Apparatus, system and method for modular distribution and maintenance of non-“object code only” dynamic components

• US 7,913,245 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2006
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lau, Kin, D'Angelo, Dario, Smith, Alan Ray
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam; Tuan Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAYIM, SAMUEL E
• Application Number:
  US11/425,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20080022271A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,735 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for modular distribution and maintenance of non-“object code only” (OCO) dynamic components. OCO components comprise compiled executable modules. Non-OCO components comprise user readable and/or editable components. The modular distribution of non-OCO components comprises updating a skeleton data set comprising text and component fields such that user customizations and developer customizations are preserved. The modular distribution further allows for the generation of an output data in response to a reportable operational event, wherein the output data set is based on the skeleton data set and user customizations and developer customizations stored in customization data sets.

Claims

1. A computer program product for updating an application while preserving end-user customizations, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium storing a computer readable program, wherein the computer program product when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

update the application with a maintenance update, the application comprising an object code data set, a skeleton data set, a user customization data set, and a developer customization data set, the maintenance update comprising one of a text update and a field update for the skeleton data set and no update for the user customization data set and the developer customization data set;

parse the skeleton data set for text and component fields in response to a detected reportable operational event;

integrate the parsed text from the skeleton data set and component values from the user customization data set and component values from the developer customization data set, wherein the component values correspond to the component fields; and

generate an output data set comprising the text from the skeleton data set and the integrated component values.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein integrating component values from the user customization data set and the developer customization data set further comprises integrating component values from a plurality of user customization data sets and a plurality of developer customization data sets.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the computer program further causes the computer to identify an event code associated with the detected reportable operational event and a module name in which the detected reportable operational event is first detected and wherein the skeleton data set from which the parsed text is integrated is selected from a plurality of skeleton data sets according to the event code.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein each component field of the skeleton data set comprises a component token and a component field name, and each component value of the customer customization data set and each component value of the developer customization data set has an associated component field name such that each component field name of the skeleton data set corresponds with a component field name of one of the customer customization data set and the developer customization data set.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the skeleton data set component field name is human-readable and the component token is an alphanumeric character.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein integrating the text and component values comprises copying the skeleton data set and replacing the component fields with the component values to generate the output data set.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer program product further causes the computer to send the output data set as an email to a user-selectable set of one or more email recipients.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the skeleton data set comprises fixed-length records and the output data set comprises variable length records, wherein a component value may comprise a series of characters of arbitrary length.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the skeleton data set comprises fixed-length records and the output data set comprises variable length records, and wherein a component value comprises a universal resource locator (URL) of arbitrary length.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the URL comprises text and a subcomponent field and the computer program product replaces the subcomponent field with a component value from one of the customer customization data set, the developer customization data set, and runtime values associated with the reportable operational event to form a network usable URL.

11. A computer program product for updating an application while preserving end-user customizations comprising a computer readable storage medium storing a computer readable program, wherein the computer program product when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

update the application with a maintenance update, the application comprising an object code data set, a skeleton data set, a user customization data set, and a developer customization data set, the maintenance update comprising one of a text update and a field update for the skeleton data set and no update for the user customization data set and the developer customization data set;

parse the skeleton data set for text and component fields in response to a detected reportable operational event;

select component values from the user customization data set and the developer customization data set, wherein the component values correspond to the component fields, the user customization data set configured to allow a user to modify the user customization data set, the developer customization data set configured to allow a developer to modify the developer customization data set; and

integrate the parsed text from the skeleton data set and the selected component values from the user customization data set and the selected component values from the developer customization data set, wherein the selected component values correspond to the component fields.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the skeleton data set is human modifiable and wherein updates to the application that alter the skeleton data set overwrite human modifications to the skeleton data set.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein parsing the skeleton data set occurs in response to detecting an abend condition.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein selecting component values further selects component values related to the abend condition including an abend code and a name of a module in which the abend occurred.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein selecting component values from the user customization data set and the developer customization data set further comprises selecting those component values most recently modified.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer program product further causes the computer to:

accept a user modification to a component value of the user customization data set such that each component value includes a timestamp indicating a modification time of the component value.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein selecting the component values, for a component value that exists in a plurality of customization data sets, selects the component value with the most recent timestamp, wherein the component values in a customization data set that has not been modified each assume a timestamp equal to the creation date of the customization data set and a component value that has been modified assumes a timestamp equal to a modification time specific to the component value.

