Extensible Controls for a Content Data Repository

• US 20070124326A1
• Filed: 11/17/2006
• Published: 05/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Polk, Ray
• Granted Patent: US 7,805,459 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2448 for particular applications; for extensibility, e.g. user defined types
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

An extensible control interface is provided to simplify access to the content management repository. Developers can write extension interfaces associated with new data types, where the extension interfaces extend the extensible control and are annotated with the control extension annotation. These new interfaces can specify the repository name and declare various methods annotated with annotations. Parameters of the various methods can also be annotated to supply needed information. Using an annotation process tool (APT), the developer can generate the bean and implementation classes and the methods can subsequently be called upon to perform operations on types in the repository. For example, the extensible control can take care of interacting with the type manager to perform the needed actions within the repository in order to create the new object classes and nodes. Object classes can be created on the first call, while node instances upon each call of the create method.

Claims

1. A system for providing extensible controls for a content data repository, the system comprising:

a content repository including a plurality of nodes for maintaining data associated with specific data types;

an extensible control residing on a server, said extensible control including an invoke method and a set of create, read, update and delete (CRUD) methods for performing specific operations within the content repository; and

at least one extended control interface associated with a specific data type, said extended control interface including one or more annotations, said annotations being mapped to the CRUD methods on the extensible control such that for every annotated method call on the extended control interface, a corresponding CRUD method is invoked on the extensible control in order to perform an appropriate operation in the content repository.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the content repository further includes:

a type manager for performing the operation associated with the CRUD method within the content repository.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of extended control interfaces defined by a developer wherein each of said plurality of extended control interfaces corresponds to a different data type and allows manipulation of data for said data type.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein each data type includes:

an object class and a node in the content repository, said node being associated with said object class.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an annotation processing tool (APT) and a Java compiler for processing annotations within the extended control interface and for generating an implementation class and a bean.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein each node within the repository is wrapped with a Java bean for specifying the data type associated with the data contained by the node.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a generic control for encapsulating business logic and abstracting functionality away from the extensible control.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein each node within the repository further includes:

one or more properties that are comprised of a name and a value.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein said annotations in the extended control interface include at least one of method level annotations, parameter level annotations and class level annotations processed by an Annotation Processing tool.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein said annotations include one or more of:

create, delete, dynamic properties, find by, find by Id, Id, move, parent Id, property, property pair, repository info, search paths, sort order and update annotations.

11. A method for providing extensible controls for a content data repository, the method comprising:

maintaining data in a plurality of nodes within a content repository, said data associated with one or more data types;

providing an extensible control that includes a set of create, read, update and delete (CRUD) methods for performing specific operations within the content repository;

defining at least one interface that extends the extensible control, said interface including at least one method that is annotated with at least one annotation;

invoking said method annotated with said annotation in the interface by a client application; and

mapping said method annotated with said annotation to at least one of said CRUD methods on the extensible control.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the content repository further includes:

a type manager for performing the operation associated with the CRUD method within the content repository.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

defining a plurality of extended control interfaces wherein each of said plurality of extended control interfaces corresponds to a different data type and allows manipulation of data for said data type.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein each data type includes:

an object class and a node in the content repository, said node being associated with said object class.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

processing said at least one annotation by an annotation processing tool and a Java compiler in order to generate an implementation class and a bean.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein each node within the repository is wrapped with a Java bean for specifying the data type associated with the data contained by the node.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein each node within the repository further includes:

one or more properties that are comprised of a name and a value.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein said annotations in the extended control interface include at least one of method level annotations, parameter level annotations and class level annotations processed by an Annotation Processing tool.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein said annotations include one or more of:

create, delete, dynamic properties, find by, find by Id, Id, move, parent Id, property, property pair, repository info, search paths, sort order and update annotations.

20. A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon which when executed by one or more processors, cause a system to:

maintain data in a plurality of nodes within a content repository, said data associated with one or more data types;

provide an extensible control that includes a set of create, read, update and delete (CRUD) methods for performing specific operations within the content repository;

receive a definition of at least one interface that extends the extensible control, said interface including at least one method that is annotated with at least one annotation;

invoke said method annotated with said annotation in the interface by a client application; and

map said method annotated with said annotation to at least one of said CRUD methods on the extensible control.