Methods and apparatus providing remote operation of an application programming interface

• US 7,010,796 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2001
• Issued: 03/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Strom, Daniel J., Zeliger, Ohad
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, VAN H
• Application Number:
  US09/966,615
• Time in Patent Office: 1,621 Days
• Field of Search: 719/330, 719/312, 719/310, 719/328, 718/104, 718/101, 717/126, 717/128, 717/136, 717/146, 707/103.R, 714/38
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services

Abstract

A system can analyze an application programming interface definition to automatically produce software string generator and parser software components allowing remote access to functions within the application programming interface definition by processes that are not natively compatible with the computing system environment in which the application programming interface operates. A first string generator processes can produce an encapsulated function call from a first process, such as a Java-based process, that calls a first function in a first computing environment. A second parser process operates in a second computing environment to receive the encapsulated function call and to invoke a second function call in a second process, such as a C-based process. Results from the second function call are returned to a second string generator which produces an encapsulated response that is returned to a first parser process. The first parser process maps the encapsulated response back into first function call parameters for return to the first process, thus providing access to second functions of the application programming interface by the first process.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for accessing a second application programming interface in a second computing environment from a first process operating in a first computing environment that cannot natively access the second application programming interface, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting a first function call made by the first process, the first function call including a first function call parameter, the first function call and the first function call parameter not being usable as generated by the first process to access the second application programming interface;

accessing a first application programming interface definition defining (i) a mapping of the first function call and the first function call parameter to corresponding meta parameters, a first meta parameter being an intermediate representation of the first function call and being mapped to a second function call usable to access the second application programming interface, and a second meta parameter being an intermediate representation of the first function call parameter and being mapped to a second function call parameter usable with the second function call to access the second application programming interface;

generating an encapsulated function call containing the meta parameters; and

sending the encapsulated function call from the first computing environment destined for the second computing environment.

2. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:

receiving an encapsulated response from the second computing environment, the encapsulated response containing second meta parameter values produced in the second computing environment from performance of at least one second function call in the second application programming interface that corresponds to the first function call detected in the first computing environment;

parsing the encapsulated response to map the second meta parameter values back to the first function call parameters usable by the first process in the first computing environment.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of parsing the encapsulated response comprises the steps of:

parsing the encapsulated response to detect second meta parameters;

for each of the second meta parameters detected;

selecting a respective first application programming interface definition data structure in the first application programming interface that can represent the second meta parameter as a first function call parameter; and

copying second meta parameter values into the respective first application programming interface definition data structure to produce a first function call parameter that contains the value of the second meta parameter.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein at least one second meta parameter in the encapsulated response identifies a first function call definition within the first application programming interface definition, the first function call definition indicating the respective first application programming interface definition data structures that can accept the copied second meta parameter values.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the second meta parameter values represent values of parameters processed by second function calls in the second application programming interface in the second computing environment and wherein the first application programming interface definition data structures that accept the copied second meta parameter values are natively incompatible for use in the second computing environment.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the first application programming interface definition data structures in the first application programming interface are defined in a Java-based format useable by Java-based first processes and wherein the second function calls that operate to produce the second meta parameter values in the second application programming interface are defined in a C-based format useable by C-based second processes operating in the second programming environment.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of detecting a first function call in the first computing environment comprises the steps of:

accessing a first application programming interface definition defining first function calls useable by first processes operating in the first computing environment, the first function calls corresponding to at least one second function call defined in a second application programming interface useable by second processes in the second computing environment.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the first function calls in the first application programming interface are defined in a Java-based format useable by Java-based first processes and wherein the second function calls in the second application programming interface are defined in a C-based format useable by C-based second processes.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of automatically deriving the first application programming interface definition from an analysis of the second application programming interface definition.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of generating an encapsulated function call comprises the steps of:

extracting the first function call parameters from the first function call using the first application programming interface; and

for each of the first function call parameters;

selecting a respective first application programming interface definition data structure in the first application programming interface that can represent the first function parameter as a first meta parameter; and

copying the first function call parameter into the respective first application programming interface definition data structure to produce a first meta parameter that contains the value of the first function call parameter.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the first meta parameters contain strings that represent values of the first function call parameters.

12. A computer system, comprising:

an interface;

a memory;

a processor; and

an interconnection mechanism coupling the interface, the processor and the memory;

wherein the memory is encoded with a first application programming interface string generator application and a first parser application that, when performed on the processor, produce a respective first application programming interface string generator process and first parser process that cause the computer system to access a second application programming interface in a second computing environment by a first process operating in the computer system by causing the computer system to perform the operations of;

detecting a first function call made by the first process, the first function call including a first function call parameter, the first function call and the first function call parameter not being usable as generated by the first process to access the second application programming interface;

accessing a first application programming interface definition defining (i) a mapping of the first function call and the first function call parameter to corresponding meta parameters, a first meta parameter being an intermediate representation of the first function call and being mapped to a second function call usable to access the second application programming interface, and a second meta parameter being an intermediate representation of the first function call parameter and being mapped to a second function call parameter usable with the second function call to access the second application programming interface;

generating an encapsulated function call containing the meta parameters; and

sending the encapsulated function call from the first computing environment destined for the second computing environment.

