Downloadable smart proxies for performing processing associated with a remote procedure call in a distributed system

• US 9,183,066 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2002
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Arnold, Kenneth C. R. C., Waldo, James H., Scheifler, Robert, Wollrath, Ann M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coulter, Kenneth R
• Application Number:
  US10/138,424
• Publication Number:
  US 20020199036A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,936 Days
• Field of Search: 719/315, 719330-332, 709/201, 709/203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449

Abstract

Use of a smart proxy as a wrapper around a stub in a distributed system. Instead of receiving a stub as a result of a remote procedure call, a caller receives a smart proxy including the stub as an embedded object. The smart proxy performs predefined processing associated with a remote procedure call, the processing possibly occurring before, during, or after a response to the call.

Claims

1. A method for processing calls to a server object locally by a processor at a smart proxy residing in a memory at a client machine, the method comprising:

obtaining the smart proxy at the client machine, the smart proxy including stub code corresponding to a stub object for the server object that is used to construct a representation of the stub object for the server object in the smart proxy in the memory at the client machine and the smart proxy including processing code executable by a processor at the client machine for processing calls to the server object locally at the stub object in the smart proxy as a representation of the server object at the client machine;

constructing the representation of the stub object for the server object in the smart proxy in the memory at the client machine using the stub code; and

processing one or more calls to the server object locally at the stub object in the smart proxy using the processor at the client machine using the processing code of the smart proxy at the client machine to generate a response to the one or more calls without communicating the one or more calls to a server machine having the server object.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

processing additional calls to the server object at a server machine when processing said additional calls cannot be completed locally using the processor at the client machine using the stub object in the smart proxy as a representation of the server object at the client machine.

3. The method of claim 1, further including:

downloading, to the client machine, update code to update the processing code.

4. A method for sharing objects between a client machine and a server machine in a distributed system for processing calls to the server machine locally at the client machine, comprising:

sending a request for a server object from the client machine to the server machine; and

responsive to the request, sending a smart proxy from the server machine to the client machine, the smart proxy including;

stub code used to construct a stub object corresponding to the server object in the smart proxy in a memory at the client machine, and

an indication of processing code for processing calls to the server object in the smart proxy using a processor at the client machine;

wherein when the stub object in the memory at the client machine is constructed and the processing code is executed in the smart proxy by the processor on the client machine, the stub object in the smart proxy at the client machine intercepts at least one call to the server object without transmitting the at least one call to the server object residing on the server and processes the at least one call locally in the smart proxy using the processor at the client machine to generate a response to the at least one call using the stub object in the memory at the client machine and the processing code.

5. The method of claim 4, further including:

using the stub code by the smart proxy at the client machine to construct the stub object in the smart proxy at the client machine.

6. The method of claim 4, further including:

downloading processing code to the client machine using the indication to update the processing code executed in the smart proxy at the client machine for processing the at least one call to the server object locally in the smart proxy at the client machine using the stub object at the client machine.

7. The method of claim 4, further including:

sending additional calls to the server object at the server machine when processing of the additional calls cannot be completed locally in the smart proxy at the client machine; and

processing the additional calls to the server object at the server machine when processing of the additional calls cannot be completed locally at the client machine using the stub object at the client machine.

8. The method of claim 4, further including:

receiving the request for the server object at the server machine; and

receiving the response from the server machine at the client machine after processing the request to the server object at the server machine.

9. A system for processing calls to a server object locally at a smart proxy residing at a client machine, comprising:

a server machine having the server object in a server memory of the server machine for processing calls at a server processor at the server machine and generating a response;

wherein the client machine;

(i) obtains a smart proxy from the server machine, the smart proxy including stub code for constructing a stub object in the smart proxy for storage in a client memory at the client machine that is a representation of the server object and processing code for configuration of a client processor at the client machine for processing calls to the server object locally in the smart proxy using the client processor at the client machine,

(ii) constructs the stub object in the smart proxy in the client memory at the client machine using the stub code, and

(iii) processes at least one call to the server object locally in the smart proxy using the client processor at the client machine using the processing code to generate a response to the at least one call locally at the client machine without communicating the at least one call to the server machine; and

a network connecting the client machine and the server machine.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the server machine is configured to process additional calls to the server object when processing of the additional calls cannot be completed locally in the smart proxy at the client machine using the stub object in the smart proxy at the client machine.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the client machine is further configured to download update code to update the processing code.

12. A system for sharing objects in a distributed system for processing calls to a server machine locally at a client machine, comprising:

the client machine configured to send a request for a server object to the server machine;

the server machine configured to send, responsive to the request, a smart proxy to the client machine, the smart proxy including;

stub code for constructing a stub object corresponding to the server object in the smart proxy in a memory at the client machine, and

an indication of processing code for configuration of a processor at the client machine for processing calls to the server object in the smart proxy using the stub object at the processor at the client machine such that the stub object in the smart proxy at the client machine processes one or more calls to the server object locally in the smart proxy using the processor at the client machine to generate a response to the one or more calls without sending the one or more calls to the server machine, and

a network connecting the client machine and the server machine.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the client machine is further configured to construct the stub object from the stub code.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the client machine is further configured to download code to update the processing code.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the server machine is further configured to process additional calls to the server object at the server machine when processing the additional calls cannot be completed locally in the smart proxy at the client machine using the stub object.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the client machine is further configured to send the request from the client machine to the server machine, and to receive the smart proxy from the server machine;

and wherein, the server machine is further configured to receive the request for the server object.