Framework to access a remote system from an integrated development environment

A method by which to register at least one tool that accesses at least one remote system, the method within an integrated development environment and comprising the steps of:

• (a) creating a connection object associated with the at least one remote system;
• (b) populating the connection object with general attributes of a connection from the integrated development environment to the remote system;
• (c) determining if the at least one tool has an associated subsystem factory having specific attribute information pertaining to the tool;
• (d) determining if the subsystem factory is supported by the connection object;
• (e) if so, creating a subsystem object containing the specific attribute information unique to the connection and the tool;
• and
• (f) saving the subsystem object and the connection object in a connection registry.

A computer processing device, comprising:

• (a) a processor;
• (b) a memory functionally connected to the processor;
• (c) a network interface by which the processor can access one or more remote systems across a connected or wireless network;
• (d) an integrated development environment executing on the processor;
• (e) a framework within the integrated development environment by which tools of the integrated development environment may access one or more remote systems, the framework comprising:
• (i) a connection registry having at least one connection object containing attributes of at least one remote system accessible by a tool;
• (ii) a common user interface having a plurality of methods by which to create and/or act upon the at least one connection object;
• the framework being independent of the type of the at least one remote system and independent of a language of the tool and integrated development environment.

A framework for an integrated development environment within a computer software development program, the framework comprising:

• (a) means to create a plurality of connections to all remote systems accessible by a plurality of tools used by the integrated development environment;
• (b) means to establish a common registry of all connections irrespective of a type of remote system or of a language of a tool or of a file structure of data accessible by a tool;
• (c) means to store any preexisting connections in the common registry;
• (d) means to create a subsystem having information unique to at least one of the plurality of tools, the unique information pertaining to at least one of the remote systems;
• (e) means to create a common view of all the connections and all the tools that can access the remote systems using the connections, and all the unique information in a hierarchical tree interface;
• (f) means to retrieve any of the connections and/or unique information;
• and/or
• (g) means to modify any of the connections and/or unique information;
• and/or
• (h) means to restore any of the connections and/or unique information;
• and/or
• (i) means to store the preexisting, created, and modified connections and/or unique information in the common registry and the common view.

An article of manufacture, comprising a data storage medium tangibly embodying a program of machine readable instructions executable by an electronic processing apparatus to perform method steps for operating an electronic processing apparatus, said method steps comprising the steps of:

• (a) opening an integrated development environment;
• (b) reading any preexisting connections to remote systems, the preexisting connections stored within the integrated development environment;
• (c) providing a wizard by which new connections to remote systems can be created;
• and
• (d) providing at least one application programming interface that can act upon a new connection, or a preexisting connection, or specific information relating to a particular tool to access a specific remote system.

A method to use an integrated development environment having a plurality of tools that can access remote systems, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) querying a registry of connection objects;
• (b) presenting the registry of connection objects;
• and
• (c) retrieving a selected connection object.

A graphical user interface in an integrated development environment, comprising:

• (a) a list of a plurality of connections, each of the plurality of connections to an individual remote system;
• (b) a list of a plurality of tools under each of the plurality of connections, each of the tools capable of connecting to the individual remote system;
• and
• (c) an icon associated with each of the plurality of tools.