Categories on a per instance basis
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for establishing a structure of a data item within a computer system, where said data item is an instance of a first class and inherits attributes and methods from said first class, the method comprising the steps of:
- creating a category object that is an instance of a category class, wherein said category class has one or more attributes; and
associating said data item with said category object without associating said category object with all other instances of said first class thereby causing said data item to be associated with a structure that includes storage for values for said one or more attributes of said category class.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for associating methods or attributes on a per-instance basis is provided. One technique for providing “per-instance attributes” involves properties and property bundles. A second technique for providing “per-instance attributes” involves categories wherein the instance can be thought of as being “placed” into one or more categories. A technique for providing “per-instance methods” involves policies. In any of these techniques, providing per-instance properties may be used in any of the following ways: (1) different instances of the same class are associated with different properties where the properties are not in the class; and (2) two instances of two different classes are associated with the same property where the property is not in either of the two classes.
63 Citations
69 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method for establishing a structure of a data item within a computer system, where said data item is an instance of a first class and inherits attributes and methods from said first class, the method comprising the steps of:
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creating a category object that is an instance of a category class, wherein said category class has one or more attributes; and associating said data item with said category object without associating said category object with all other instances of said first class thereby causing said data item to be associated with a structure that includes storage for values for said one or more attributes of said category class. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A computer-implemented method for establishing a structure of a data item within a computer system, where the data item is an instance of a class and inherits attributes and methods from said class, the method comprising the steps of:
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creating a first category object that is an instance of a first category class, wherein said first category class has one or more attributes; creating a second category object that is an instance of a second category class, wherein said second category class has one or more attributes and is a different class than the first category class; wherein the first category class and the second category class are external to the class lineage of the class of which the data item is an instance; and associating said data item with said first category object and with said second category object thereby causing said data item to be associated with a structure that includes storage for values for said one or more attributes of said first category class and for said one or more attributes of said second category class. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for establishing a structure of a data item within a computer system, wherein said data item is an instance of a first class and inherits attributes and methods from said first class, wherein the one or more sequences of instructions when executed by one or more processors cause performance of the steps of:
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creating a category object that is an instance of a category class, wherein said category class has one or more attributes; and associating said data item with said category object without associating said category object with all other instances of said first class thereby causing said data item to be associated with a structure that includes storage for values for said one or more attributes of said category class. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57)
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58. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for establishing a structure of a data item within a computer system, wherein the data item is an instance of a class and inherits attributes and methods from said class, wherein the one or more sequences of instructions when executed by one or more processors cause performance of the steps of:
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creating a first category object that is an instance of a first category class, wherein said first category class has one or more attributes; creating a second category object that is an instance of a second category class, wherein said second category class has one or more attributes and is a different class than the first category class; wherein the first category class and the second category class are external to the class lineage of the class of which the data item is an instance; and associating said data item with said first category object and with said second category object thereby causing said data item to be associated with a structure that includes storage for values for said one or more attributes of said first category class and for said one or more attributes of said second category class. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69)
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Specification