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International Business Machines Corporation

Adrienne Tin

James Richard Wason

Charles B Harvey, Jr

Robert L Abraham

Herman Mitchell

James B Anderson

Francis L Fitzpatrick

Teresa E Merrick

A Complex Object class is provided for grouping hierarchically unrelated objects, i.e. objects which are unrelated to each other as parent and child objects, into Complex Objects in an object oriented computing environment. Each Complex Object includes a Complex Object Member frame, containing pointers to associated hierarchically unrelated objects, and Complex Object methods for performing actions on the hierarchically unrelated objects as a group. Accordingly, an object manager can send action messages to the Complex Objects to perform actions on the associated hierarchically unrelated objects using the associated Complex Object methods. As a result, customized programming for defining and utilizing Complex Objects is greatly reduced.

System and method for supporting complex objects in an object oriented

Objects import data from, and export data to, a plurality of external systems in an object oriented computing system via a uniform external interface. The uniform interface includes external interface layers and internal interface layers. Each external interface layer converts data from the associated external system into an identifying token and data value. The external layer also converts an identifying token and data value into data which is formatted for the associated external system. The internal interface layer accepts an identifying token and data value from the external interface layer and converts the data value to a data attribute associated with an object. The internal interface layer also converts a data attribute into an identifying token and data value and provides the token and data value to the external interface layer. Thus, objects need only communicate with the internal interface layer in order to import and export data. The external interface layer includes customized conversion routines for converting a token and data value to data which is useable by an external system. Data validation and storage takes place via the internal interface layer. Accordingly, replication of code is minimized and the complexity of the object oriented system is reduced.

System for providing a uniform external interface for an object oriented

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Ridgefield Park, NJ, United States of America

Adrienne Tin