18. A method for updating an application while preserving end-user customizations, the method comprising:

installing by use of a processor, the application on a computer system comprising, the application comprising;

a parser, an object code data set, a skeleton data set, a developer customization data set, and a client customization data set, wherein the skeleton data set comprises text and a plurality of component fields, and wherein the developer customization data set comprises component values, and wherein the client customization data set comprises component values;

updating the skeleton data set with a maintenance update for the application, the maintenance update comprising one of a text update and a field update, and not updating the client customization data set and the developer customization data set;

detecting a reportable operational event in the computer system;

deriving runtime component values based on the reportable operational event;

parsing the skeleton data set for text and component fields in response to the reportable operational event;

selecting component values from the client customization data set, from the developer customization data set, and from the runtime component values, wherein the selected component values correspond to the component fields of the skeleton data set;

integrating the parsed text from the skeleton data set and the selected component values to generate an output data set comprising the text and the selected component values, wherein the component values correspond to the component fields.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the computer system further comprises a plurality of client customization data sets and a plurality of developer customization data sets.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising receiving an abend and wherein the output data set is an abend report.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein each component field of the skeleton data set comprises a component token and a component field name, and each component value of the client customization data set and each component value of the developer customization data set has an associated component field name such that each component field name of the skeleton data set corresponds with a component field name of one of the client customization data set and the developer customization data set.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein detecting thea reportable operational event further comprises identifying an event code associated with the reportable operational event and a module name in which the reportable operational event was first detected and determining a particular skeleton data set from which the pared text is integrated further comprises selecting a skeleton data set from the plurality of skeleton data sets based on the event code.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein generating the output data set further comprises copying the skeleton data set and replacing the component fields of the skeleton data set with the selected component values to generate the output data set.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the skeleton data set further comprises a pair of component switches enclosing an optional section of text and component fields, and wherein integrating the parsed text from the skeleton data set selectively incorporates the optional section based on a presence of a selected component value associated with the pair of component switches.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the pair of component switches comprise a begin switch and an end switch.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the selected component value may be a runtime parameter selected during program execution.

28. The method of claim 25, the method further comprising making modifications to one of the user customization data set and the developer customization data set prior to replacing the skeleton data set such that the output data set contains the modifications.

27. A method for updating a mainframe operational event reporting software application while preserving end-user customizations, wherein the mainframe operational event reporting software application comprises an object code data set, a text-based skeleton dataset, a text-based user customization data set, and a text-based developer customization dataset, the method comprising:

replacing, by use of a processor, the object code data set with an updated version of the object code data set; and

replacing the text-based skeleton data set with an updated version of the text-based skeleton data set without replacing or modifying neither the text-based user customization data set and the text-based developer customization data set;

wherein the mainframe operational event reporting software application in response to a detected reportable operational event;

parses the text-based skeleton data set for text and component fields;

integrates text from the text-based skeleton data set and component values from the text-based user customization data set and component values from the text-based developer customization data set, wherein the component values from the text-based user customization data set and the text-based developer customization data set correspond to component fields of the text-based skeleton data set;

generates an output data set comprising the parsed text from the text-based skeleton data set and the integrated component values; and

emails the output data set to a set of email addresses.

29. A system configured for updating an application while preserving end-user customizations comprising:

a mainframe computer comprising a plurality of direct access storage devices (DASDs), a random access memory (RAM), and a plurality of central processing units (CPUs) configured to access the RAM and the plurality of CPU;

a transactional hierarchical database program stored on at least one of the DASDs and configured to run on at least one of the CPUs;

a skeleton data set comprising text and component fields stored on one of the DASDs;

a user customization data set comprising component values stored on one of the DASDs;

a developer customization data set comprising component values stored on one of the DASDs;

a reportable operational event reporting application comprising a parser module, a selection module, an integration module, and an email module, wherein;

the application is stored on one of the DASDs and configured to run on one of the CPUs in response to a reportable operational event in the transactional hierarchical database program, the application receiving a maintenance update comprising one of a text update and a field update for the skeleton data set and no update for the user customization data set and the developer customization data set;

the parser module is configured to parse the skeleton data set for text and component fields;

the selection module is configured to select component values from the user customization data set, the developer customization data set, and runtime component values created as a result of the reportable operational event wherein the component values are selected according to corresponding component fields parsed by the parser module from the skeleton data set;

the integration module is configured to generate an output data set comprising the parsed text from the skeleton data set and the component values selected by the selection module; and

the email module is configured to send the output data set as an email to one or more email addresses.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the runtime component values comprise an event code associated with the reportable operational event and an event module name corresponding to a software module in which the reportable operational event is first detected.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein each component field of the skeleton data set comprises a component token and a component field name, and each component value of the customer customization data set and each component value of the developer customization data set has an associated component field name such that the component field names of the skeleton data set corresponds with component field names of the customer customization data set and the developer customization data set.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the component field name is a human-readable name and the component token is an alphanumeric character.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the skeleton data set comprises fixed-length records and the output data set comprises variable length records and wherein a component value may comprise a series of characters of arbitrary length.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the series of characters comprise a universal resource locator (URL).

35. The system of claim 31, wherein the component token is one or more non-printing characters.