US 7,406,695 B2Granted

Automatically upgradeable extension of software

AssigneeSap SE

InventorsRainer Dattke, Michael Acker, Sigrun Wintzheimer, Georg Wilhelm, Juergen Remmel, Steffi Kramer

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Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for implementing extensions for computer program applications. A program according to one aspect of the invention has instructions to receive an application call to an extension method defined in an extension object definition, the extension object definition having associated extension object implementations, the extension object implementations providing extension method implementations of the extension method; instructions operable to obtain results by calling multiple extension method implementations of the extension method; and instructions operable to respond to the application call using the results obtained from the extension method implementations. A method according to another aspect includes the steps of deploying multiple extension method implementations for an extension method; and executing the multiple extension method implementations to determine the results of calling the extension method.

Claims33

Dependent claims

A computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device, the product comprising instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

receive an application call to a method defined in an extension object interface included in the application and implemented by an extension object;
implement the extension object by an application extension, the application extension having two or more extension object implementations of the extension object, each extension object implementation providing a distinct extension method implementation, each extension method implementation being an implementation of the method defined in the extension object interface;
register the extension object in an extension registry, the extension registry being part of an application extension runtime environment, the application extension runtime environment further having an extension factory and an extension repository;
identify by the extension factory at least one of the two or more extension object implementations registered in the extension registry;
obtain multiple extension results by calling each of the two or more extension object implementations, each of the two or more extension object implementations producing a respective extension result responsive to the application call;
use a result handler that is implemented by the extension object to evaluate the multiple extension results from the two or more extension object implementations after all of the extension object implementations have been called and use the result handler to determine results to be returned to the application call;
and
respond to the application call with the results to be returned.

5 more elements

A computer implemented method, comprising:

deploying two or more extension object implementations of an extension object that is implemented by an application extension, each extension object implementation being associated with the application extension and providing a distinct extension method implementation, each extension method implementation being an implementation of a method defined in an extension object interface included in the application and implemented by the extension object;
registering the extension object in an extension registry, the extension registry being part of an application extension runtime environment, the application extension runtime environment further having an extension factory and an extension repository;
identifying by the extension factory at least one of the two or more extension object implementations registered in the extension registry;
receiving a request, the request made using the extension object interface;
executing each of the two or more extension object implementations to obtain multiple extension results, each of the two or more extension object implementations producing a respective extension result responsive to the application call;
and
using a result handler that is implemented by the extension object to evaluate the multiple extension results from the two or more extension object implementations after all of the extension object implementations have been called and using the result handler to determine the results to be returned to the request;
and
responding to the application call with the results to be returned.

6 more elements

A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving an application call to a method defined in an extension object interface included in the application and implemented by an extension object;
implementing the extension object by an application extension, the application extension having two or more associated extension object implementations of the extension object, each extension object implementation providing a distinct extension method implementation, each extension method implementation being an implementation of the method defined in the extension object interface;
registering the extension object in an extension registry, the extension registry being part of an application extension runtime environment, the application extension runtime environment further having an extension factory and an extension repository;
identifying by the extension factory at least one of the two or more extension object implementations registered in the extension registry;
obtaining multiple extension results by calling each of the two or more extension object implementations, each of the two or more extension object implementations producing a respective extension result responsive to the application call;
using a result handler that is implemented by the extension object to evaluate the multiple extension results from the two or more extension object implementations after all of the extension object implementations have been called and using the result handler to determine the results to be returned to the application call;
and
responding to the application call with the results to be returned.

5 more elements

A computer system, comprising:

a processor;
means for receiving an application call to a method defined in an extension object interface included in the application and implemented by an extension object,
means for implementing the extension object by an application extension, the application extension having two or more associated extension object implementations of the extension object, each extension object implementation providing a distinct extension method implementation, each extension method implementation being an implementation of the method defined in the extension interface,
means for registering the extension object in an extension registry, the extension registry being part of an application extension runtime environment, the application extension runtime environment further having an extension factory and an extension repository;
means for identifying by the extension factory at least one of the two or more extension object implementations registered in the extension registry;
means for obtaining multiple extension results by calling each of the two or more extension object implementations, each of the two or more extension object implementations producing a respective extension result responsive to the application call;
means for using a result handler that is implemented by the extension object to evaluate the multiple extension results from the two or more extension object implementations after all of the extension object implementations have been called and using the handler to determine the results to be returned to the application call;
and
means for responding to the application call with the results to be returned.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.