Configuration model for configuring an adapter software component to selectively access software objects and object editor using instance of same

• US 7,272,819 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2002
• Issued: 09/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Delfino, Jean-Sebastien, Seto, Norman K.
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MITCHELL, JASON D
• Application Number:
  US10/314,806
• Publication Number:
  US 20040015858A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,744 Days
• Field of Search: 717104-105, 717106-113, 703 1- 20, 707/103, 715/513, 715/700
• US Class Current: 717/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/449 Object-oriented method invocation or resolution

Abstract

An object editor capable of displaying a set of application software objects, which may include objects with a dynamic reflection capability (“reflective objects”), includes an object oriented configuration model instance (CMI), a generic adapter, and a UI framework. The CMI is particular to the set of application objects to be edited and defines a particular view of these objects to be provided by the editor. The CMI is external to the generic adapter and includes settings that control which application objects will be accessed and the manner of access. The generic adapter reads the de-serialized CMI'"'"'s current settings, selectively accesses the set of application objects to be edited and their attributes as dictated by the CMI settings, and passes the accessed information to the UI framework for display.

Claims

1. A configuration model, in a data processing system, for configuring at least one adapter software component to selectively access a set of application software objects, including at least one reflective application software object, said at least one adapter software component comprising a generic adapter software component which uses reflection to access reflective application software objects, said configuration model being an object oriented implementation and being external to said at least one adapter software component, wherein said configuration model configures a manner by which said generic adapter software component accesses said reflective application software objects, and wherein said configuration model, along with said generic adapter software component, provides, individually for each reflective application software object in the set of application software objects, a view for representing properties of said reflective application software object in an object editor based on said reflection, wherein the configuration model comprises:

a navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of application software objects of said set of application software objects, wherein the navigator class or a descendent thereof comprises a first indicator for indicating the position of said particular class of software object in a hierarchy of software objects for the purposes of displaying the hierarchy of software objects in the object editor;

a model navigator subclass of the navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of reflective application software objects of said set of application software objects;

an item class representative of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises a second indicator of a custom adapter software component to be used to access objects of said particular class;

a model item class representative of a particular class of reflective application software objects to be accessed; and

a property class representative of an attribute of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises a third indicator of an editor to be used to edit said attribute.

2. The configuration model of claim 1, wherein said first indicator indicates that said particular class of software objects is at a root level of said set of software objects.

3. The configuration model of claim 2, wherein said first indicator is a class identifier.

4. The configuration model of claim 1, wherein said first indicator indicates that said particular class of software objects is at a level that is deeper than a root level of said set of software objects.

5. The configuration model of claim 4, wherein said first indicator comprises a sequence of application software object associations comprising at least one association from an originating class of application software objects to said particular class of software objects.

6. The configuration model of claim 1, wherein said item class further indicates that said particular class of application software objects is to be displayed.

7. The configuration model of claim 6, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises an indicator of an icon to be displayed in conjunction with displayed instances of said particular class of software objects.

8. The configuration model of claim 6, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises an indicator of text to be displayed in conjunction with displayed instances of said particular class of software objects.

9. The configuration model of claim 1, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises an indicator of whether instances of said attribute are modifiable.

10. The configuration model of claim 1, wherein said property class further indicates that said attribute of a particular class of software objects is to be displayed.

11. The configuration model of claim 1, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises an indicator of an icon to be displayed in conjunction with displayed instances of said attribute.

12. The configuration model of claim 1, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises an indicator of text to be displayed in conjunction with displayed instances of said attribute.

13. The configuration model of claim 1, implemented in the Java™

programming language.

14. The configuration model of claim 1, wherein said configuration model comprises:

at least one class identifying the set of application software objects that may be accessed when representing said set of application software objects using said configuration model; and

a get adapter method that determines, individually for each application software object in the set of application software objects, whether the generic adapter software component or a custom adapter software component is to be utilized when rendering said application software object.

