International Business Machines Corporation

Ulf Jesper Thomas Lindblom

Timothy James Graser

Brent Allen Carlson

Torbjorn Harald Pernbeck

Anders Magnus Nilsson

Jan Olof Engstrom

Barbara Regine Proske

Simon Paul Reason

In an object oriented computer system, a framework mechanism defines a mechanism that separates the ability to complete a process from the results of that process. A task is defined in the framework in terms of a sequence of processes. The framework includes a coupling mechanism for flexibly coupling any of these processes together in any suitable order to define the run-time behavior of the framework without changing the core functions of the framework. The coupling mechanism includes the definition of a processable interface and a processing interface. A particular process generally takes detail information as input and produces detail information that is used in a subsequent process. The detail information input into a process is said to be &ldquo;processable&rdquo;, and therefore implements the &ldquo;processable&rdquo; interface. The detail information output from a process is said to be &ldquo;processing&rdquo; detail that is output to the next process, and therefore implements the processing interface. Thus, an object that uses &ldquo;shippable&rdquo; detail information as input through its processable interface generates corresponding &ldquo;shipping&rdquo; detail information for each shippable detail, which is output to one or more subsequent processes via the processing interface. A particular processable can be associated with any processing interface that supports the processable interface. In other words, any process-related class in the framework can be coupled to any other process-related class, provided one class has a processing interface that corresponds to the processable interface of the subsequent class. In this manner, classes in the framework mechanism can be flexibly coupled together in any suitable order or fashion to accommodate a great variety of different configurations. The framework mechanism therefore provides a high degree of implementation while maintaining the ability to achieve a high degree of customization.

Mechanism and method for flexible coupling of processes in an object oriented framework

In an object oriented computer system, a framework mechanism defines an infrastructure for allowing a user to couple processes in the framework together in any suitable way to define a desired process flow. A user first defines a static object structure that corresponds to the specific process flow from one process to the next. The processes in the framework may be flexibly coupled in any suitable order, so a process does not have knowledge of its predecessor or successor processes. Thus, at run-time, a process determines the next step in the process flow from the static object structure. Once a process determines its subsequent process, a client may then create the next process and invoke methods on one or more objects corresponding to the newly-created process. Each process thus determines at run-time the next step in the process flow from the static object structure that the user statically defined to configure the process flow, which defines the desired processing environment.

Object mechanism and method for coupling together processes to define a desired processing environment in an object oriented framework

In an object oriented computer system, an object oriented framework defines an interface mechanism that provides a common interface to a non-object oriented persistent datastore. This common interface can be customized by various types within the framework by effectively hiding attributes on the common interface that are not needed by a particular type. Attributes defined on the common interface may be accessed at any level in the framework through a process of delegation from one level to the next. In addition, one or more of these attributes on the common interface may be defined at various levels, which causes those attributes to be accessed at their respective levels instead of delegating to different levels.

Interface mechanism and method for accessing non-object oriented data from within an object oriented framework

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Bromma, Sweden

Ulf Jesper Thomas Lindblom