Method of using an object-oriented communication system with support for multiple remote machine types

• US 6,260,076 B1
• Filed: 11/12/1997
• Issued: 07/10/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Savitzky, Stephen R., Hart, Peter E., Golding, Richard, Roth, Rithy K., Jeng, Tina L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pan, Daniel H.
• Application Number:
  US08/967,967
• Time in Patent Office: 1,336 Days
• Field of Search: 709/315, 709/320, 709/203, 709/217, 709/328, 709/219, 709/303, 709/304, 709/228, 709/206, 709/313, 709/329, 709/331, 709/316, 710/1, 710/3, 707/103, 707/4, 707/5, 711/132, 711/170, 712/228, 712/217
• US Class Current: 719/315
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548

Abstract

A method for communicating with a plurality of remote machines, of a plurality of machine types, using a computer system having a memory, includes the steps of constructing within the memory a first plurality of software objects, the first plurality of software objects describing services for one of the plurality of remote machines, establishing communications with the one remote machine, and invoking operations on the one remote machine in response to requests described by services of the first plurality of software objects.

Claims

1. A method of communicating with a plurality of remote machines using a computer system having a memory, the method comprising:

constructing in the memory a first object corresponding to at least one remote machine from the plurality of remote machines, the first object including a pointer to a first collection of software objects;

constructing in the memory the first collection of software objects, wherein each software object in the first collection of software objects stores information describing a service from a plurality of services provided by the at least one remote machine;

establishing communications between the computer system and the at least one remote machine; and

invoking an operation on the at least one remote machine based upon information stored by the first collection of software objects.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a service for the at least one remote machine includes an item of data to be transferred to the at least one remote machine.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the item of data to be transferred includes a data type, a data size, and a data location.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising constructing within the memory a second plurality of software objects, the second plurality of software objects describing an application item for the at least one remote machine.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the application item for the at least one remote machine includes a pointer to a software object describing a service from the first collection of software objects and a current value corresponding to a value of a data item within the at least one remote machine.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the application item for the at least one remote machine further includes a read request flag and a new value for describing a pending request for a value to be transferred to the at least one remote machine;

and wherein constructing the second plurality of software objects includes using the second plurality of software objects to record requests for data to be transferred to the at least one remote machine.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising constructing a second plurality of software objects within the memory, at least one of the second plurality of software objects identifying and describing an item in a database.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising requesting an update to the database in response to an item of data being transferred to the at least one remote machine.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein constructing in the memory the first collection of software objects includes reading a data file including representations of the at least one remote machine.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the data file includes textual representations of the at least one remote machine.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

making a request for a service on the at least one remote machine, in response to user input with a graphical user interface; and

updating the graphical user interface when the service requested on the at least one remote machine has been completed.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the service for the at least one remote machine includes an operation on the at least one remote machine.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the service for the at least one remote machine includes an item of data to be transferred to another remote machine of the plurality of remote machines.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising constructing within the memory a second collection of software objects, wherein the second collection of software objects comprises software objects describing services for another remote machine from the plurality of remote machines.

15. The method of claim 14,

wherein constructing the second collection of software objects comprises reading a data file including a representation of the another remote machine.

16. A method of communicating with a plurality of remote machines, using a computer system having a memory, the method comprising:

constructing in the memory a first object corresponding to a first remote machine from the plurality of remote machines, the first object including a pointer to a first collection of software objects;

constructing in the memory the first collection of software objects, wherein each software object in the first collection of software objects stores information describing a service from a plurality of services provided by the first remote machine;

constructing in the memory a second collection of software objects, wherein a first software object in the second collection of software objects points to a first software object from the first collection of software objects, the first software object from the first collection of software objects storing information describing a first service provided by the first remote machine, and wherein the first software object from the second collection of software objects stores data related to a current state of the first service on the first remote machine; and

invoking an operation on the first remote machine based upon information stored by the first and second collection of software objects.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the first software object from the second collection of software objects comprises a pointer to a graphical user interface software object, wherein the graphical user interface software object corresponds to a control in a graphical user interface.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein invoking the operation on the first remote machine comprises retrieving information from the first remote machine.

19. A system for communicating with a plurality of remote machines, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor;

wherein the memory is configured to store;

a first object corresponding to a first remote machine from the plurality of remote machines, the first object including a pointer to a first collection of software objects;

the first collection of software objects, wherein each software object in the first collection of software objects stores information describing a service from a plurality of services provided by the first remote machine;

a second collection of software objects, wherein a first software object in the second collection of software objects points to a first software object from the first collection of software objects, the first software object from the first collection of software objects storing information describing a first service provided by the first remote machine, and wherein the first software object from the second collection of software objects stores data related to a current state of the first service on the first remote machine; and

a software module for invoking an operation on the first remote machine based upon information stored by the first and second collection of software objects.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the operation invoked by the software module retrieves information from the first remote machine.

21. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable medium for communicating with a plurality of remote machines, using a computer system having a memory, the computer program product comprising:

code for constructing in the memory a first object corresponding to a first remote machine from the plurality of remote machines, the first object including a pointer to a first collection of software objects;

code for constructing in the memory the first collection of software objects, wherein each software object in the first collection of software objects stores information describing a service from a plurality of services provided by the first remote machine;

code for constructing in the memory a second collection of software objects, wherein a first software object in the second collection of software objects points to a first software object from the first collection of software objects, the first software object from the first collection of software objects storing information describing a first service provided by the first remote machine, and wherein the first software object from the second collection of software objects stores data related to a current state of the first service on the first remote machine; and

code for invoking an operation on the first remote machine based upon information stored by the first and second collection of software objects.