15. A computer readable medium storing computer software that, when loaded into a computing device, adapts said device to, in an adapter software component, selectively access a reflective application software object by:

accessing a configuration model instance (CMI) external to said adapter software component to determine a manner of accessing said reflective application software object; and

using reflection to selectively access said reflective application software object in the manner indicated by said CMI, wherein said CMI, along with said adapter software component, provides a view for representing properties of said reflective application software object in an object editor based on said reflection, and wherein the CMI comprises;

a navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of application software objects of said set of application software objects, wherein the navigator class or a descendent thereof comprises a first indicator for indicating the position of said particular class of software object in a hierarchy of software objects for the purposes of displaying the hierarchy of software objects in the object editor;

a model navigator subclass of the navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of reflective application software objects of said set of application software objects;

an item class representative of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises a second indicator of a custom adapter software component to be used to access objects of said particular class;

a model item class representative of a particular class of reflective application software objects to be accessed; and

a property class representative of an attribute of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises a third indicator of an editor to be used to edit said attribute.

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein said manner of accessing indicated by said CMI comprises an indication of an attribute of said reflective application software object to be accessed.

17. The medium of claim 15, wherein said manner of accessing indicated by said CMI comprises an indication of an associated application software object of said reflective application software object to be accessed.

18. The medium of claim 17, wherein said associated application software object is contained by said reflective application software object.

19. The medium of claim 17, wherein said reflective application software object is based on an Unified Modeling Language (UML) model, and wherein said indication of an associated application software object to be accessed comprises a sequence of rolenames comprising at least one rolename from an originating class of said object oriented application model to the class of said associated application software object.

20. The medium of claim 15, wherein said reflection used to selectively access said reflective application software object is Meta Object Facility (MOF) reflection.

21. The medium of claim 15, wherein said CMI comprises:

at least one class identifying a set of application software objects that may be accessed when representing said set of application software objects using said CMI; and

a get adapter method that determines, individually for each application software object in the set of application software objects, whether a generic adapter software component that uses said reflection to access reflective application software objects or a custom adapter software component is to be utilized when rendering said application software object.

22. A computer readable medium storing computer software that, when loaded into a computing device, adapts said device to, in an adapter software component, access at least one application software object of a set of application software objects, said at least one application software object having a desired relationship with a specified reflective application software object, by:

accessing a configuration model instance (CMI) external to said adapter software component to determine a manner of identifying the at least one application software object that has the desired relationship with said specified reflective application software object; and

using reflection to access said at least one application software object identified using said determined manner of identifying, wherein said CMI, along with said adapter software component, provides a view for representing properties of said specified reflective application software object in an object editor based on said reflection, and wherein the CMI comprises;

a navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of application software objects of said set of application software objects, wherein the navigator class or a descendent thereof comprises a first indicator for indicating the position of said particular class of software object in a hierarchy of software objects for the purposes of displaying the hierarchy of software objects in the object editor;

a model navigator subclass of the navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of reflective application software objects of said set of application software objects;

an item class representative of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises a second indicator of a custom adapter software component to be used to access objects of said particular class;

a model item class representative of a particular class of reflective application software objects to be accessed; and

a property class representative of an attribute of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises a third indicator of an editor to be used to edit said attribute.

23. The medium of claim 22, wherein said desired relationship is a child relationship.

24. The medium of claim 22, wherein said desired relationship is a parent relationship.

25. The medium of claim 22, wherein said reflection used to access said at least one application software object is Meta Object Facility (MOF) reflection.

26. The medium of claim 22, wherein said CMI comprises:

at least one class identifying a set of application software objects that may be accessed when representing said set of application software objects using said CMI; and

a get adapter method that determines, individually for each application software object in the set of application software objects, whether a generic adapter software component that uses said reflection to access reflective application software objects or a custom adapter software component is to be utilized when rendering said application software object.

27. A computer readable medium storing a controller software component for mapping a client software component method to a corresponding method capable returning a desired feature of a reflective application software object, said controller software component comprising:

an adapter software component having a method corresponding to said client software component method, said adapter software component method being configurable to access said desired feature of an application software object using reflection; and

a configuration model instance (CMI) external to said adapter software component for configuring said adapter software component method to selectively access said desired feature of an application software object using reflection, wherein said CMI, along with said adapter software component, provides a view for representing properties of said application software object in an object editor based on said reflection, and wherein the CMI comprises;

a navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of application software objects of said set of application software objects, wherein the navigator class or a descendent thereof comprises a first indicator for indicating the position of said particular class of software object in a hierarchy of software objects for the purposes of displaying the hierarchy of software objects in the object editor;

a model navigator subclass of the navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of reflective application software objects of said set of application software objects;

an item class representative of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises a second indicator of a custom adapter software component to be used to access objects of said particular class;

a model item class representative of a particular class of reflective application software objects to be accessed; and

a property class representative of an attribute of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises a third indicator of an editor to be used to edit said attribute.

