Method and apparatus for creating and deploying applications from a server application

• US 7,139,821 B1
• Filed: 10/20/2000
• Issued: 11/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Deutsch, Keith, Shah, Pallavi, Fernando, Gerard
• Primary Examiner(s): Jaroenchonwanit, Bunjob
• Assistant Examiner(s): REFAI, RAMSEY
• Application Number:
  US09/693,355
• Time in Patent Office: 2,223 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/203, 709/204, 709/223, 719/310
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548

Abstract

In a system where client and server components (or actors) of an application are organized as complementary hierarchical graphs, a method and apparatus for creating server applications and dynamically deploying server applications on a client system are described. The server graph comprises, as a minimum, server nodes corresponding to the union of all possible client nodes, whereas each client graph corresponds to a subset of the related server nodes. The server graph is a compound tree from which all possible combinations of client trees can be dynamically created. At a desired time, for example, when the client requests for a client tree representation, the server creates the client tree representation using a peeling process to determine which nodes in the server actor tree should be included in the client tree representation. The peeling process involves determining the server actor nodes that meet a set of criteria for the particular client. The generated client tree structure contains objects that are shipped via a secured communication interface to the client in a tree structure.

Claims

1. In a computer system, a method comprising:

generating one or more actors on a server, wherein each of said one or more actors is a functional component of a distributed application;

linking said one or more actors on the server in a first hierarchical tree;

generating a dataset corresponding to a second hierarchical tree, wherein the second hierarchical tree is a subset of the first hierarchical tree;

wherein each node in said first hierarchical tree comprises a source actor, each node in the replicated second hierarchical tree comprises a member actor, and each member actor corresponds to a respective source actor and wherein a first Portion of a function to be performed by the distributed application is executed by the member actor and a second portion of the function to be performed by the distributed application is executed by the source actor;

sending said dataset to a client;

replicating the second hierarchical tree in said client using said dataset, wherein said replicating comprises generating one or more peer actors on the client, and wherein said one or more peer actors on the client comprise executable code for performing tasks that are in addition to tasks performed by the one or more actors on the server; and

providing a communication link between each of said one or more peer actors of the replicated second hierarchical tree on the client and a corresponding actor of the second hierarchical tree on the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each said actor comprises a tree of hierarchically linked nodes, said nodes comprising one or more objects.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said nodes further comprise one or more nested actors.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said sending said dataset comprises sending said dataset via a secure communication network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating a dataset comprises:

obtaining inclusion criteria from one or more parameter sets;

traversing said first hierarchical tree to determine nodes of said first hierarchical tree that comply with said inclusion criteria;

obtaining a pre-initialized object for each of said nodes that comply with said inclusion criteria;

generating a client graph comprising said pre-initialized objects.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said traversing said first hierarchical tree is on a node-by-node basis starting from the root node and proceeding through all the leaf nodes.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said dataset is indicative of the full client graph.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said dataset comprises a subgraph for updating the replicated second hierarchical tree of said client.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein said pre-initialized-object comprises methods and attributes for construction and initialization of said client graph.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the function to be performed by the distributed application comprises rendering a scene.

10. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer program code embodied therein for creating and deploying client side actors for a server application, said computerreadable medium comprising computer program code configured to cause a computer to;

generate one or more actors on a server, wherein each of said one or more actors is a functional component of a distributed application;

link said one or more actors on the server in a first hierarchical tree;

generate a dataset corresponding to a second hierarchical tree, wherein the second hierarchical tree is a subset of the first hierarchical tree;

wherein each node in said first hierarchical tree comprises a source actor, each node in the replicated second hierarchical tree comprises a member actor, and each member actor corresponds to a respective source actor and wherein a first portion of a function to be performed by the distributed application is executed by the member actor and a second portion of the function to be performed by the distributed application is executed by the source actor;

send said dataset to a client;

replicate the second hierarchical tree in said client using said dataset, wherein to replicate the second hierarchical tree, the computer program code is further configured to cause a computer to generate one or more peer actors on the client, and wherein said one or more peer actors on the client comprise executable code for performing tasks that are in addition to tasks performed by the one or more actors on the server; and

provide a communication link between each of said one or more peer actors of the replicated second hierarchical tree on the client and a corresponding actor of the second hierarchical tree on the server.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein each said actor comprises a tree of hierarchically linked nodes, said nodes comprising one or more objects.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein said nodes further comprise one or more nested actors.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein said send said dataset comprises sending said dataset using a secure communication network.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein said generate a dataset comprises:

obtaining inclusion criteria from a parameter set;

traversing said first hierarchical tree to determine nodes of said first hierarchical tree that comply with said inclusion criteria;

obtaining a pre-initialized object for each of said nodes that comply with said inclusion criteria;

generating a client graph comprising said pre-initialized objects.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein said traversing said first hierarchical tree is on a node-by-node basis starting from the root node and proceeding through all the leaf nodes.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein said dataset is indicative of the full client graph.

17. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein said dataset comprises a subgraph for updating the replicated second hierarchical tree of said client.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein said pre-initialized object comprises methods and attributes for construction and initialization of said client graph.

29. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the function to be performed by the distributed application comprises rendering a scene.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a server comprising one or more server actors linked in a source hierarchical tree, wherein each of said one or more actors is a functional component of a distributed application;

one or more clients, each of said clients coupled to the server via a respective communication interface;

wherein said server is configured to;

generate a dataset for each of said one or more clients, wherein each dataset corresponds to a respective subset of the source hierarchical tree;

wherein each node in said first hierarchical tree comprises a source actor, each node in the replicated second hierarchical tree comprises a member actor, and each member actor corresponds to a respective source actor and wherein a first portion of a function to be performed by the distributed application is executed by the member actor and a second portion of the function to be performed by the distributed application is executed by the source actor;

send each dataset to the respective client via the respective communication interface;

wherein each of said one of more clients is configured to replicate a respective subset of the source hierarchical tree based on said dataset, wherein to replicate a respective subset of the source hierarchical tree, each of said one or more clients is further configured to generate one or more peer actors on the client;

wherein said one or more peer actors on the client comprise executable code for performing tasks that are in addition to tasks performed by the one or more actors on the server; and

provide a communication link between each of said one or more peer actors of the replicated second hierarchical tree on the client and a corresponding actor of the second hierarchical tree on the server.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein each said actor comprises a tree of hierarchically linked nodes, said nodes comprising one or more objects.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said nodes further comprise one or more nested actors.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein each of said communication interfaces is secured.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein said generating a dataset comprises:

obtaining inclusion criteria from a parameter set;

traversing said source hierarchical tree to determine nodes of said source hierarchical tree that comply with said inclusion criteria;

obtaining a pre-initialized object for each of said nodes that comply with said inclusion criteria;

generating a client graph comprising said pre-initialized objects.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein said traversing said source hierarchical tree is on a node-by-node basis.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein said dataset is indicative of the full client graph.

26. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein said dataset comprises a subgraph for updating the replicated subset of the source hierarchical tree of said client.

27. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein said pre-initialized object comprises methods and attributes for construction and initialization of said client graph.

30. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the function to be performed by the distributed application comprises rendering a scene.