Dynamic class inheritance and distributed caching with object relational mapping and cartesian model support in a database manipulation and mapping system

• US 7,149,730 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2003
• Issued: 12/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Thought, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Thought, Inc.
• Inventors: Mullins, Ward, Martins, Alexandre
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu M.
• Application Number:
  US10/430,004
• Publication Number:
  US 20030208505A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,317 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/10, 707/100, 707/102, 707/103, 707/104.1, 707/2, 345/736, 711/141, 709/201, 709/203, 709/225, 709/251, 713/201, 717/108, 717/114, 717/162, 717/165
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for dynamic object-driven database manipulation and mapping system which relates in general to correlating or translating one type of database to another type of database or to an object programming application. Correlating or translating involves relational to object translation, object to object translation, relational to relational, or a combination of the above. Thus, the present invention is directed to dynamic mapping of databases to selected objects. Also provided are systems and methods that optionally include caching components, security features, data migration facilities, and components for reading, writing, interpreting and manipulating XML and XMI data files.

Claims

1. A local or distributed computer system comprising a user interface, a working memory storage area and at least one device for permanently storing information, wherein a portion of said memory of said system is loaded with at least one portion of a computer software program containing logic for accessing data in a first data source having a first particular data structure and having a particular corresponding structural schema and the logic for creating or maintaining all or a portion of such data in at least one second data source having the same or a different data structural schema, wherein:

(a) at least one of the data sources is an object data source store or is data encapsulated by data objects located within an object application program, wherein the data objects are organized by a discernable organizational structural schema or are capable of being organized by an organizational structural schema,

(b) the computer system comprises a mapping system that includes logic for accessing each schema corresponding to a different data source accessible to the mapping system, and the mapping system may further include logic for generating a structural schema for one or more data sources when a schema is absent or is unavailable to the mapping system, wherein repository maps are organized according to at least one navigation model or schema, or the mapping system provides an interface and software logic for organizing or reorganizing repository maps and data objects according to at least one navigation model or schema,

(c) the mapping system comprises software logic capable of correlating, of translating, or of both correlating and translating, all or a portion of the data located in each of the different data sources that is being created or is being maintained by the mapping system, and

(d) the mapping system comprises a mapping repository that includes metadata, or includes software logic for accessing metadata, wherein at least a portion of the metadata defines relationships between two or more data objects located in a data source or located in an application program capable of being run on the computer system, and wherein;

the one or more object programming applications capable of being run within the computer system are tailored to delegate both the accessing of a data source and the generation of SQL strings to a runtime library repository, which repository can access the database directly or through a database driver, such as a JDBC driver, without the need to imbed specific database accessing mechanisms in the application code.

2. A local or distributed computer system according to claim 1, wherein the mapping repository further comprises software logic, or access to software logic, for resolving mismatches between the data schema for one or more data sources and the data schema for two or more data objects located within an object application program that is running within the computer system, or in an object application program that is capable of being run within the computer system.

3. A local or distributed computer system according to claim 2, wherein multiple schema maps can exist for a single data object and multiple objects can use a single map that is located in the mapping system repository.

4. A local or distributed computer system according to claim 2, wherein the mapping repository includes one or more items selected from the group consisting of maps of database schemas, object definitions, other programming definitions or parameters, object metadata, database settings, and complex relationship definitions.

5. A local or distributed computer system according to claim 4, wherein the mapping repository includes one or more items selected from the group consisting of maps of database schemas, object definitions, other programming definitions or parameters, object metadata, database settings, and complex relationship definitions.

6. A local or distributed computer system according to claim 1, wherein the object application program which contains two or more data objects wherein metadata accessible by the mapping repository defines relationships between the two or more data objects, may be run independently as an applet, as a stand alone application program, as an application program or service within an object program application server system, or may be capable of running in two or more of the these types of programs.

7. A local or distributed computer system according to claim 1, wherein one of the data sources is a relational data source, is an object data source, or is an XML data source.

8. A local or distributed computer system according to claim 7, wherein one of the data sources is an XML data source.

9. A local or distributed computer system according to claim 1, wherein one or more of the data sources is located in transient memory of the computer data system and can be persisted to a non-transient memory data source.

