Framework to access a remote system from an integrated development environment

• US 7,458,062 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2002
• Issued: 11/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Yantzi, Donald J., Simpson, Eric V., Coulthard, Phil
• Primary Examiner(s): Kendall; Chuck O
• Application Number:
  US10/286,559
• Publication Number:
  US 20040003371A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,217 Days
• Field of Search: 717100-123
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/24 Object-oriented

Abstract

For use in an integrated development environment, such as Eclipse, a common connection registry of connections to remote systems is presented. The connection registry contains objects and subsystem objects. The connection objects have attribute information for the remote system whereas the subsystem objects contain information specific to a particular tool and connection. The framework further presents a common user interface by which tools can be registered within a connection, or by which a new connection can be created. The common user interface presents application program interfaces by which connection objects and subsystem objects can be created, retrieved, maintained, updated, modified, stored in the registry, and/or deleted, etc. The framework is capable of maintaining connections and tools within an integrated development environment independent of the type and/or operating system of the remote systems, the programming language of the tools, etc.

Claims

1. A method by which to register at least two tools that accesses at least one remote system, the method within an integrated development environment and comprising:

creating a connection object associated with at least one remote system;

populating the connection object with general attributes of a connection from the integrated development environment to the remote system;

determining if the at least two tools each have a corresponding associated subsystem factory having specific attribute information pertaining to the respective tool;

determining if each corresponding subsystem factory is supported by the connection object;

if so, creating a subsystem object containing the specific attribute information unique to the connection and the two tools; and

saving the subsystem object and the connection object in a connection registry.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the general attributes of the connection comprises:

a connection name;

a remote system identifier; and

a type of remote system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the general attributes of the connection further comprises:

a default user ID; and

a descriptive text.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of registering further comprises:

retrieving a plurality of subsystem objects for a particular connection object;

calling a plurality of application program interfaces to retrieve a name and icon for each of the retrieved subsystem objects; and

displaying the subsystem name and icons for each of the retrieved subsystem objects in a common user interface.