28. The computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein said desired feature of an application software object is an attribute.

29. The computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein said desired feature of an application software object is an associated object.

30. The computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein said CMI comprises:

at least one class identifying a set of application software objects that may be accessed when representing said set of application software objects using said CMI; and

a get adapter method that determines, individually for each application software object in the set of application software objects, whether a generic adapter software component that uses said reflection to access reflective application software objects or a custom adapter software component is to be utilized when rendering said application software object.

31. An object editor, stored in a computer readable storage media and executed by a processor in a data processing system, comprising:

a user interface framework;

a controller software component for mapping at least one method of said user interface framework to a corresponding method capable of returning a desired feature of a reflective application software object, said controller software component comprising;

an adapter software component having a method corresponding to said user interface framework method, said adapter software component method being configurable to access said desired feature of an application software object using reflection; and

a configuration model instance (CMI) external to said adapter software component for configuring said adapter software component method to selectively access said desired feature of an application software object using reflection, wherein said CMI, along with said adapter software component, provides a view for representing properties of said application software object in an object editor based on said reflection, and wherein the CMI comprises;

a navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of application software objects of said set of application software objects, wherein the navigator class or a descendent thereof comprises a first indicator for indicating the position of said particular class of software object in a hierarchy of software objects for the purposes of displaying the hierarchy of software objects in the object editor;

a model navigator subclass of the navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of reflective application software objects of said set of application software objects;

an item class representative of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises a second indicator of a custom adapter software component to be used to access objects of said particular class;

a model item class representative of a particular class of reflective application software objects to be accessed; and

a property class representative of an attribute of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises a third indicator of an editor to be used to edit said attribute.

32. The object editor of claim 31, wherein said user interface framework comprises a controller module, and wherein said at least one method of said user interface framework is a method of said controller module.

33. The object editor of claim 31, further comprising:

at least one custom adapter for accessing a class of non-reflective application software objects, and

an adapter factory software component for determining, for a specified application software object class, one of a generic adapter and said at least one custom adapter to be used to access application software objects of said specified class.

34. The object editor of claim 31, wherein said CMI comprises:

at least one class identifying a set of application software objects that may be accessed when representing said set of application software objects using said CMI; and

a get adapter method that determines, individually for each application software object in the set of application software objects, whether a generic adapter software component that uses said reflection to access reflective application software objects or a custom adapter software component is to be utilized when rendering said application software object.

35. In an adapter software component, a method of selectively accessing a reflective application software object, comprising:

accessing a configuration model instance (CMI) external to said adapter software component to determine a manner of accessing said reflective application software object; and

using reflection to selectively access said reflective application software object in the manner indicated by said CMI, wherein said CMI, along with said adapter software component, provides a view for representing properties of said reflective application software object in an object editor based on said reflection, and wherein the CMI comprises;

a navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of application software objects of said set of application software objects, wherein the navigator class or a descendent thereof comprises a first indicator for indicating the position of said particular class of software object in a hierarchy of software objects for the purposes of displaying the hierarchy of software objects in the object editor;

a model navigator subclass of the navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of reflective application software objects of said set of application software objects;

an item class representative of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises a second indicator of a custom adapter software component to be used to access objects of said particular class;

a model item class representative of a particular class of reflective application software objects to be accessed; and

a property class representative of an attribute of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises a third indicator of an editor to be used to edit said attribute.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein said CMI comprises:

at least one class identifying a set of application software objects that may be accessed when representing said set of application software objects using said CMI; and

a get adapter method that determines, individually for each application software object in the set of application software objects, whether a generic adapter software component that uses said reflection to access reflective application software objects or a custom adapter software component is to be utilized when rendering said application software object.

