Configurable and extensible system for deploying asset management functions to client applications

• US 6,366,916 B1
• Filed: 12/23/1998
• Issued: 04/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Murray, Janet L., Picciano, Deidra S., Willey, James A., Kao, I-Ming, Baer, William J., Robertson, Jerry D., Jacob, Pedro Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lintz, Paul R.
• Application Number:
  US09/219,933
• Time in Patent Office: 1,196 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/103
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

A flexibly adaptable, i e., configurable and/or extensible, asset management system is disclosed for processing and querying assets, representing data. The system comprises three layers: a Client Application layer, for manipulating and browsing assets, an Asset Manager Server layer, for providing programming interface services specific for assets types, such as storing, querying, and retrieving assets representing data to and from a Data Store, representing the third layer. The Asset Manager Server layer further provides communication services to support the Client Application layer and file transfer between the Client Application layer and the Asset Manager Server layer. The Asset Manager Server includes several configurable and/or extensible modules, including a Client Adapter module, a Schema Adapter module and a Resources module.

Claims

1. A flexibly adaptable asset management system for deploying asset management functions to a client application for browsing and manipulating assets, representing data, in a data store, the system comprising:

an asset manager server disposed between the client application and the data store, the asset manager server including;

at least one client adapter for providing interface functions between the client application and the asset manager server;

at least one schema adapter for mapping the assets to the data stored in the data store, and for transferring the data to and from the data store in response to methods invoked in the client application, the methods being received by the at least one schema adapter through the at least one client adapter; and

at least one object oriented class, wherein instances of the at least one object oriented class are used for transferring the data between the at least one schema adapter and the client application through the at least one client adapter, wherein, at least two of the client adapter, schema adapter and object oriented class are flexibly adaptable, thereby allowing the system to do one or more of handle different asset types, handle additional client applications and provide dynamic interfaces.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one schema adapter is specific to a particular one of the assets, an asset being meta data for a particular data type.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the interface functions include querying, retrieving and manipulating assets.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the client adapter further provides for file transfer between the client application and the asset manager server.

5. The system according to claim 1, further comprising external services for providing a link between the at least one schema adapter and the data store.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one client adapter and the at least one schema adapter are flexibly adaptable.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one client adapter and the at least one object oriented class are flexibly adaptable.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one schema adapter and the at least one object oriented class are flexibly adaptable.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one client adapter, the at least one schema adapter and the at least one object oriented class are each flexibly adaptable.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the client application invokes a first one of the methods on the asset manager server;

the at least one client adapter invokes a series of subsequent ones of the methods for querying the client application for information regarding a task to be performed on the data in the data store;

the schema adapter obtains results for the task;

the results are encapsulated into one of the at least one object oriented class; and

the results encapsulated into one of the at least one object oriented class are returned to the client application through the at least one client adapter.

11. A method for adaptively deploying asset management functions in an asset management system to a client application for browsing and manipulating assets, representing data, in a data store, the system comprising:

an asset manager server disposed between the client application and the data store, the asset manager server including;

at least one client adapter for providing interface functions between the client application and the asset manager server;

at least one schema adapter for mapping the assets to the data stored in the data store, and for transferring the data to and from the data store in response to methods invoked in the client application, the methods being received by the at least one schema adapter through the at least one client adapter; and

at least one object oriented class, wherein instances of the at least one object oriented class are used for transferring the data between the at least one schema adapter and the client application through the at least one client adapter,

wherein, at least two of the client adapter, schema adapter and object oriented class are flexibly adaptable, thereby allowing the system to do one or more of handle different asset types, handle additional client applications and provide dynamic interfaces,

wherein the method comprises;

the client application invoking a first one of the methods on the asset manager server;

the at least one client adapter invoking a series of subsequent ones of the methods for querying the client application for information regarding a task to be performed on the data in the data store;

the schema adapter obtaining results for the task;

encapsulating the results into one of the at least one object oriented class; and

returning the results encapsulated in the one of the at least one object oriented class to the client application through the at least one client adapter.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one schema adapter is specific to a particular one of the assets, an asset being meta data for a particular data type.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the interface functions include querying, retrieving and manipulating assets.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein the client adapter further provides for file transfer between the client application and the asset manager server.

15. The method according to claim 11, further comprising external services for providing a link between the at least one schema adapter and the data store.

