Method and apparatus for marking code for data versioning

• US 7,565,645 B2
• Filed: 01/18/2005
• Issued: 07/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Barrs, John William, Williamson, Paul Stuart, Brown, Michael Wayne
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Li B
• Application Number:
  US11/037,322
• Publication Number:
  US 20060161913A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,645 Days
• Field of Search: 717/130, 717/127, 717/128, 707/203
• US Class Current: 717/130
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3624 by performing operations on the source code, e.g. via a compiler
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3636 by tracing the execution of the program
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for marking data versioning for code. Responsive to receiving an application programming interface call, a first marking statement in the code and a second marking statement are inserted in the code. A portion of code between the first marking statement and the second marking statement forms a marked section of code. A change made in data in an object caused by execution of the marked portion of code is detected. The detected change is tracked in manner such that the object may be restored to a prior state.

Claims

1. A method in a data processing system for marking code for data versioning the method comprising:

responsive to receiving a user input, inserting a first marking statement in the code and a second marking statement in the code, wherein a portion of code between the first marking statement and the second marking statement form a marked section of code;

detecting a change made in data in an object caused by execution of the marked section of code and changes made in data in additional objects changed by execution of the marked section of code; and

responsive to detecting the change, tracking the change made in data in the object and the changes made to the data in the additional objects as a version of delta data in a data structure wherein the data structure comprises an index for selecting the version of the delta data, an array index identifying a location of the change within the delta data, and a value indicating the change, wherein the object and the additional objects form a set of objects and wherein each object in the set of objects may be restored to a prior state independently of other objects in the set of objects using a selected version of the delta data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first marking statement and the second marking statement are tags.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the inserting steps are initiated from a call to a marking application programming interface.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the application programming interface call is made through a user interface.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to inserting, determining whether the object is a versionable object; and

responsive to a determination that the versionable object is absent, creating the versionable object.

6. A data processing system for marking code for data versioning, the data processing system comprising:

a bus;

a memory connected to the bus, wherein the memory comprising computer instructions;

a hard disk connected to the bus;

a processor connected to the bus, wherein the processor executes the computer instructions to direct the data processing system to;

responsive to receiving a user input, insert a first marking statement in the code and a second marking statement in the code, wherein a portion of code between the first marking statement and the second marking statement form a marked section of code;

detect a change made in data in an object caused by execution of the marked section of code and changes made in data in additional objects changed by execution of the marked section of code; and

responsive to detecting the change, track the change made in data in the object and the changes made to the data in the additional objects as a version of delta data in a data structure wherein the data structure comprises an index for selecting the version of the delta data, an array index identifying a location of the change within the delta data, and a value indicating the change, wherein the object and the additional objects form a set of objects and wherein each object in the set of objects may be restored to a prior state independently of other objects in the set of objects using a selected version of the delta data.

7. The data processing system of claim 6, wherein the first marking statement and the second marking statement are tags.

8. The data processing system of claim 6, wherein the processor executes the computer instructions to direct the data processing system to insert a first marking statement in the code and a second marking statement in the code is initiated from a call to a marking application programming interface.

9. The data processing system of claim 6 wherein the processor further executes the computer instructions to direct the data processing system to:

responsive to inserting, determine whether the object is a versionable object; and

responsive to a determination that the versionable object is absent, create the versionable object.

10. A recordable-type medium containing computer executable instructions stored thereon for a computer program product for marking code for data versioning, the computer program product comprising:

computer executable instructions, responsive to receiving a user input, for inserting a first marking statement in the code and a second marking statement in the code, wherein a portion of code between the first marking statement and the second marking statement form a marked section of code;

computer executable instructions for detecting a change made in data in an object caused by execution of the marked section of code and changes made in data in additional objects changed by the execution of the marked section of code; and

computer executable instructions, responsive to detecting the change, for tracking the change made in data in the object and the changes made to the data in the additional objects as a version of delta data in a data structure wherein the data structure comprises an index for selecting the version of the delta data, an array index identifying a location of the change within the delta data, and a value indicating the change, wherein the object and the additional objects form a set of objects and wherein each object in the set of objects may be restored to a prior state independently of other objects in the set of objects using a selected version of the delta data.

11. The recordable-type medium of claim 10, wherein, in the computer program product, the first marking statement and the second marking statement are tags.

12. The recordable-type medium of claim 10, wherein, in the computer program product, the computer executable instructions for inserting are initiated from a call to a marking application programming interface.

13. The recordable-type medium of claim 12, wherein, in the computer program product, the application programming interface call is made through a user interface.

14. The recordable-type medium of claim 10, wherein the computer program product further comprises:

computer executable instructions, responsive to inserting, for determining whether the object is a versionable object; and

computer executable instructions, responsive to a determination that the versionable object is absent, for creating the versionable object.