Object property meta model emulator for legacy data structures

• US 6,305,007 B1
• Filed: 07/23/1999
• Issued: 10/16/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mintz, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Powell, Mark R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DAS, CHAMELI
• Application Number:
  US09/359,038
• Time in Patent Office: 816 Days
• Field of Search: 717/1, 717/2, 717/11, 707/1, 707/4
• US Class Current: 717/116
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A method of wrapping legacy data structures enables the data structures to be used with an object-oriented program and enables a single object to access related attributes in multiple legacy data structures. In one embodiment, an interface class is defined for each pseudo property to be represented. A C++ wrapper is built around each legacy data structure that implements the interface that was defined in the abstract pseudo property class.

Claims

1. A method of manipulating an attribute of a legacy data structure, said method comprising:

(a) receiving a pointer to a wrapper object that is bound to the legacy data structure;

(b) defining a component wrapper class;

(c) querying the wrapper class about the presence of a pseudo property; and

(d) creating an object having access to the pseudo property

(e) defining pseudo-property policy classes for each attribute type being manipulated;

(f) reusing the pseudo-property policy classes to represent related attributes in the distinct data structures.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises performing Run-Time Type Identification.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises executing a dynamic_cast.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data structures are written in C.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said object is written in C++.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said object is written in Java.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said object is a property page.

8. A method of manipulating attributes of legacy data structures, said method comprising:

(a) defining a base wrapper class;

(b) defining pseudo-property policy classes for each attribute type being manipulated;

(c) defining one or more wrapper classes for each distinct set of legacy data structures to be manipulated;

(d) basing each of the wrapper classes on the base wrapper class;

(e) basing each of the wrapper classes on the pseudo-property policy classes;

(f) reusing the pseudo-property policy classes to represent related attributes in the distinct data structures;

(g) creating an object that manipulates the base wrapper class;

(h) querying the wrapper classes about the presence of the pseudo-property; and

(i) manipulating attributes in the data structures via the pseudo-properties implemented in a wrapper object.