Table-oriented application development environment

• US 7,266,565 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2004
• Issued: 09/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Callahan Cellular LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Tablecode Software Corporation
• Inventors: Diab, Salleh
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz; Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Cindy
• Application Number:
  US10/870,407
• Publication Number:
  US 20050065966A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,174 Days
• Field of Search: 707/103, 707/102
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/24 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for developing a software application including the step of creating a software application having one or more classes, each class comprising one or more metadata describing characteristics defining the class. The method also includes the step of enabling any number of additional metadata to be added to the metadata of the class to facilitate the development of the software application. Also, the metadata and the additional metadata are organized in a tabular fashion.

Claims

1. A method for developing a software application related to a domain comprising:

a) storing a plurality of metadata describing characteristics defining a class, each class in a plurality of classes comprising;

i) a class-body comprising a plurality of class-body members, each member comprising a plurality of class-body member metadata in the plurality of metadata, the class-body metadata describing characteristics defining the class-body members, and wherein the plurality of class-body members metadata for a class are stored together, and

ii) a class-head comprising a plurality of class-head metadata in the plurality of metadata, the class-head metadata describing characteristics defining the class-head;

b) enabling any number of additional metadata to be added to the plurality of metadata of the class-head and class-body to represent a real world object and to facilitate the development of the software application;

c) storing a plurality of metadata describing characteristics defining an application, each application in a plurality of applications comprising;

i) an application-body comprising a plurality of class-heads for classes composing the application, wherein the plurality of class-heads of the classes that compose the application are stored together, and wherein each of the class-heads has metadata pointing to its class body storage,

ii) an application-head comprising a plurality of application-head metadata in the plurality of metadata, the application-head metadata describing characteristics defining the application; and

d) storing a plurality of metadata describing characteristics defining a domain wherein a plurality of software applications related to a domain are organized in a domain software catalog comprising a plurality of metadata describing characteristics defining a domain in a plurality of domains, each domain in the plurality comprising;

i) a domain software catalog-body comprising a plurality of application-heads that make up the domain software catalog, and wherein the plurality of application-head metadata that make up the domain software catalog are stored together, and wherein each application-head has metadata pointing to said application body storage, and

ii) a domain software catalog-head comprising a plurality of domain software catalog-head metadata in the plurality of metadata, the domain-head metadata describing characteristics defining the domain, and

iii) storing the plurality of metadata for the plurality of domain software catalog-heads and wherein each domain-head has metadata pointing to its domain software catalog-body storage.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the storing of the plurality of class-body member metadata further comprises accepting a value for a characteristic of the class-body member metadata passed to the class-body members from its class-head, its application-head or its domain-head.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising enabling access to the value of the plurality of metadata from within class-body member functions.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising enabling a domain expert to add any number of additional metadata to the plurality of metadata of the class, the application, or the domain.

5. A software application development environment comprising:

a) a software application related to a domain comprising a plurality of classes, each class comprising a plurality of metadata describing characteristics defining the class and each class comprising

i. a class-body comprising a plurality of class-body members, each member comprising a plurality of class-body member metadata in the plurality of metadata, the class-body metadata describing characteristics defining the class-body members,

ii. a class-head comprising a plurality of class-head metadata in the plurality of metadata, the class-head metadata describing characteristics defining the class-head;

b) an editor for enabling any number of additional metadata to be added to the plurality of metadata of the class to facilitate representation of a real world object and to facilitate the development of the software application; and

c) a database table for storing the plurality of class-body members metadata, application-body metadata and the domain-body metadata and the any number of additional metadata,

wherein the software application related to a domain has a plurality of metadata describing characteristics defining an application in a plurality of applications, each application in the plurality comprising

(i) an application-body comprising the plurality of class-head members that comprise the application, and

(ii) an application-head comprising a plurality of application-head metadata in the plurality of metadata, the application-head metadata describing characteristics defining the application,

wherein a plurality of software applications related to a domain are organized in a domain software catalog comprising a plurality of metadata describing characteristics defining a domain in a plurality of domains, each domain in the plurality of domains comprising

(iii) a domain software catalog-body comprising the plurality of application-head members that make up the domain software catalog, and

(iv) a domain software catalog-head comprising a plurality of domain software catalog-head metadata in the plurality of metadata, the domain-head metadata describing characteristics defining the domain.

6. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the database table further comprises a metatable defining an underlying record table of at least one of the class-body, the application-body and the domain-body.

7. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the plurality of metadata and the any number of additional metadata are organized in a tabular fashion.

8. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the plurality of class-body member metadata and class-head metadata further comprises object-oriented definition data for an object class-head.

9. The software application development environment of claim 8 wherein the object-oriented definition data further comprises at least one of metadata for a unique class identifier, metadata for an object unique name, metadata for abstractness, metadata for the database table comprising class-body definition, metadata for virtuality, metadata for an inheritance list, and metadata for inheritance access.

10. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the plurality of class-head metadata further comprises relational database definition data for a table type.

11. The software application development environment of claim 10 wherein the definition data further comprises at least one of metadata for the database filename that stores instances of the objects of the class metadata for author name and metadata for version number.

12. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the plurality of class-head metadata further comprises definition data for classifying the plurality of classes.

