Object-oriented discovery framework

• US 20070198732A1
• Filed: 02/21/2006
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mevissen, Ron
• Granted Patent: US 7,685,303 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/462 Lookup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548

Abstract

An object-oriented programming framework allows developers to write applications for services and devices that are automatically “discoverable” by applications associated with other devices and services on a network. An attribute is added to a class in an application or web service object and an associated, generic discoverable base class is appended to the application to make the application discoverable on the network. The discovery framework imposes minimal requirements on the application in which it is embedded, so nearly every application can be converted into a “discoverable” application. The discovery protocol-dependent details are hidden from the application itself, so exchanging the discovery protocol can be done without affecting the application.

Claims

1. A method for causing an object-oriented application to become discoverable on a network employing a discovery protocol, the method comprising

creating a discoverable class that implements the discovery protocol;

embedding the discoverable class in the object-oriented application; and

introducing an attribute of the discoverable class to a method of the object-oriented application, whereby the discoverable class is instantiated when the object-oriented application is instantiated.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute defines a characteristic of the object-oriented application to identify the object-oriented application on the network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute defines a location of the object-oriented application to identify the object-oriented application on the network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein upon instantiation the discoverable class announces the availability of the object-oriented application to the network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a value of the attribute is announced to the network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein upon destruction of the object-oriented application (312), the discoverable class announces the unavailability of the object-oriented application to the network.

7. A method for implementing a discovery framework on a network comprising

basing an object-oriented application on a discoverable class that implements a discovery protocol;

instantiating the object-oriented application and thereby a discovery object as an instance of the discoverable class;

handling discovery requests over the network to and from the object-oriented application via the discovery object; and

destructing the discovery object upon termination of the object-oriented application.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the instantiating operation further comprises announcing the availability of the object-oriented application to the network.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the instantiating operation further comprises reading a value of an attribute of the discoverable class from a method of the object-oriented application;

and

the announcing operation further comprises broadcasting the value of the attribute over the network.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the attribute defines a characteristic of the object-oriented application to identify the object-oriented application on the network.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the attribute defines a location of the object-oriented application to identify the object-oriented application on the network.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the destructing operation further comprises announcing the unavailability of the object-oriented application to the network.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the handling operation further comprises sending and receiving queries.

14. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a computer process implementing the method of claim 7.

15. A method of communicating between a first application on a first client on a network and a second application on a second client on the network using a discovery protocol, the method comprising

instantiating a discovery object on the first client that implements the discovery protocol upon instantiation of the first application;

announcing the availability of the first application over the network to the second application; and

announcing the unavailability of the first application over the network to the second application upon termination of the first application.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising destructing the discovery object upon termination of the first application.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising handling discovery queries over the network to and from the first application via the discovery object.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the first announcing operation further comprises reading a value of an attribute of the first application to determine a characteristic of the first application to announce.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the characteristic comprises a location of the first application on the network.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a computer process implementing the method of claim 15.