DYNAMIC JAVA BEAN FOR VISUALAGE FOR JAVA

• US 20140372964A1
• Filed: 08/29/2014
• Published: 12/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wason, James R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,298,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2379 Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

A uniform strategy for the general problem of providing custom editors and initialization strings for beans (all “dynabeans” inherit from a common bean class that incorporates this strategy. This is then extended to allow the initialization strings to be stored in a relational database. The database function is an extension of the function provided by the VisualAge Persistence Builder (using some of the EADP extensions). An important advantage of this approach is that many changes to the application can now be handled by adjusting the database version of the bean definition, without a need to touch the underlying code. This will reduce down time for the application, and also improve application stability.

Claims

1. A method of managing application definitions used in a computer application, comprising:

storing initialization strings for the application definitions in a database, each of the application definitions using associated values, and each of the initialization strings including a value for an associated application definition;

using a custom editor to access the initialization strings in the database to use the initialization strings to initialize the application definitions;

the computer application accessing the initialization strings, via the custom editor, to pass the values of the initialization strings to the application definitions for use by the application definitions; and

providing an administrator with access to the initialization strings, independent of the computer application, via the custom editor, to change one or more of the values of the application strings, whereby the values used by the application definitions are changed without changing the computer application.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the storing includes:

customizing the initialization strings to for the application definitions.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

each of the initialization strings has a class name;

the relational database includes a plurality of rows having the class names of the initialization strings;

and the providing the administrator with access to the initialization strings includes setting up a query string with one of the class names and one of the values for one of the initialization strings.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein providing the administrator with access to the initialization strings further includes:

finding all the rows in the relational database that match said one of the class names and said one of the values to identify one of the initialization strings; and

iterating over the found rows and concatenating the string values to create database versions of the initialization string.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the storing the storing the initialization strings in a relational database includes:

breaking the initialization strings into a multitude of segments; and

adding a new row in the relational database for each of said multitude of segments.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein

each of the application definitions is associated with a respective one pair comprised of an encloser and the value of said each application definition;

and

the method further comprises displaying a custom edit panel to the user; and

the administrator using the custom edit panel to change the application definition associated with the selected pair.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the storing the initialization strings in the relational database includes

using a storage method for storing the initialization strings, including, for each of the application definitions, passing to the storage method one of the initialization strings, an enclose, the value and a new value for said each application definition, the storage method finding and deleting all matching rows in the relational database, breaking the passed one of the initialization strings into a plurality of segments, and adding a new row in the relational database for said each segment; and

the method comprises the further step of using the custom editor for the storing the initialization strings in the relational database, and using the same custom editor to alter, change, add and delete the application definitions in the relational database while running the computer application.

8. A computer system for managing application definitions used in a computer application, the computer system comprising:

a relational database storing a plurality of initialization strings for the application definitions, each of the application definitions using associated values, and each of the initialization strings including an enclose, a class name, and a value for an associated application definition; and

wherein the computer application includes instructions to access and to use the initialization strings by using a custom editor, pass values from the initialization strings to the application definitions; and

one or more processing units configured for providing an administrator with access, independent of the computer program, to the initialization strings in the relational data base via the custom editor by providing the custom editor with the encloser and the class name of and a new value for said each of the initialization strings, to alter, change, add and delete said application definitions in the relational database, without accessing the computer program.

9. The computer system according to claim 8, wherein the one or more processing units are further configured for customizing the initialization strings to form the definitions.

10. The computer system according to claim 8, wherein the one or more processing units are further configured for using the initialization strings in the database to initialize values used in the computer application.

11. The computer system according to claim 8, wherein the one or more processing units includes one or more hardware processing units.

12. A program storage hardware device readable by computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer for managing application definitions used in a computer program, said program of instructions, when executing on the computer, performing the following:

storing the application definitions in a relational database, each of the applications including an encloser, a class name and a value;

using a custom editor to provide the computer program with access to the application definitions in the relational database and to pass values from the application definitions to computer applications; and

providing a user with access, independent of the computer program, to each of the application definitions in the relational database via the custom editor by providing the custom editor with the encloser and the class name of and a new value for said each application, to alter, change, add and delete said application definitions in the relational database without accessing the computer program.

13. A program storage device according to claim 12, wherein the storing step includes the steps of:

storing in the database initialization strings for the definitions; and

customizing the initialization strings to form the definitions.

14. A program storage device according to claim 13, wherein said method steps further comprise the step of initializing values used in the computer program, using the initialization strings in the database.