Drag-and drop dynamic distributed object model
First Claim
1. A system for accessing and operating distributed dynamic external objects across a computer network, in response to an application program on at least one client computer comprising:
- one or more server computers, each one further comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to wide area networks or local area networks;
at least one client computer comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to the server computers via wide area networks or local area networks;
an application software program operating on the client computer for presenting a first form or menu to a user of the client computer and including locations of dynamic external objects used by the application program and for creating an instance of one or more of the dynamic distributed objects on the client computer;
the set of dynamic external object classes including methods and attributes, stored on one or more of the server computers or on one or more of the client computers, said dynamic external object classes comprising object code;
an interpreting software program for converting the located dynamic external objects into machine code on the user'"'"'s machine and for resolving the class inheritances, polymorphic behaviors, and encapsulation behaviors of the objects, classes, methods, and attributes, across client and server computers in a network, at the time of the user'"'"'s request for execution of the programs.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An external object model is built into a comprehensive, drag-and-drop, dynamic, distributed object model, to offer its users lower total cost of ownership than do conventional user interface applications and application builders. A Windows® workstation user computer is provided with a quick, simple, easily-managed path to combinations of available applications on a network of systems, in such a way that the user can establish and exploit complex data relationships and software capabilities on the workstation without application installation, significant access effort, or specialized knowledge. Runtime binding prepares and links user forms and reports to application programs as desired, without preparatory steps. The definition and use of query objects to view concurrently multiple database tables offers the unique ability to combine fields from dissimilar database engines into a single view.
93 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A system for accessing and operating distributed dynamic external objects across a computer network, in response to an application program on at least one client computer comprising:
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one or more server computers, each one further comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to wide area networks or local area networks; at least one client computer comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to the server computers via wide area networks or local area networks; an application software program operating on the client computer for presenting a first form or menu to a user of the client computer and including locations of dynamic external objects used by the application program and for creating an instance of one or more of the dynamic distributed objects on the client computer; the set of dynamic external object classes including methods and attributes, stored on one or more of the server computers or on one or more of the client computers, said dynamic external object classes comprising object code; an interpreting software program for converting the located dynamic external objects into machine code on the user'"'"'s machine and for resolving the class inheritances, polymorphic behaviors, and encapsulation behaviors of the objects, classes, methods, and attributes, across client and server computers in a network, at the time of the user'"'"'s request for execution of the programs. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A drag and drop, dynamic, distributed, object model based software user interface system for accessing and operating distributed applications across computer networks, comprising:
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two or more peer-to-peer computers, each one further comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to wide area networks or local area networks; a first peer computer comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to the server computers via wide area networks or local area networks; an application software program operating on the first peer computer for presenting a first form or menu to a user of the first peer computer and including locations of objects used by the application program and for creating an instance of one or more of the dynamic distributed objects on the first peer computer; the set of dynamic external object classes including methods and attributes, stored on a different peer computer and stored as compiled object code; an interpreting software program for converting the located dynamic external objects into machine code on the user'"'"'s machine and for resolving class inheritances, polymorphic behaviors, and encapsulation behaviors of the objects, classes, methods, and attributes, across computers in the network, at the time of the User'"'"'s request for execution of the application program. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for implementing dynamic external objects, comprising the steps of:
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on one or more first computers, compiling source code for the objects to create dynamic external objects (DEOs)of object code for performing one or more tasks of a launching application program; on a second computer, installing a launching application with one or more tasks and locations of DEOs on the first computers to enable a user to locate the DEOs corresponding to tasks of the launching application program and create an instance of the dynamic external objects on the second computer for accomplishing the selected task(s); and interpreting the dynamic external objects on the second computer to perform one or more of the selected tasks of the launching program.
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15. A method for using dynamic external objects, comprising the steps of:
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providing one or more dynamic external objects comprising object code; on a user'"'"'s computer, running an application program that includes one or more tasks to be performed on the user'"'"'s computer and information about the location of dynamic external objects which correspond to the tasks; accepting the user'"'"'s selection of one or more task of the application for execution; automatically locating the dynamic external objects required to execute each task by creating an instance of the dynamic external objects on the user'"'"'s computer for execution; and executing the selected tasks of the application on the user'"'"'s computer. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for deploying objects of an application program comprising:
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on a network of computers, storing a plurality of objects in object code, each of which has inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation; on one of the computers installing an application program that has the location of objects needed to run an application program; creating an instance of an object on the computer with the application program; and
on the computer with the instance of the object, executing the program. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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Specification