Object oriented method and system for providing a common communications interface between software application programs

• US 6,256,678 B1
• Filed: 01/14/1997
• Issued: 07/03/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sterling Software, Inc. (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Inventors: Hager, Delmar G., Traughber, Thomas J., Birze, Brigitte B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US08/783,524
• Time in Patent Office: 1,631 Days
• Field of Search: 709/300, 709/301, 709/303, 709/203, 709/310, 709/311, 709/312, 709/315, 709/320, 709/328, 370/200
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

The present invention is a method and system for providing a common communications interface between a plurality of programs through a communications network. The system includes an adapter object (2b) responsive to a first one of the plurality of programs for connecting to the communications network; a resource object (2c) coupled to the adaptor object (2b) and also associated with the first one of the plurality of programs for storing at least one identifier associated with the first one of the plurality of programs in the memory of the computer and responsive to an agent object (2d) associated with a second one of the plurality of programs for generating a view object (2e) for accepting communications through said communications network; and a data object (2f) coupled to the agent object (2d) and to the view object (2e) for storing the data transmitted between the plurality of programs.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system for facilitating communication between a plurality of programs, comprising

a first adapter object associated with a first program, the first adapter object operable to associate the first program and a communications network interface;

a second adapter object associated with a second program, the second adapter object operable to associate the second program and the communications network interface;

a resource object associated with the first program, the resource object operable to generate a view object, the view object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the first program;

an agent object associated with the second program, the agent object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the second program, the agent object also operable to attach to the resource object, the resource object operable to generate the view object in response to the attachment of the agent object to the resource object; and

the view object also operable to communicate information to and receive information from the agent object using the communications network interface, the view object and the agent object facilitating communication between the first and second programs.

2. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein the communications network interface comprises one of the following application program interfaces:

Sockets, CPI-C, NetBEUI, WinSock, or PIPES Platform.

3. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein the view object is operable to communicate information to and receive information from the agent object using at least one data object, the data object operable to store the information communicated between the view object and the agent object.

4. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein the resource object is further operable to store at least one identifier associated with the first program in a memory;

further comprising a name space iterator object associated with the second program, the name space iterator object operable to search the memory for the at least one identifier associated with the first program; and

wherein the agent object is operable to attach to the resource object using the at least one identifier associated with the first program.

5. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein the agent object comprises a first agent object and the view object comprises a first view object;

further comprising a second agent object associated with a third program, the second agent object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the third program, the second agent object also operable to attach to the resource object; and

wherein the resource object is further operable to generate a second view object in response to the attachment of the second agent object to the resource object, the second view object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the second agent object through the communications network interface.

6. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein the adapter object is further operable to:

store information identifying one or more agent objects associated with the first program using a first data structure; and

store information identifying one or more resource objects associated with the first program using a second data structure.

7. The computer implemented system of claim 1, wherein the resource object is further operable to store information identifying one or more view objects associated with the first program using a data structure.

8. A computer implemented system for facilitating communication between a plurality of programs, comprising

a first adapter object associated with a first program, the first adapter object operable to associate the first program and a first communications network interface;

a second adapter object associated with a second program, the second adapter object operable to associate the second program and a second communications network interface, the first and second communications network interfaces using a common communications protocol;

a resource object associated with the first program, the resource object operable to generate a view object, the view object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the first program;

an agent object associated with the second program, the agent object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the second program, the agent object also operable to attach to the resource object, the resource object operable to generate the view object in response to the attachment of the agent object to the resource object; and

the view object also operable to communicate information to and receive information from the agent object through the first and second communications network interfaces, the view object and the agent object facilitating communication between the first and second programs.

9. The computer implemented system of claim 8, wherein the first and second communications network interfaces each comprises one of the following application program interfaces:

Sockets, CPI-C, NetBEUI, WinSock, or PIPES Platform.

10. The computer implemented system of claim 8, wherein the agent object comprises a first agent object and the view object comprises a first view object;

further comprising;

a third adapter object associated with a third program, the third adapter object operable to associate the third program and a third communications network interface, the first and third communications network interfaces using a common communications protocol; and

a second agent object associated with the third program, the second agent object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the third program, the second agent object also operable to attach to the resource object; and

wherein the resource object is further operable to generate a second view object in response to the attachment of the second agent object to the resource object, the second view object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the second agent object through the first and third communications network interfaces.

11. The computer implemented system of claim 8, wherein the resource object is further operable to store at least one identifier associated with the first program in a memory;

further comprising a name space iterator object associated with the second program, the name space iterator object operable to search the memory for the at least one identifier associated with the first program; and

wherein the agent object is operable to attach to the resource object using the at least one identifier associated with the first program.

12. A computer implemented system for facilitating communication between a plurality of programs, comprising

a first adapter object associated with a first program, the first adapter object operable to associate the first program and a communications network interface;

a resource object associated with the first program, the resource object operable to generate a view object in response to an agent object attaching to the resource object, the agent object associated with a second program, the second program associated with a communications network interface by a second adapter object, the agent object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the second program; and

the view object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the first program, the view object also operable to communicate information to and receive information from the agent object using the communications network interface, the view object and the agent object facilitating communication between the first and second programs.

13. The computer implemented system of claim 12, wherein the communications network interface comprises one of the following application program interfaces:

Sockets, CPI-C, NetBEUI, WinSock, or PIPES Platform.

14. A computer implemented system for facilitating communication between a plurality of programs, comprising

an adapter object associated with a first program, the adapter object operable to associate the first program and a communications network interface;

an agent object associated with the first program, the agent object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the first program;

the agent object also operable to attach to a resource object associated with a second program, where the resource object is operable to generate a view object in response to the attachment of the agent object, the view object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the second program; and

the agent object further operable to communicate information to and receive information from the view object using the communications network interface, the agent object and the view object facilitating communication between the first and second programs.

15. The computer implemented system of claim 14, wherein the communications network interface comprises one of the following application program interfaces:

Sockets, CPI-C, NetBEUI, WinSock, or PIPES Platform.

16. A computer implemented method for facilitating communication between a plurality of programs, comprising:

initializing a first program to communicate using a first communications network interface;

initializing a second program to communicate using the first communications network interface or a second communications network interface;

generating a resource object associated with the first program, the resource object operable to generate a view object;

generating an agent object associated with the second program, the agent object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the second program;

attaching the agent object to the resource object; and

generating the view object, the view object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the first program, the view object also operable to communicate information to and receive information from the agent object through the one or more communications network interfaces, the view object and the agent object facilitating communication between the first and second programs.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 16, wherein the one or more communications network interfaces each comprises one of the following application program interfaces:

Sockets, CPI-C, NetBEUI, WinSock, or PIPES Platform.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 16, further comprising generating at least one data object operable to store the information communicated between the view object and the agent object.

19. The computer implemented method of claim 16, further comprising:

storing at least one identifier associated with the first program in a memory; and

generating a name space iterator object associated with the second program, the name space iterator object operable to search the memory for the at least one identifier associated with the first program; and

wherein attaching the agent object to the resource object comprises attaching the agent object to the resource object using the at least one identifier located by the name space iterator.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 16, wherein generating the agent object comprises generating a first agent object and generating the view object comprises generating a first view object;

and

further comprising;

generating a second agent object associated with a third program, the second agent object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the third program;

attaching the second agent object to the resource object; and

generating a second view object, the second view object operable to communicate information to and receive information from the second agent object through the one or more communications network interfaces.