MODEL FOR SYSTEM-WIDE APPLICATION EXTENSION

• US 20100257508A1
• Filed: 04/07/2009
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Bajaj, Aseem, Pallamreddy, Prasanth
• Granted Patent: US 8,707,294 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/111
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44563 Sharing

Abstract

A model for extending application server functionality includes two types of libraries: an automatically-referenced (auto-ref) library and a superseding library. The auto-ref library includes a special tag that identifies it as the auto-ref library and a pattern that restricts the application types that can refer to it. Once the auto-ref library is deployed, it is automatically referred to by all applications as long as they are not excluded by the restricting pattern. The code contained in the auto-ref library is merged into the application code and the configuration of the library is merged into the application configuration at deployment time. The superseding library also includes an identifying tag and a restriction pattern. At deployment, however, the code and configuration data in the superseding library overrides the corresponding application configuration and code. The remaining code of the application that is not overridden by the superseding library is used without any modification.

Claims

1. A system for providing a model for system-wide application extension, said system comprising:

an application server having at least one application deployed thereon, said application including code and configuration data; and

a shared library that contains application fragment code and configuration data, wherein the application server causes all applications to automatically reference the shared library unless the application type is excluded by the shared library and wherein the referencing causes the application fragment code and the configuration data to be merged into the code and configuration data of the application at deployment time.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a superseding library that contains code and configuration information, wherein the superseding library is automatically referenced by all applications unless the application type is excluded by the superseding library and wherein the referencing causes the code and configuration information of the superseding library to override the application code, and wherein application code that is not overridden by the superseding library is used without modification.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the shared library further includes a tag that identifies said shared library as an automatically referenced library to the application server.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the shared library further includes a restriction pattern that excludes a set of application types from referring to the shared library, such that applications having any of the set of application types are not automatically referenced by the application server.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the restriction pattern is configured in a manifest file as a name value pair.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the restriction pattern is configured using a graphical user interface.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the application server is repackaged as a middleware product by deploying a set of extensions as one or more shared libraries and superseding libraries.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein a container of the application server merges the application fragment code and configuration data into the application code and configuration at the time of deploying the application.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein a system filter is deployed as a shared library on the application server, such that said system filter intercepts requests flowing to the application and performs monitoring or security functionality on the requests.

10. A method for providing a model for system-wide application extension, said method comprising:

repackaging an application server by deploying one or more application extensions as a shared library on said application server, wherein the shared library contains a tag that identifies the shared library as an automatically referenced shared library and a pattern that restricts the types of applications that reference the shared library and further contains code and configuration data to implement the application extensions;

deploying at least one application on the application server, said application including application code and application configuration data, wherein the application server causes the application to automatically reference the shared library unless the application type of said application is excluded by the pattern of the shared library; and

merging the code and the configuration data of the shared library with the application code and the application configuration data upon deployment if the application automatically references the shared library.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

deploying a superseding library that contains code and configuration information, wherein the superseding library is automatically referenced by all applications unless the application type is excluded by the superseding library and wherein the referencing causes the code and configuration information of the superseding library to override the application code, and wherein application code that is not overridden by the superseding library is used without modification.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the shared library further includes a tag that identifies said shared library as an automatically referenced library to the application server.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the shared library further includes a restriction pattern that excludes a set of application types from referring to the shared library, such that applications having any of the set of application types are not automatically referenced by the application server.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the restriction pattern is configured in a manifest file as a name value pair.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the restriction pattern is configured using a graphical user interface.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the application server is repackaged as a middleware product by deploying a set of extensions as one or more shared libraries and superseding libraries.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein a container of the application server merges the application fragment code and configuration data into the application code and configuration at the time of deploying the application.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

deploying a system filter as a shared library on the application server, such that said system filter intercepts requests flowing to the application and performs monitoring or security functionality on the requests.

19. A computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for providing a model for system-wide application extension, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

deploying one or more application extensions as a shared library on an application server, wherein the shared library contains a tag that identifies the shared library as an automatically referenced shared library and a pattern that restricts the types of applications that reference the shared library and further contains code and configuration data to implement the application extensions;

deploying at least one application on the application server, said application including application code and application configuration data, wherein the application server causes the application to automatically reference the shared library unless the application type of said application is excluded by the pattern of the shared library; and

merging the code and the configuration data of the shared library with the application code and the application configuration data upon deployment if the application automatically references the shared library.