US 2003/0120711 A1 · Drag-and drop dynamic distributed object model

Abstract

A Windows workstation user is provided with a quick, simple, easily-managed path to combinations of available applications on a network of systems, in such a way that the user can establish and exploit complex data relationships and software capabilities on the workstation without application installation, significant access effort, or specialized knowledge. Runtime binding prepares and links user forms and reports to application programs as desired, without preparatory steps. An external object model is built into a comprehensive, drag-and-drop, dynamic, distributed object model, to offer its users lower total cost of ownership than do conventional user interface applications and application builders. The definition and use of query objects to view concurrently multiple database tables offers the unique ability to combine fields from dissimilar database engines into a single view. An alias feature allows the databases to reside on the same or on different servers in the network. Thus any user with access to multiple databases of different types in different places can produce a single coherent view of the combined data, with no explicit program development effort.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A system for accessing and operating distributed objects across a computer network, in response to an application program on at least one client computer comprising:

one or more server computers, each one further comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to wide area networks or local area networks;
at least one client computer comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to the server computers via wide area networks or local area networks;
an application software program operating on the client computer for presenting a first form or menu to a user of the client computer and including locations of objects used by the application program and for creating an instance of one or more of the dynamic distributed objects on the client computer;
a set of dynamic external object classes including methods and attributes, stored on one or more of the server computers or on one or more of the client computers,
an interpreting software program for resolving the class inheritances, polymorphic behaviors, and encapsulation behaviors of the objects, classes, methods, and attributes, across client and server computers in a network, at the time of the user's request for execution of the programs.

2 more elements

A drag and drop, dynamic, distributed, object model based software user interface system for accessing and operating distributed applications across computer networks, comprising:

two or more peer-to-peer computers, each one further comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to wide area networks or local area networks;
a first peer computer comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to the server computers via wide area networks or local area networks;
an application software program operating on the first peer computer for presenting a first form or menu to a user of the first peer computer and including locations of objects used by the application program and for creating an instance of one or more of the dynamic distributed objects on the first peer computer;
a set of dynamic external object classes including methods and attributes, stored on one or more of the peer-to-peer computers,
an interpreting software program for resolving class inheritances, polymorphic behaviors, and encapsulation behaviors of the objects, classes, methods, and attributes, across computers in the network, at the time of the user's request for execution of the application program.

2 more elements

A method for using dynamic external objects, comprising the steps of:

on the user's computer, running an application program that includes information about the location of objects used in the application program;
accepting the user's selection of one or more task of the application for execution;
on the network of computers connected to the user's computer, locating the objects required to execute each application;
creating an instance of the object on the user's computer for execution;
and
executing the application on the user's computer.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Drag-and drop dynamic distributed object model

Life of this patent

Drag-and drop dynamic distributed object model

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24