10. A computer system according to claim 1, wherein the mapping system portion is designed to provide different maps for particular objects to different users and does not permit direct access of computer system users to JDBC drivers for any mapped data sources of the computer system, and wherein this mapping system provides varying levels of access to the mapped data sources for at least two different users of the same system, whereby a user only has access to a particular list of maps that are available to the security level of that user.

11. A computer system according to claim 1, wherein the mapping system portion is designed to provide to a system user who is accessing, creating or updating maps, or accessing objects on a system to make data changes related to a particular object and to promulgate the changes to that object as either local or global changes on the computer system.

12. A computer system according to claim 11, wherein the mapping system portion provides an interface permitting an authorized user to edit or create the tables, fields, or attributes of a data map for an object as a table format or XML file format without requiring the user to have extensive knowledge of a particular relational database as a source of the data, or extensive knowledge about how to directly access that relational database.

14. A local or distributed computer system according to claim 1, further comprising a fully synchronized caching system that synchronizes the caching of a delegated data source access management object to relational mapping layer and the transaction coordination facilities of an application server, and the computer system comprises (i) a first data source referred to as the primary data source, (ii) a second data source referred to as the cache data source that is associated with an object to relational mapping layer to provide a data source cache for object applications, and (iii) a server having a transaction coordinator with the ability to register multiple data sources, wherein:

(a) both the primary data source and the cache data source are registered with the transaction coordinator facilities of the server, and (b) the cache data source acts as secondary data source to speed up data accesses for an object application and the cache data is plugged into the object to relational mapping layer, and (c) registration of the cache data source with the transaction monitor of the server provides the feature that any changes to the cache will automatically be synchronized with the primary data source or record upon transaction completion, including commit or roll-back of changes for both data sources, and optionally, wherein the transaction monitor of the server calls the mapping system and in the call to the mapping system delegates accessing or updating of data in the data sources registered with the transaction monitor, such that the transaction monitor does not complete a transaction until it is notified by the mapping system that a data source has been updated by the mapping system in order for any changes to the cache to be automatically synchronized with the primary data source or record upon transaction completion, including commit or roll-back of changes for both data sources.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein at least one cache data source can be set up as a memory-resident entire database, as a disk resident database, or as both a memory resident database and disk resident and in each case the cache data source is synchronized with the transaction monitor of the server, and optionally wherein at least one cache data source is a memory resident database that is a portion of a disk resident database and the size of the memory allocated for the memory resident database can be set by the user of the computer system, or can be automatically allocated by the system according to pre-set protocols.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the at least one cache data source is adapted to cache at least one member selected from the group consisting of data from a data source, a source structure map, an object or object definition, metadata, object schema, an object schema, and an XML file which defines or describes a member selected from the group consisting of data from a data source, a source structure map, an object or object definition, metadata, and an object schema.

13. A local or distributed computer system comprising a user interface, a working memory storage area and at least one device for permanently storing information and a mapping system and the system having a portion of said memory loaded with at least one portion of a computer software program containing logic for accessing data in a first data source having a first particular data structure with a particular corresponding structural schema and the logic for creating or maintaining all or a portion of such data in at least one second data source having the same or a different data structural schema, wherein:

(i) at least one object programming application running within said system is tailored to delegate both the accessing of a data source and the generation of SQL strings to a runtime library repository, which repository can access the database directly or through a database driver, such as a JDBC driver, without the need to imbed specific database accessing mechanisms in the application code, and

(ii) the mapping system of said computer system provides an interface and features that permit a user to access, create, or update the metadata of a map as a dynamic computer system update, without requiring the user to either open a new connection to the data source or to restart an object application program that is running while the user is dynamically evaluating or changing metadata for a map, and wherein the metadata of a map that a user can dynamically evaluate or change includes a map description of data or relationships between data, and wherein such map description is at least one member selected from the group consisting of a data source relationship, a relationship between at least two objects of an object application, and both a data source relationship and a relationship between at least two objects of an object application.