Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer data routing – Least weight routing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-26
2003-07-22
Coulter, Kenneth R. (Department: 2141)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer data routing
Least weight routing
C709S241000, C709S202000, C709S203000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06598067
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to computer systems including application servers generally, and, more particularly, to providing a computer software framework on an application server accommodating transparent porting of application software from a client computer to the application server and transparent execution by the application server rather than by the client computer of the application software.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems having distributed architectures are known in the art. More particularly, client-server architectures are known in the art. In such computer systems, processing occurs either on the clients or on the server, typically referred to as a data base server. With processing occurring on either the clients or the server, the processing speed of whichever of the clients or the server executing the processing is hampered and therefore degrades. The degradation of processing speed makes the potential for adding additional processing intensive modules or functionality infeasible for some applications, such as the Standard Desktop Procurement System (SPS), thereby preventing full utilization of the particular application, such as the SPS. For example, the foregoing limitations of the related art do not allow some users, such as the U.S. Government, to realize the full capabilities of the SPS. More particularly, a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) desktop procurement system needs to maintain a balance between a robust system to accommodate 80% of the procurement users and provide processing efficiencies for intensive processing, which needs are not fulfilled by computer systems of the related art.
An application server is a computer software application that runs in a client-server environment, but that is distinct from both the client and server applications. Typically, this application performs business rule or other processing that is computationally intensive at the request of the client.
Application servers, generally, are well known in the art. An example of an application server is IBM WebSphere Application Server™, disclosed in About IBM WebSphere Application Server™. Another example of an application server is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,106 to Brobst, et al., entitled Object Oriented Server Process Framework with Interdependent-Object Creation.
Computer systems having application servers provided logically between a data base server and clients are referred to as three tiered architectures, which are known in the art.
FIG. 1
shows an example of a computer system
10
of the related art having a three-tiered architecture and including an application server
12
. As shown in the computer system
10
of
FIG. 1
, the application server
12
is separate and distinct from clients
14
-
1
through
14
-
n
and from data base server
16
, but is provided logically between the clients
14
and the data base server
16
. The application server
12
alleviates processing load from the data base server
16
, and, further, provides additional functions such as load balancing and process scheduling within the computer system
10
.
As shown in the computer system
10
of
FIG. 1
, one of the clients
14
transmits a request to the application server
12
, which, in turn, reformats the request and transmits it in the form of an OB (outbound) request to the data base server
16
. The data base server
16
returns data to the application server
12
, which reformats the data into an answer transmitted to the requesting client
14
.
Commercially-available software programs, such as native PowerBuilder™ facilities, extend the function of the application server
12
. Through the use of native PowerBuilder™ facilities, application software written to be executed by the clients
14
(hereafter also referred to as client code) can be migrated to the application server
12
for execution thereby. Thus, instead of an architecture in which client computers
14
interface directly to data base server
16
, as in a traditional client-server environment, client computers
14
interface to application server
12
, which in turn interfaces to data base server
16
(as shown in FIG.
1
).
A problem, though, with the use of native PowerBuilder™ facilities is that the client code must be rewritten before the client code can be successfully ported from the client computers
14
to the application server
12
.
Although native PowerBuilder™ facilities insulate the client code from the architecture of the computer system to some degree, these facilities fail to make the architecture completely transparent to the client. The primary issue that prevents complete client transparency is that the client still must explicitly connect to an application server and ask the server to create a remote object. In addition, if a site wishes to install more than one application server in order to spread demand across multiple machines, the client would then need to be able to pick the appropriate application server. Thus, the client code must be rewritten before it can be successfully ported to and executed by the application servers of the related art.
Neither porting of client code from the clients to the application server nor execution of the client code by the application server rather than the client is transparent in the computer systems of the related art.
Also known in the art is a job scheduler, which stores a list of jobs with associated schedules, and ensures that the jobs are run according to that schedule.
Throughout the following paragraphs, terms such as job, process, and service are used interchangeably.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an application server framework which overcomes the above-mentioned problems of the related art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an interface to manage the Standard Desktop Procurement System (SPS) servers.
A further object of the present invention is to allow installation of the SPS client software to be independent of whether an application server is running.
Yet another object of the present invention is to accommodate job management initiated from a client.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide connection security, remote object creation, scheduling and batch processing, and remote server management functions.
A still further object of the present invention is to alleviate processing load from the clients and from the data base server.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to allow an application server to be installed and operational without altering client code.
A yet additional object of the present invention is to allow additional application software modules to be installed without degrading the performance of either the clients or the data base server.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a desktop procurement system maintaining a balance between a robust system to accommodate 80% of the procurement users and providing processing efficiencies for intensive processing.
The Application Server Framework (ASF) of the present invention provides SPS the efficiencies that the computer systems of the related art would not allow.
The Application Server Framework (ASF) eliminates the problems discussed above and also provides an interface to manage the SPS application servers by taking advantage of PowerBuilder™ 6.0 functionality and tailoring it to the Department of Defense's (DoD) needs. The ASF of the present invention allows installation of the SPS client software independently of whether an application server is running. Further, with the ASF of the present invention, a site can install the latest version of the SPS software without choosing to install an application server and then add the application server executing the ASF later, without making changes to the client code. In addition, the plug in capability of the ASF allows additional modules to be added to the Standard Procurement System (SPS) without degrading the performance
Haggerty Brendan
Wydra Paul
American Management Systems, Inc.
Coulter Kenneth R.
Staas & Halsey , LLP
LandOfFree
Application server framework does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Application server framework, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Application server framework will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3084823