The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 16, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 11, 1997
Christopher Lee Fraley, Woodinville, WA (US);
Christopher Alan Zimmerman, Bellevue, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
An object interface control system that provides a mechanism for identifying the functionality available at an interface separately from the interface itself. A COM implementation provides a new function call named QueryService which is similar to the existing QueryInterface function call. Services are defined which include a set of functionality. The set of functionality for a service is expressed through a family of interfaces. When requesting a pointer to a function using the QueryService call, one specifies the service name and the interface name. Different services may utilize the same interface. Different services may utilize the same interface through which each service provides different functionality. A QueryService function call may return a pointer to an interface on the same object to which the call was placed or it may return a pointer to an interface on a different object. Object identity is not assumed with the QueryService function call and hence queries for services can be easily delegated.