37. A computing device having a processor operable to cause an adapter software component to selectively access a reflective application software object by:

accessing a configuration model instance (CMI) external to said adapter software component to determine a manner of accessing said reflective application software object; and

using reflection to selectively access said reflective application software object in the manner indicated by said CMI, wherein said CMI, along with said adapter software component, provides a view for representing properties of said reflective application software object in an object editor based on said reflection, and wherein the CMI comprises;

a navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of application software objects of said set of application software objects, wherein the navigator class or a descendent thereof comprises a first indicator for indicating the position of said particular class of software object in a hierarchy of software objects for the purposes of displaying the hierarchy of software objects in the object editor;

a model navigator subclass of the navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of reflective application software objects of said set of application software objects;

an item class representative of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises a second indicator of a custom adapter software component to be used to access objects of said particular class;

a model item class representative of a particular class of reflective application software objects to be accessed; and

a property class representative of an attribute of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises a third indicator of an editor to be used to edit said attribute.

38. The computing device of claim 37, wherein said CMI comprises:

at least one class identifying a set of application software objects that may be accessed when representing said set of application software objects using said CMI; and

a get adapter method that determines, individually for each application software object in the set of application software objects, whether a generic adapter software component that uses said reflection to access reflective application software objects or a custom adapter software component is to be utilized when rendering said application software object.

39. In an adapter software component, a method of accessing at least one application software object of a set of application software objects, said at least one application software object having a desired relationship with a specified reflective application software object, comprising:

accessing a configuration model instance (CMI) external to said adapter software component to determine a manner of identifying the at least one application software object that has the desired relationship with said specified reflective application software object; and

using reflection to access said at least one application software object identified using said determined manner of identifying, wherein said CMI, along with said adapter software component, provides a view for representing properties of said at least one application software object in an object editor based on said reflection, and wherein the CMI comprises;

a navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of application software objects of said set of application software objects, wherein the navigator class or a descendent thereof comprises a first indicator for indicating the position of said particular class of software object in a hierarchy of software objects for the purposes of displaying the hierarchy of software objects in the object editor;

a model navigator subclass of the navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of reflective application software objects of said set of application software objects;

an item class representative of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises a second indicator of a custom adapter software component to be used to access objects of said particular class;

a model item class representative of a particular class of reflective application software objects to be accessed; and

a property class representative of an attribute of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises a third indicator of an editor to be used to edit said attribute.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein said CMI comprises:

at least one class identifying a set of application software objects that may be accessed when representing said set of application software objects using said CMI; and

a get adapter method that determines, individually for each application software object in the set of application software objects, whether a generic adapter software component that uses said reflection to access reflective application software objects or a custom adapter software component is to be utilized when rendering said application software object.

41. A computing device having a procesor operable to cause an adapter software component to access at least one application software object of a set of application software objects, said at least one application software object having a desired relationship with a specified reflective application software object, by:

accessing a configuration model instance (CMI) external to said adapter software component to determine a manner of identifying the at least one application software object that has the desired relationship with said specified reflective application software object; and

using reflection to access said at least one application software object identified using said determined manner of identifying, wherein said CMI, along with said adapter software component, provides a view for representing properties of said at least one application software object in an object editor based on said reflection, and wherein the CMI comprises;

a navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of application software objects of said set of application software objects, wherein the navigator class or a descendent thereof comprises a first indicator for indicating the position of said particular class of software object in a hierarchy of software objects for the purposes of displaying the hierarchy of software objects in the object editor;

a model navigator subclass of the navigator class representative of the accessing of a particular class of reflective application software objects of said set of application software objects;

an item class representative of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said item class or a descendent thereof comprises a second indicator of a custom adapter software component to be used to access objects of said particular class;

a model item class representative of a particular class of reflective application software objects to be accessed; and

a property class representative of an attribute of a particular class of application software objects to be accessed, wherein said property class or a descendent thereof comprises a third indicator of an editor to be used to edit said attribute.

42. The computing device of claim 41, wherein said CMI comprises:

at least one class identifying a set of application software objects that may be accessed when representing said set of application software objects using said CMI; and

a get adapter method that determines, individually for each application software object in the set of application software objects, whether a generic adapter software component that uses said reflection to access reflective application software objects or a custom adapter software component is to be utilized when rendering said application software object.