System, method and article of manufacture for configuration...

Details System, method and article of manufacture for configuration... System, method and article of manufacture for configuration...

1999-08-31

2001-07-03

Powell, Mark (Department: 2122)

Data processing: software development, installation, and managem

Software program development tool

Translation of code

C717S152000, C707S793000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06256773

ABSTRACT:

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to United States Patent Applications entitled A SYSTEM, METHOD AND ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE FOR BASE SERVICES PATTERNS IN A NETCENTRIC ENVIRONMENT and A SYSTEM, METHOD AND ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE FOR MAINTENANCE AND ADMINISTRATION IN AN E-COMMERCE APPLICATION FRAMEWORK, both of which are filed concurrently herewith and which are incorporated by reference in their entirety.
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to development architecture frameworks, and more particularly to configuration management in a development framework.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
An important use of computers is the transfer of information over a network. Currently, the largest computer network in existence is the Internet. The Internet is a worldwide interconnection of computer networks that communicate using a common protocol. Millions of computers, from low end personal computers to high-end super computers are coupled to the Internet.
The Internet grew out of work funded in the 1960s by the U.S. Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency. For a long time, Internet was used by researchers in universities and national laboratories to share information. As the existence of the Internet became more widely known, many users outside of the academic/research community (e.g., employees of large corporations) started to use Internet to carry electronic mail.
In 1989, a new type of information system known as the World-Wide-Web (“the Web”) was introduced to the Internet. Early development of the Web took place at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory. The Web is a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval system aimed to give wide access to a large universe of documents. At that time, the Web was known to and used by the academic/research community only. There was no easily available tool which allows a technically untrained person to access the Web.
In 1993, researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) released a Web browser called “Mosaic” that implemented a graphical user interface (GUI). Mosaic's graphical user interface was simple to learn yet powerful. The Mosaic browser allows a user to retrieve documents from the World-Wide-Web using simple point-and-click commands. Because the user does not have to be technically trained and the browser is pleasant to use, it has the potential of opening up the Internet to the masses.
The architecture of the Web follows a conventional client-server model. The terms “client” and “server” are used to refer to a computer's general role as a requester of data (the client) or provider of data (the server). Under the Web environment, Web browsers reside in clients and Web documents reside in servers. Web clients and Web servers communicate using a protocol called “HyperText Transfer Protocol” (HTTP). A browser opens a connection to a server and initiates a request for a document. The server delivers the requested document, typically in the form of a text document coded in a standard Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format, and when the connection is closed in the above interaction, the server serves a passive role, i.e., it accepts commands from the client and cannot request the client to perform any action.
The communication model under the conventional Web environment provides a very limited level of interaction between clients and servers. In many systems, increasing the level of interaction between components in the systems often makes the systems more robust, but increasing the interaction increases the complexity of the interaction and typically slows the rate of the interaction. Thus, the conventional Web environment provides less complex, faster interactions because of the Web's level of interaction between clients and servers.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
A system, method, and article of manufacture are provided for affording consistency in a development architecture framework as components in the framework change. A reference program code is provided and a plurality of sets of updated program code are received which represent different versions of the program code. The sets of the updated program code are compared with the reference program code in order to identify information relating to changes and the information is classified in relation to the changes. Tools are also provided for managing the different versions of the program code.
In an aspect of the present invention, the information relating to the changes may include an identity of a user who made the change. Also, the information relating to the changes may be classified by area affected, priority, estimated cost, and authorization. In another aspect of the present invention, time of the change may be identified for tracking an order of the changes.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the tools may be adapted for managing the different versions of the program code in order to facilitate packaging. Also, the tools may be adapted for managing the different versions of the program code as the program code is changed between various stages of development.


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