Version-adaptive serialization and deserialization of program objects in an object-oriented environment
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorsHorst Heistermann, Chia-Hsin Li
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Abstract
Known techniques for generating serial information to represent program objects (serialization) and to recreate program objects from the serial information (deserialization) often impose limitations on the changes that may be made to the class structure or definition of the program object. Many changes to the class structure introduce incompatibilities that prevent a one version of a program object from being recovered from serial information that represent a different version of the program object. Techniques are disclosed that overcome this difficulty by allowing the serialization and deserialization processes to be adaptive according to the version of the program object.
Claims52
A method for serializing a program object that is an instantiation of an object class, wherein the method comprises:
- obtaining a version identification of the program object;
- and
- generating serialized information conveying a representation of the program object that is determined as a function of the object class and the version identification.
An apparatus for serializing a program object that is an instantiation of an object class, wherein the apparatus comprises:
- random access memory;
- and
- processing circuitry coupled to the random access memory, wherein the processing circuitry obtains a version identification of the program object stored in the random access memory and generates serialized information conveying a representation of the program object that is determined as a function of the object class and the version identification.
A medium readable by a device and conveying a program of instructions for execution by the device to perform a method for serializing a program object that is an instantiation of an object class, wherein the method comprises:
- obtaining a version identification of the program object;
- and
- generating serialized information conveying a representation of the program object that is determined as a function of the object class and the version identification.
A method for deserializing serialized information conveying a representation of a program object that is an instantiation of an object class, wherein the method comprises:
- obtaining from the serialized information the object class and a version identification of the program object;
- and
- establishing values from the serialized information for one or more properties of the object, wherein the values for the one or more properties are established as a function of the object class and the version identification.
An apparatus for deserializing serialized information conveying a representation of a program object that is an instantiation of an object class, wherein the apparatus comprises:
- random access memory;
- and
- processing circuitry coupled to the random access memory, wherein the processing circuitry obtains from the serialized information the object class and a version identification of the program object, and establishes in the random access memory values from the serialized information for one or more properties of the object, wherein the values for the one or more properties are established as a function of the object class and the version identification.
A medium readable by a device and conveying a program of instructions for execution by the device to perform a method for deserializing serialized information conveying a representation of a program object that is an instantiation of an object class, wherein the method comprises:
- obtaining from the serialized information the object class and a version identification of the program object;
- and
- establishing values from the serialized information for one or more properties of the object, wherein the values for the one or more properties are established as a function of the object class and the version identification.
A medium readable by a device and conveying one or more programs of instructions for execution by the device to perform a method for serializing or for deserializing a program object that is an instantiation of a program class, wherein the one or more programs of instructions comprise:
- a definition of the object class that includes a method for obtaining a version identification of a respective program object;
- and
- a definition of an object-descriptor class that includes a method for identifying one or more properties of the respective program object that are to be serialized or deserialized.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.