one of the executable components to be executed on said appropriate tier in response to the request, including causing the requested page to be provided to the remote tier after the first one of the executable components is executed if the remote tier is not identified as said appropriate tier. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. An apparatus for executing a software application distributed across multiple tiers of a network having a plurality of tiers, the software application including a plurality of hypertext-based documents and a plurality of executable components referenced by the plurality of hypertext-based documents, the apparatus comprising:
-
means for receiving a request for one of the hypertext-based documents; means for assigning each of the executable components to an appropriate tier in response to the request, including means for assigning at least one of executable components to an appropriate tier based on an applet tag specifying a tier within a corresponding one of the hypertext-based documents; and means for dynamically and automatically assigning at least one of the executable components to an appropriate tier at run time without using information specifying a tier assignment; and means for establishing a functional connection between one of the executable components residing on a first tier and another one of the executable components residing on a second tier in response to a request generated by said one of the executable components, including means for establishing said functional connection without using a definition of the functional connection. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
-
-
16. A method of creating a software application for execution on a network having a plurality of tiers, the method comprising:
-
creating a plurality of executable components; and associating each of the executable components with at least one hypertext-based document, such that each of the executable components can execute in response to a request for a corresponding hypertext-based document, wherein said associating includes assigning at least one of executable components to execute on a particular tier of the plurality of tiers by providing an applet tag in the corresponding hypertext-based document specifying the tier, and wherein at least one of the executable components can be automatically and dynamically assigned to an appropriate tier at run-time in response to a request for an associated hypertext-based document. - View Dependent Claims (17)
-
-
18. A method of executing an application on a network having a plurality of tiers, the application including at least one hypertext document and a plurality of executable components referenced by said at least one hypertext document, the plurality of executable components including a first executable component, a second executable component, a third executable component and a fourth executable component, the plurality of tiers including a first tier, a second tier, and a third tier, the method comprising the steps of:
-
receiving from a client system a request to execute the application, the request including at least one request for said at least one hypertext document; in response to the request to execute the application, dynamically and automatically assigning each of the first, second, and third executable components to an appropriate tier of the network for execution at run time without using information specifying a tier; and assigning the fourth executable component to an appropriate tier based on an applet tag of said at least one hypertext document specifying the tier. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
-
-
24. A method of executing a software application, the software application configured for execution on at least one tier of a network having a plurality of tiers, the software application including at least one hypertext-based page referencing at least one executable component, the method comprising the steps of:
-
receiving from a remote tier a request for a first hypertext-based page referencing a first executable component of the software application; determining on which tier of the network the first executable component should be executed based on an applet tag of the first hypertext-based page specifying a tier; causing the first executable component to be executed on the specified tier; receiving from a remote tier a request for a second hypertext-based page referencing a second executable component of the software application; automatically and dynamically determining on which tier of the network the second executable component should be executed at run time without using information specifying a tier; causing the second executable component to be executed on an appropriate tier of the network in response to the request; and providing at least one of the first hypertext-based page and the second hypertext page to the remote tier. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28)
-
-
29. A method of executing a software application distributed across multiple tiers of a network having a plurality of tiers, the software application including a plurality of hypertext-based documents and a corresponding plurality of executable components referenced by the hypertext-based documents, the method comprising the steps of:
-
receiving a request for invoking the application by accessing at least one of the hypertext-based documents; in response to the request, assigning each of the executable components to an appropriate tier, including dynamically and automatically assigning at least one of the executable components to an appropriate tier at run time without using information specifying a tier assignment; and assigning at least one of the executable components to an appropriate tier according to an applet tag specifying a tier in a corresponding hypertext-based document. - View Dependent Claims (30)
-
Specification