Oracle International Corporation

Ralph Lemke

Priscilla C Fung

Michael John De Groot

Christopher Brumme

Frank Dancs

Michael DeGroot

An object oriented software environment permits, through declarative programming techniques, customization of functionality of an object. The object oriented software environment includes a plurality of objects, wherein each object contains at least one method. A user of the object oriented software environment submits one or more declarative statements to augment the functionality of a method on an object. In response, the object oriented software environment associates the declarative statements to the method identified on the object such that when the method on the object is called, the declarative statements, associated with the object, are executed in addition to the methods on the object. The declarative programming technique permits augmenting the functionality of a method on an object with &ldquo;rules.&rdquo; In addition, two or more methods may be associated together to generate an event that propagates from one method to another method. The programming techniques disclosed also permit integration of declarative, compiled and scripting approaches to integrate three styles of applications program development.

Methods and apparatus for declarative programming techniques in an object oriented environment

A uniform object model integrates objects defined by foreign type systems into a single integrated object oriented system. The type system for the integrated object oriented system supports a superset of features from foreign object systems. The uniform object model approach converts foreign objects into uniform object model objects defined by the integrated type system and layers onto the uniform object model objects additional members supported by the integrated type system. Adapters integrate foreign objects and data sources into the integrated object oriented system by implementing foreign objects as full fledged objects of the system. The foreign object adapters are bi-directional such that objects, registered in the system, are exposed to foreign object systems. During run time, clients obtain a connection to the data source adapter, which supports the target data source, to execute transactions in the target data source. When executing transactions in the target data source, the data source adapter operates as an object access mechanism by generating an object populated with data from the target data source. The data source adapters support a single predetermined dialect of a query language, regardless of the target data source, and generate a query statement compatible with the target data source. The data source adapters also support persistence of objects in the data sources.

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Ralph Lemke