Managing object relationships using an object repository

Details Managing object relationships using an object repository Managing object relationships using an object repository

2000-04-28

2003-10-14

Alam, Shahid Al (Department: 2172)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06633869

ABSTRACT:

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of object based software systems, and more particularly to techniques for managing relationships between objects of the software systems and maintaining data and referential integrity of the software systems when an object is changed, for example, modified, copied, or deleted.
With the increase in the number of heterogeneous application programs used by consumers, it become increasingly important that these applications be able to communicate with each other in a consistent manner without having to know the. implementation details of the applications involved. Traditionally, this was accomplished by using applications developed by a common vendor or by a group of vendors who had agreed upon a common interface between the various applications. While this approach achieved a limited degree of success in integrating heterogeneous applications, the approach soon became unfeasible as the number of vendors and the number of applications rapidly increased.
More recently vendors are attempting to solve the application integration problem by developing applications using object-oriented frameworks and repository technology. Repositories enable sharing and reuse of information by providing a common hub for storing metadata which describes the structure and meaning of software components. Metadata enables heterogeneous applications to manipulate software components without knowing the implementations of the components. To promote sharing and reuse of metadata information among heterogeneous applications, information models are defined to standardize the structure and semantics of the metadata. A repository, using a standardized information model, provides a global and consistent mechanism for accessing metadata for application development.
An example of a repository is the Microsoft Repository developed by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. The Microsoft Repository uses the Open Information Model (OIM) for describing metadata specifications and provides an environment for sharing, reuse, and integration of metadata for application development. Information stored in the Microsoft Repository is exposed using Microsoft's Common Object Model (COM) which forms the basis for the Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology which allows objects to share data and capabilities. COM defines a binary standard for object implementation that is independent of the implementation programming language. COM objects are in-memory representations of the information stored in the repository. A repository may include a object-oriented or relational or mixed database.
The repository information model defines the classes of the objects, types of relationships that can exist between the objects, and various properties that are attached to the object classes and the relationship types. A “class” may contain properties, methods, and collections which are grouped into functionally related groups which are implemented as COM “interfaces.” In COM, a class may have multiple interfaces which are publicly accessible to users of the object-oriented framework and enable communication between applications.
A repository object is defined in terms of the interfaces that it exposes. The set of interfaces that an object exposes describes the object's state, the manner in which the object can be manipulated, and the associations the object can have with other objects. Relationships may also be defined between interfaces of different objects or of the same object. Further information and details about COM and OLE may be obtained from “Inside OLE
2
” by Kraig Brockschmidt, 1994, Microsoft Press, and “Inside COM, Microsoft's Component Object Model,” by Dale Rogerson, 1997, Microsoft press, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.
FIG. 1
depicts a convention representation of a COM interface
10
, for an object
11
(another term for object
11
is component) and a user
12
of the object. Object
11
is said to have an “interface implementation”, including interfaces
13
and
14
, that are analogous to an object oriented programming “class.” Interfaces
13
and
14
include member functions
15
and
16
, respectively. User
12
can manipulate object
11
by calling functions
15
, and
16
of interfaces
13
and/or interface
14
, respectively. In response to the function calls, object
11
may return specific data about itself to user
12
. Object
11
, however maintains exclusive control of its own data
17
. In some cases user
12
may only be aware of one of several interfaces available in object
12
. The available interface may then be queried for additional interfaces. A pointer to the queried interface is returned if the queried interface is supported by the object. For example, the IUnknown interface
13
is a COM interface that is typically available to all users of COM objects. The IUnknown interface may then be queried to obtain pointers to other interfaces supported by the object, such as interface
14
. After obtaining a pointer to interface
14
, user
12
can call member functions
16
belonging to interface
14
.
As previously stated, relationships may be established between interfaces of one or more objects or between interfaces of the same object. A relationship describes the way in which one object refers to another object, as exposed through their interfaces. The participants in a relationship are usually referred to as “entities” participating in the relationship. Relationships are usually binary, for example relationships in Microsoft Repository, may be directed or bidirectional. A relationship typically includes an origin of the relationship, referred to as the “origin” entity, and a destination of the relationship, referred to as the “destination” entity. In Microsoft Repository, each relationship conforms to a particular relationship type and is associated with an object of the class RelationshipDef. This object contains the metadata associated with the relationship.
Several actions have to be preformed when entities involved in a relationship are changed, for example, modified, copied, or deleted. These operations are important for maintaining referential and data integrity of the object system. Accordingly, an important aspect of any object-oriented framework system is the manner in which referential and data integrity of the system is maintained when entities involved in a relationship are changed.
Several techniques have been developed for maintaining integrity of the object system when entities participating in relationships are changed. In conventional systems, the actions be performed upon a change operation are usually associated with each occurrence of the relationship. In addition, the code implementing the actions is typically spread through out the object implementation and thus is difficult to understand and maintain. The increased complexity of the implementation also makes it unsuitable for modification or customization.
Thus, there is a need for a relationship management system which allows generalized relationships to be defined between objects and which provides a simplified technique for maintaining referential and data integrity of the object system when objects involved in a relationship are changed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One embodiment of the present invention provides a method of maintaining consistency between objects in a computer system. The method includes providing a first relationship between a first entity and a second entity. A semantic is also provided, including an action to be performed in response to a change in the first entity. A semantic object is associate

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