13. The computer system of claim 12 wherein the first parser process further causes the computer system to perform the operations of:

receiving an encapsulated response from the second computing environment, the encapsulated response containing second meta parameter values produced in the second computing environment from performance of at least one second function call in the second application programming interface that corresponds to the first function call detected in the first computing environment;

parsing the encapsulated response to map the second meta parameter values back to the first function call parameters usable by the first process in the first computing environment.

14. The computer system of claim 13 wherein when the computer system performs the operation of parsing the encapsulated response, the computer system performs the operations of:

parsing the encapsulated response to detect second meta parameters;

for each of the second meta parameters detected;

selecting a respective first application programming interface definition data structure in the first application programming interface that can represent the second meta parameter as a first function call parameter; and

copying second meta parameter values into the respective first application programming interface definition data structure to produce a first function call parameter that contains the value of the second meta parameter.

15. The computer system of claim 14 wherein at least one second meta parameter in the encapsulated response identifies a first function call definition within the first application programming interface definition, the first function call definition indicating the respective first application programming interface definition data structures that can accept the copied second meta parameter values.

16. The computer system of claim 14 wherein the second meta parameter values represent values of parameters processed by second function calls in the second application programming interface in the second computing environment and wherein the first application programming interface definition data structures that accept the copied second meta parameter values are natively incompatible for use in the second computing environment.

17. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the first application programming interface definition data structures in the first application programming interface are defined in a Java-based format useable by Java-based first processes and wherein the second function calls that operate to produce the second meta parameter values in the second application programming interface are defined in a C-based format useable by C-based second processes operating in the second programming environment.

18. The computer system of claim 12 wherein when the computer system performs the operation of detecting a first function call in the first computing environment, the computer system further performs the operation of:

accessing a first application programming interface definition defining first function calls useable by first processes operating in the first computing environment, the first function calls corresponding to at least one second function call defined in a second application programming interface useable by second processes in the second computing environment.

19. The computer system of claim 18 wherein the first function calls in the first application programming interface are defined in a Java-based format useable by Java-based first processes and wherein the second function calls in the second application programming interface are defined in a C-based format useable by C-based second processes.

20. The computer system of claim 18 wherein the memory is encoded with a grammar application programming interface processor that when operated on the processor further causes the computer system to perform an operation of automatically deriving the first application programming interface definition from an analysis of the second application programming interface definition.

21. The computer system of claim 18 wherein when the computer system performs the operation of generating an encapsulated function call, the computer system performs the operations of:

extracting the first function call parameters from the first function call using the first application programming interface; and

for each of the first function call parameters;

selecting a respective first application programming interface definition data structure in the first application programming interface that can represent the first function parameter as a first meta parameter; and

copying the first function call parameter into the respective first application programming interface definition data structure to produce a first meta parameter that contains the value of the first function call parameter.

22. The computer system of claim 21 wherein the first meta parameters contain strings that represent values of the first function call parameters.

23. A computer system, comprising:

an interface;

a memory;

a processor; and

an interconnection mechanism coupling the interface, the processor and the memory;

wherein the memory is encoded with logic instructions that, when executed on the processor in the computer system, provide the computer system with;

means for detecting a first function call made by the first process, the first function call including a first function call parameter, the first function call and the first function call parameter not being usable as generated by the first process to access the second application programming interface;

means for accessing a first application programming interface definition defining (i) a mapping of the first function call and the first function call parameter to corresponding meta parameters, a first meta parameter being an intermediate representation of the first function call and being mapped to a second function call usable to access the second application programming interface, and a second meta parameter being an intermediate representation of the first function call parameter and being mapped to a second function call parameter usable with the second function call to access the second application programming interface;

means for generating an encapsulated function call containing the meta parameters; and

means for sending the encapsulated function call from the first computing environment destined for the second computing environment.

24. A computer program product having a computer-readable medium including computer program logic encoded thereon, that when executed on a computer system having a coupling of a memory and a processor, provides a method for accessing a second application programming interface in a second computing environment from a first process operating in a first computing environment that cannot natively access the second application programming interface by causing the processor to perform the operations of:

detecting a first function call made by the first process, the first function call including a first function call parameter, the first function call and the first function call parameter not being usable as generated by the first process to access the second application programming interface;

accessing a first application programming interface definition defining (i) a mapping of the first function call and the first function call parameter to corresponding meta parameters, a first meta parameter being an intermediate representation of the first function call and being mapped to a second function call usable to access the second application programming interface, and a second meta parameter being an intermediate representation of the first function call parameter and being mapped to a second function call parameter usable with the second function call to access the second application programming interface;

generating an encapsulated function call containing the meta parameters; and

sending the encapsulated function call from the first computing environment destined for the second computing environment.