16. The method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one client adapter and the at least one schema adapter are flexibly adaptable.

17. The method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one client adapter and the at least one object oriented class are flexibly adaptable.

18. The method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one schema adapter and the at least one object oriented class are flexibly adaptable.

19. The method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one client adapter, the at least one schema adapter and the at least one object oriented class are each flexibly adaptable.

20. A program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform method steps for adaptively deploying asset management functions in an asset management system, to a client application for browsing and manipulating assets, representing data, in a data store, the system comprising:

an asset manager server disposed between the client application and the data store, the asset manager server including;

at least one client adapter for providing interface functions between the client application and the asset manager server;

at least one schema adapter for mapping the assets to the data stored in the data store, and for transferring the data to and from the data store in response to methods invoked in the client application, the methods being received by the at least one schema adapter through the at least one client adapter; and

at least one object oriented class, wherein instances of the at least one object oriented class are used for transferring the data between the at least one schema adapter and the client application through the at least one client adapter,

wherein, at least two of the client adapter, schema adapter and object oriented class are flexibly adaptable, thereby allowing the system to do one or more of handle different asset types, handle additional client applications and provide dynamic interfaces,

wherein the method comprises;

the client application invoking a first one of the methods on the asset manager server;

the at least one client adapter invoking a series of subsequent ones of the methods for querying the client application for information regarding a task to be performed on the data in the data store;

the schema adapter obtaining results for the task;

encapsulating the results into one of the at least one object oriented class; and

returning the results encapsulated into one of the at least one object oriented class to the client application through the at least one client adapter.

21. The program storage device according to claim 20, wherein the at least one schema adapter is specific to a particular one of the assets, an asset being meta data for a particular data type.

22. The program storage device according to claim 20, wherein the interface functions include querying, retrieving and manipulating assets.

23. The program storage device according to claim 20, wherein the client adapter further provides for file transfer between the client application and the asset manager server.

24. The program storage device according to claim 20, further comprising external services for providing a link between the at least one schema adapter and the data store.

25. The program storage device according to claim 20, wherein the at least one client adapter and the at least one schema adapter are flexibly adaptable.

26. The program storage device according to claim 20, wherein the at least one client adapter and the at least one object oriented class are flexibly adaptable.

27. The program storage device according to claim 20, wherein the at least one schema adapter and the at least one object oriented class are flexibly adaptable.

28. The program storage device according to claim 20, wherein the at least one client adapter, the at least one schema adapter and the at least one object oriented class are each flexibly adaptable.

29. A method of adaptively deploying asset management functions to a client application for manipulating assets, representing data, in a data store, the method comprising the steps of:

the client application connecting to an asset manager server, the asset manager server being disposed between the client application and the data store;

the client application selecting an asset type of one of the assets corresponding to a specific schema adapter, wherein the schema adapter is disposed within the asset manager server;

the client application requesting and being provided with a listing of all available client adapters, the client adapters being disposed within the asset manager server and providing interface functions specific to the selected asset type and for providing communications services to support an interface between the client application and the asset manager server;

the client application selecting one of the client adapters, and as a result, the client application being provided with an instance of the selected one of the client adapters as an application program interface;

calling a function specified in the instance of the selected one of the client adapters;

passing the called function to the schema adapter;

the schema adapter processing the called function, when results of the function are requested, by obtaining the data from the data store;

the schema adapter requesting the production of an instance of an object oriented class, wherein an object oriented class encapsulates the data and associated behaviors needed to transfer and present the data obtained from the data store to the client application;

the schema adapter populating the produced instance of the object oriented class with the data obtained from the data store; and

forwarding the populated instance of the object oriented class to the client application through the instance of the selected one of the client adapters for usage by the client application;

wherein, at least two of the client adapters, schema adapter and object oriented class are flexibly adaptable, thereby allowing the system to handle different asset types and additional client applications and thereby providing dynamic interfaces.

30. The method according to claim 29, wherein the step of connecting to the asset manager server comprises the steps of:

the client application providing logon information to the asset manager server;

the client application contacting the asset manager server for a connection; and

establishing the connection between the asset manager server and the client application.

