Drag-and-drop dynamic distributed object model
First Claim
1. A system for accessing and operating distributed dynamic external objects across a computer network, in response to an application program on at least one client computer comprising:
- one or more server computers, each one further comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to wide area networks or local area networks;
at least one client computer comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to the server computers via wide area networks or local area networks;
an application software program operating on of the at least one client computer for presenting configured to present a first form or menu to a user of the via the at least one client computer and including locations of dynamic external objects used by the application program and for creating create an instance of one or more of the dynamic distributed external objects on the at least one client computer, wherein the application software program includes locations of the dynamic external objects;
thea set of dynamic external object classes associated with the dynamic external objects including methods and attributes, stored on one or more of the server computers or on one or more of the at least one client computerscomputer, said dynamic external object classes comprising object code;
andan interpreting software program for converting configured to convert the located dynamic external objects into machine code on the user'"'"'s machine at least one client computer and for resolving the to resolve class inheritances, polymorphic behaviors, and encapsulation behaviors of the objects, classes, methods, and attributes of the dynamic external objects, across the at least one client computer and the server computers in a network, at the a time of the user'"'"'s request for execution of the programs based on the dynamic external objects.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An external object model is built into a comprehensive, drag-and-drop, dynamic, distributed object model, to offer its users lower total cost of ownership than do conventional user interface applications and application builders. A Windows® workstation user computer is provided with a quick, simple, easily-managed path to combinations of available applications on a network of systems, in such a way that the user can establish and exploit complex data relationships and software capabilities on the workstation without application installation, significant access effort, or specialized knowledge. Runtime binding prepares and links user forms and reports to application programs as desired, without preparatory steps. The definition and use of query objects to view concurrently multiple database tables offers the unique ability to combine fields from dissimilar database engines into a single view.
26 Citations
33 Claims
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1. A system for accessing and operating distributed dynamic external objects across a computer network, in response to an application program on at least one client computer comprising:
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one or more server computers, each one further comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to wide area networks or local area networks; at least one client computer comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to the server computers via wide area networks or local area networks; an application software program operating on of the at least one client computer for presenting configured to present a first form or menu to a user of the via the at least one client computer and including locations of dynamic external objects used by the application program and for creating create an instance of one or more of the dynamic distributed external objects on the at least one client computer, wherein the application software program includes locations of the dynamic external objects; thea set of dynamic external object classes associated with the dynamic external objects including methods and attributes, stored on one or more of the server computers or on one or more of the at least one client computerscomputer, said dynamic external object classes comprising object code;
andan interpreting software program for converting configured to convert the located dynamic external objects into machine code on the user'"'"'s machine at least one client computer and for resolving the to resolve class inheritances, polymorphic behaviors, and encapsulation behaviors of the objects, classes, methods, and attributes of the dynamic external objects, across the at least one client computer and the server computers in a network, at the a time of the user'"'"'s request for execution of the programs based on the dynamic external objects. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A drag and drop, dynamic, distributed, object model based software user interface system for accessing and operating distributed applications across computer networks, comprising:
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two or more peer-to-peer computers, each one further comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to wide area networks or local area networks; a first peer computer comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory sub-systems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to the server computers via wide area networks or local area networks; an application software program operating on the first peer computer for presenting a first form or menu to a user of via the first peer computer and including locations of dynamic external objects used by the application software program and for creating an instance of one or more of the dynamic distributed external objects on the first peer computer; thea set of dynamic external object classes associated with the dynamic external objects including methods and attributes, stored on a different peer computer and stored as compiled object code;
andan interpreting software program for converting the located dynamic external objects into machine code on the a user'"'"'s machine and for resolving class inheritances, polymorphic behaviors, and encapsulation behaviors of the objects, classes, methods, and attributes, across computers in the network, at the a time of the User'"'"'s request for execution of the application software program. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for implementing dynamic external objects, comprising the steps of:
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on one or more first computers, compiling source code for the objects to create dynamic external objects (DEOs) of object code for performing one or more tasks of a launching application program; on a second computer, installing a launching application with one or more tasks and locations of DEOs on the first computers to enable a user to locate the DEOs corresponding to the one or more tasks of the launching application program and create an instance of the dynamic external objects on the second computer for accomplishing the selected task(s); and interpreting the dynamic external objects on the second computer to perform one or more of the selected tasks of the launching program.
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15. A method for using dynamic external objects, comprising the steps of:
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providing one or more dynamic external objects comprising object code; on a user'"'"'s computer, running an application program that includes one or more tasks to be performed on the user'"'"'s computer and information about the location of dynamic external objects which correspond to the tasks; accepting the user'"'"'s selection of one or more task of the application for execution; automatically locating the dynamic external objects required to execute each task by creating an instance of the dynamic external objects on the user'"'"'s computer for execution; and executing the selected tasks of the application on the user'"'"'s computer. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for deploying objects of an application program comprising:
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on a network of computers, storing a plurality of objects in object code, each of which has the objects having inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation; on one of the computers, installing an application program that has the location of the objects needed to run an a task of the application program;
andcreating an instance of an at least one of the object objects associated with the task on the computer with having the application program;
installed thereon, and on the computer with the instance of the object, executing the program task. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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24. A system comprising,
a memory having computer executable components stored thereon; - and
a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to facilitate execution of the computer executable components, the computer executable components, comprising; an application software program of a client computer configured to present a first form or menu on the client computer including locations of dynamic external objects and to locate one or more of the dynamic external objects implicated to execute a task of the application software program, wherein the dynamic external objects are stored externally to the client computer; a set of classes associated with the dynamic external objects, the set of classes including methods and attributes and comprising object code; and an interpreting software program configured to convert the one or more of the dynamic external objects implicated to execute the task of the application software program into machine code on the client computer to create an instance of the one of more of the dynamic external objects implicated to execute the task of the application software program on the client computer. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
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27. A system, comprising:
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a processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions and the processor configured to carry out the computer-executable instructions including instructions for; executing an application configured to present a first form or menu on a first computer, wherein the first form or menu includes information about locations of a set of dynamic external objects used by the application program, and to facilitate creating an instance of one or more dynamic external objects of the set on the first computer; retrieving one or more classes related to the set of dynamic external objects including methods and attributes stored as compiled object code on at least one of an other computer or the first computer based on the information about the locations of the set of dynamic external objects; and converting at least one of the one or more classes into machine code on the first computer. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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30. A device, comprising:
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a processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions and the processor configured to carry out the computer-executable instructions including instructions for; an application software program configured to display one or more externally stored dynamic external objects and comprises respective locations thereof; and an interpreting software program configured to convert at least one of the dynamic external objects into local machine executable code on the device including methods and attributes related to the at least one dynamic external object. - View Dependent Claims (31)
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32. A method comprising:
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providing one or more dynamic external objects comprising object code; on a user'"'"'s computer, running an application program that includes one or more tasks to be performed on the user'"'"'s computer and information about the location of dynamic external objects corresponding to the one or more tasks; accepting the user'"'"'s selection of at least one of the one or more tasks of the application program for execution; automatically locating the dynamic external objects required to execute the at least one of the one or more tasks by creating an instance of the dynamic external objects corresponding to the at least one of the one or more tasks on the user'"'"'s computer for execution; and executing the selected tasks of the application on the user'"'"'s computer. - View Dependent Claims (33)
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Specification