13. The software application development environment of claim 12 wherein the definition data further comprises at least one of metadata for transaction type, metadata for authorization type, metadata for storage type, metadata for recovery type and metadata for locking type.

14. The software application development of claim 12 wherein the classifying of the classes is used to automate reusability of software programming tasks.

15. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the plurality of class-head metadata further comprises definition data storing programming information for the class.

16. The software application development of claim 15 wherein the definition data further comprises at least one of metadata for a help message about the class and metadata for Is-Proxy status, metadata for genericity as a list of parameters to pass from the domain-head, the application-head, and the class-head to the class-body, metadata for object-role type of the class, and metadata for a role-title to display in the Menu.

17. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the plurality of class-head metadata further comprises accepting a value for a metadata as a genericity variable describing a characteristic of its calling domain and software application.

18. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the plurality of class-body member metadata further comprises object-oriented definition data for a class-body member.

19. The software application development environment of claim 18 wherein the object-oriented definition data for a class-body member metadata comprises at least one of metadata for unique member identifier, metadata for an attribute name, metadata for object-oriented data type, metadata for visibility type, metadata for static status, metadata for virtual status, metadata for member type, metadata for link file name comprising the source code of member functions, metadata for scope level, metadata for a list of trigger names, and metadata for a default value for an attribute.

20. The software application development environment of claim 7 wherein the plurality of class-body member metadata comprises relational database management system definition data for an attribute type.

21. The software application development environment of claim 20 wherein the database management system definition data for a class-body member metadata further comprises at least one of metadata for a database data type, metadata for width, metadata for decimal, metadata for multiplicity, metadata for is-ordered status, metadata for is-primary-key status, metadata for is-foreign key status and metadata for justification.

22. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the plurality of class-body member metadata further comprises definition data for classifying the class-body members.

23. The software application development environment of claim 22 wherein the definition data further comprises at least one of metadata for an authorization level and metadata for a member category.

24. The software application development of claim 22 wherein the classification of the class-body member is used to automate reusability of software programming tasks.

25. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the plurality of class-body member metadata further comprises definition data storing programming information for the class-body member.

26. The software application development environment of claim 25 wherein the definition data storing programming information comprises at least one of metadata for a help message about the member, metadata for a prompt message, and metadata for a version number of the member.

27. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein source code for class-body members'"'"' functions are written in at least one external file.

28. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the plurality of class-body metadata further comprises accepting a value of a metadata as a genericity variable describing a characteristic of its calling domain and software application, and wherein the plurality of class-body metadata further comprises accepting a value of a metadata as a genericity variable describing a characteristic of the class-head, application-head and domain-head.

29. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the domain software catalog further comprises a metatable.

30. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the metadata of the software application further comprises at least one of metadata to assign a unique identifier for the application, metadata to assign a unique name for the application, metadata for a name of the class-head database, metadata for a role of the software application, metadata for type of the software application, metadata for an inheritance list of the software application, metadata for inheritance access, metadata for a list of parameters to pass to the class-head database and the class-body database, metadata for a help message about the application, metadata for virtuality status, and metadata for a version number for the application.

31. The software application development environment of claim 5 further comprising a virtual engine for deploying the application directly from the plurality of metadata and the any number of additional metadata.

32. The software application development environment of claim 5 further comprising a run-time compiler to compile functions of the class-body members.

33. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein the software application is a plug-in to another software application.

34. The software application development environment of claim 5 further comprising instantiating an object from the class definition, the object comprising an identifier of its domain, an identifier of its application, the identifier of its class, and its own unique identifier.

35. The software application development environment of claim 34 wherein the object further comprises an identifier of its document and an identifier of its layout.

36. The software application development environment of claim 35 wherein said object identifiers are used to connect and reference said object from an element at another location.

37. The software application development environment of claim 34 wherein the object further comprises a definition for a proxy image entity for the object.

38. The software application development environment of claim 5 further comprises a document manager application to create a document serving as a container for persistent storage of objects created by other applications.

39. The software application development environment of claim 38 wherein the document manager application manages layouts for the documents.

40. The software application development environment of claim 39 wherein an object placed in the document further comprises an identifier of its layout.

41. The software application development environment of claim 38 wherein each object further comprises an identifier of the document.

42. The software application development environment of claim 38 wherein the document manager application manages common properties for the object.

43. The software application development environment of claim 42 wherein the common properties further comprise at least one of layers'"'"' organization for the objects, colors for the objects, line-widths for the objects, printing properties for the objects, and plotting properties for the objects.

44. The software application development environment of claim 38 wherein the document is a folder on a disk.

45. The software application development environment of claim 38 wherein the document is an archive file.

46. The software application development environment of claim 38 wherein the document stores instances of objects created from different applications.

47. The software application development environment of claim 38 further comprising creating a self-contained document independent of any application by storing, within the document, the databases describing the applications used to create the document.

48. The software application development environment of claim 38 wherein at least one of the databases for objects having the metadata for object-role set to attribute is created to force a business standard and to place constraints on users'"'"' data input.

49. The software application development environment of claim 47 wherein the databases organize the applications into several predefined directories, each of the pre-defined directories comprising a certain preference when loading the databases to enable the end-user to add and test innovation to an existing application without disturbing other works in progress.

50. The software application development environment of claim 5 wherein a domain expert uses the editor to add the any number of additional metadata to the plurality of metadata.