Unit of work for preserving data integrity of a data-base by creating in memory a copy of all objects which are to be processed together

An object oriented computing system, comprising:

• data processing means;
• nonvolatile storage means connected to said data processing means;
• volatile storage means connected to said data processing means;
• a plurality of objects which are stored in said nonvolatile storage means and which are processed in said frame containing data attributes, and at least one object method for performing actions on the associated object;
• said plurality of objects including a unit of work object class having a unit of work object frame containing pointers to objects which are processed together by said object oriented computing system, and including a first method for loading said objects which are processed together from said nonvolatile storage means to said volatile storage means, and a second method for storing said objects which are processed together from said volatile storage means to said nonvolatile storage means;
• and
• means, responsive to a request to process selected ones of said plurality of objects together, for generating an instance of said unit of work object class, said instance of said unit of work object class including a pointer to each selected object, such that said selected objects are loaded from said nonvolatile storage means to said volatile storage means by invoking said first method on said instance of said unit of work object class, and said selected objects are stored in said nonvolatile storage means after processing by invoking said second method on said instance of said unit of work object class;
• wherein said objects which are processed together are processed in a plurality of steps;
• said unit of work object class further including a third method of generating in said volatile storage means a copy of said objects which are processed together in said volatile storage means, said unit of work object frame further including pointers to said copy of said objects which are processed together;
• said object management system further comprising means responsive to completion of a first step of said plurality of steps on said selected objects, for generating a copy of said selected objects in said volatile storage means, in modified condition from said first step, by invoking said third method, such that said second step is performed on said copy of said selected objects in said nonvolatile storage means.

An object management process for an object oriented computing system executing on a data processing system, said object oriented computing system including a plurality of objects which are stored in nonvolatile storage and which are processed in volatile storage, each object including an object frame containing data attributes, and at least one object method for performing actions on the associated object, said object management process comprising the steps of:

• providing a unit of work object class including a unit of work object frame containing pointers to objects which are processed together by said object oriented computing system, and including a first method for loading said objects which are processed together from nonvolatile storage to volatile storage, and a second method for storing said objects which are processed together from volatile storage to nonvolatile storage;
• in response to a request to process selected ones of said plurality of objects together, generating an instance of sad unit of work object class, said instance of said unit of work object class including a pointer to each selected object;
• invoking said first method on said instance of said unit of work object class to load said selected objects from nonvolatile storage to volatile storage;
• processing said selected objects in volatile storage;
• and
• invoking said second method on said instance of said unit of work object class to store said selected objects in nonvolatile storage after processing;
• wherein said objects which are processed together are processed in a plurality of steps;
• said unit of work object class including a third method for generating in volatile storage a copy of said objects which are processed together in volatile storage, said unit of work object frame further including pointers to said copy of said objects which are processed together, and wherein said processing step comprises the step of:
• invoking said third method in response to completion of a first step of said plurality of steps on said selected objects, to copy said selected objects in volatile storage, in modified condition from said first step, such that said second step is performed on said copy of said selected objects in nonvolatile storage.