Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Bruce E Martin

Mark W Hapner

Jefferson A Dinkins

A method and apparatus for managing relationships among objects in a distributed object environment includes a method and apparatus for determining whether two or more object references refer to identical objects; a method and apparatus for providing a unique identifier for an object; a method and apparatus for checking role types for the formation of relationships; and a method and apparatus for caching role and object locations in roles in a relationship. In the method and apparatus for determining whether two or more object references refer to the same object, a unique object identifier is compared to determine if the objects referred to by the object references are identical. The unique identifier is provided by concatenating information identifying the machine address of the process that created the object in addition to the process ID, the time of creation and a process counter. In the method and apparatus for checking role types, information including the number of roles and is passed to a relationship factory which determines whether the number, types and cardinality of the roles passed to the factory are consistent with the relationship object to be created. The method and apparatus also includes caching of object references and roles for objects related to a given object in that object's role. The methods and apparatus of the invention thus provide valuable tools for managing relationship among objects in a distributed object environment efficiently.

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Brisbane, CA, United States of America

Bruce E Martin