Method and system for reusing customizations to a software produ

Details Method and system for reusing customizations to a software produ Method and system for reusing customizations to a software produ

1995-10-18

1999-02-02

Trammell, James P.

395683, G06F 944

Patent

active

058677097

ABSTRACT:
The system described herein provides for the reusability of customizations to a software product. Once customizations are made to a software product, using the system described herein, if the software product is revised, the customizations made to the software product can be reused with little or no effort. The system described herein also facilitates the process of customizing the software product. In addition, the system described herein allows customizations made to one portion of the software product to be used by other portions of the software product. The system described herein performs its functionality by utilizing various object-oriented techniques. Object-oriented software products typically comprise a hierarchy of classes. For each class within the software product, the system described herein provides a corresponding empty class that is customizable. As such, the system described herein provides a class hierarchy for a software product that is divided into pairs of classes. Each pair of classes contains a standard class and an empty or shell class. The standard class contains functions and data to perform the functionality of the software product and the shell class contains customizations added by a customer. The customer of the software product may add whatever customizations they desire into the shell classes, which will then augment or supersede the processing of the corresponding standard class. The two classes within each pair of classes have a hierarchical relationship in which the standard class is the parent and the shell class is the child. In accordance with the system described herein, the pairs are arranged in the hierarchy in such a manner as to allow for the use of customizations within one shell class to be used by another. This hierarchical arrangement provides that when two pairs are to be placed in a parent-child relationship in the hierarchy, the shell class of the first pair is made a parent (i.e., base class) to the standard class of the second pair.

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