31. The method according to claim 29, wherein the client adapters and the schema adapter are flexibly adaptable.

32. The method according to claim 29 wherein the client adapters and the object oriented class are flexibly adaptable.

33. The method according to claim 29, wherein the schema adapter and the object oriented class are flexibly adaptable.

34. The method according to claim 29, wherein the client adapters, the schema adapter and the object oriented class are each flexibly adaptable.

35. A program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform method steps for adaptively deploying asset management functions to a client application for manipulating assets, representing data, in a data store, the method comprising the steps of:

the client application connecting to an asset manager server, the asset manager server being disposed between the client application and the data store;

the client application selecting an asset type of one of the assets corresponding to a specific schema adapter, wherein the schema adapter is disposed within the asset manager server;

the client application requesting and being provided with a listing of all available client adapters, the client adapters being disposed within the asset manager server and providing interface functions specific to the selected asset type and for providing communications services to support an interface between the client application and the asset manager server;

the client application selecting one of the client adapters, and as a result, the client application being provided with an instance of the selected one of the client adapters as an application program interface;

calling a function specified in the instance of the selected one of the client adapters;

passing the called function to the schema adapter;

the schema adapter processing the called function, when results of the function are requested, by obtaining the data from the data store;

the schema adapter requesting the production of an instance of an object oriented class, wherein an object oriented class encapsulates the data and associated behaviors needed to transfer and present the data obtained from the data store to the client application;

the schema adapter populating the produced instance of the object oriented class with the data obtained from the data store; and

forwarding the populated instance of the object oriented class to the client application through the instance of the selected one of the client adapters for usage by the client application,

wherein, at least two of the client adapters, schema adapter and object oriented class are flexibly adaptable, thereby allowing the system to handle different asset types and additional client applications and thereby providing dynamic interfaces.

36. The program storage device according to claim 35, wherein the step of connecting to the asset manager server comprises the steps of:

the client application providing logon information to the asset manager server;

the client application contacting the asset manager server for a connection; and

establishing the connection between the asset manager server and the client application.

37. The program storage device according to claim 35, wherein the client adapters and the schema adapter are flexibly adaptable.

38. The program storage device according to claim 35, wherein the client adapters and the object oriented class are flexibly adaptable.

39. The program storage device according to claim 35, wherein the schema adapter and the object oriented class are flexibly adaptable.

40. The program storage device according to claim 35, wherein the client adapters, the schema adapter and the object oriented class are each flexibly adaptable.

41. A system for adaptively deploying asset management functions to a client application for manipulating assets, representing data, in a data store, the system comprising:

an asset manager server disposed between the client application and the data store, the asset manager server including client adapters, schema adapters and object oriented classes, wherein;

the client application connects to the asset manager server;

the client application selects an asset type of one of the assets corresponding to a specific one of the schema adapters;

the client application requesting and being provided with a listing of all the client adapters, the client adapters providing interface functions specific to the selected asset type and further providing communications services to support an interface between the client application and the asset manager server;

the client application selects one of the client adapters, and as a result, the client application is provided with an instance of the selected one of the client adapters as an application program interface;

a function specified in the instance of the selected one of the client adapters is called;

the called function is passed to one of the schema adapters;

the schema adapter processes the called function, when results of the function are requested, by obtaining the data from the data store;

the schema adapter requests the production of an instance of one of the object oriented classes, wherein an object oriented class encapsulates the data and associated behaviors needed to transfer and present the data obtained from the data store to the client application;

the schema adapter populates the produced instance of the object oriented class with the data obtained from the data store; and

the populated instance of the object oriented class is forwarded to the client application through the instance of the selected one of the client adapters for usage by the client application;

wherein, at least two of the client adapters, schema adapter and object oriented classes are flexibly adaptable, thereby allowing the system to handle different asset types and additional client applications and thereby providing dynamic interfaces.

42. The system according to claim 41, wherein the asset manager server is connected to by:

the client application providing logon information to the asset manager server;

the client application contacting the asset manager server for a connection; and

establishing the connection between the asset manager server and the client application.

43. The system according to claim 41, wherein the client adapters and the schema adapters are flexibly adaptable.

44. The system according to claim 41 wherein the client adapters and the object oriented classes are flexibly adaptable.

45. The system according to claim 41, wherein the schema adapters and the object oriented classes are flexibly adaptable.

46. The system according to claim 41, wherein the client adapters, the schema adapters and the object oriented classes are each flexibly adaptable.