Method and system to display, modify or substitute the contents of self-describing objects

Abstract

A method and system to decompose, display, modify and substitute the contents of self-describing objects is presented. A user-friendly graphical user interface is designed to facilitate the processing of these objects. Since objects can be arbitrarily complex, the presentation of information in a clear and concise manner is critically important. The user can modify the values for existing objects, and by using the copy and paste operations, the user can construct new objects. These changes are made through the graphical user interface where the contents of the object is displayed and controls are provided to modify existing objects or to create new objects. The particular embodiment deals with CORBA objects of type ANY. Objects of ANY type include a Helper class to support the insertion and extraction of information. This class is dynamically created and invoked to assist in obtaining the contents from the ANY type. There are also methods to help narrow the type of objects. By utilizing these self-describing features, the present embodiment allows a user to decompose, display, and modify CORBA objects of type ANY, and to construct new objects of CORBA type ANY.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method for processing data stored a self-describing object, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: 
 identifying the contents of the self-describing object;    displaying the contents of the self-describing object in a graphical user interface;    displaying graphical controls, wherein the graphical controls are used to manipulate the contents of the self-describing object;    modifying the contents of the self-describing object in response to user input to graphical controls in the graphical user interface; and    constructing a new self-describing object in response to user input to graphical controls in the graphical user interface.    
     
     
         2 . The method in  claim 1 , wherein the self-describing object contains helper classes to process the object.  
     
     
         3 . The method in  claim 1 , wherein primitive types null, string, long, ulong (unsigned long), short, ushort (unsigned short), float, double, char, and octet are displayed directly in text boxes in the graphical user interface.  
     
     
         4 . The method in  claim 3 , wherein the user can edit the contents of the text boxes in the graphical user interface.  
     
     
         5 . The method in  claim 1 , wherein a boolean type is displayed as a checkbox in the graphical user interface with a simple toggle to change value.  
     
     
         6 . The method in  claim 1 , wherein an enumerated type is displayed in the graphical user interface as a drop-down list and the value of the enumerated type is modified by selecting a different list item.  
     
     
         7 . The method in  claim 1 , wherein a complex object is an array, structure, or sequence of other allowed types, including other complex objects.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein a complex object is displayed in the graphical user interface in tree form with nodes and leaves.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 displaying graphical indications of possible changes to the contents displayed in the graphical user interface.  
 
     
     
         10 . The method in  claim 9 , wherein constructing a new self-describing object can be performed by a sequence of copy and paste operations using the graphical controls in the graphical user interface.  
     
     
         11 . The method in  claim 10 , wherein copying is from any allowed self-describing object to a clipboard.  
     
     
         12 . The method in  claim 10 , wherein pasting is from a clipboard to a new self-describing object.  
     
     
         13 . A method for processing data stored as a CORBA ANY object, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: 
 decomposing and displaying the contents of the CORBA ANY object in an easily understood form;    modifying the contents of the CORBA ANY object in an intuitive point-and-click environment; and    constructing a new CORBA ANY object from other CORBA objects.    
     
     
         14 . The method in  claim 13 , wherein the CORBA ANY object is a self-describing type based on Interface Definition Language types.  
     
     
         15 . The method in  claim 13 , wherein the CORBA ANY object contains helper classes to insert, extract, and narrow items.  
     
     
         16 . The method in  claim 13 , wherein primitive types null, string, long, ulong (unsigned long), short, ushort (unsigned short), float, double, char, and octet are displayed directly with type-in capability to change values.  
     
     
         17 . The method in  claim 13 , wherein a boolean type is displayed as a check box with a simple toggle to change value.  
     
     
         18 . The method in  claim 13 , wherein an enumerated type is displayed as a drop-down list and the value is modified by selecting a different list item.  
     
     
         19 . The method in  claim 13 , wherein a complex object is an array, structure, or sequence of other allowed Interface Definition Language types, including other complex objects.  
     
     
         20 . The method in  claim 13 , wherein constructing a new CORBA ANY object can be performed by a sequence of copy and paste operations.  
     
     
         21 . The method in  claim 20 , wherein copying is from any allowed Interface Definition Language object to the new CORBA ANY object.  
     
     
         22 . The method in  claim 20 , wherein pasting is from a CORBA ANY object to any allowed Interface Definition Language object.  
     
     
         23 . A data processing system for manipulating a CORBA ANY object, the data processing system comprising: 
 a means for decomposing and displaying the contents of a CORBA ANY type in an easily understood form;    a means for modifying the contents of a CORBA ANY TYPE in an intuitive point-and-click environment; and    a means for constructing a new CORBA ANY object from other CORBA objects.    
     
     
         24 . The data processing system of  claim 23  wherein the CORBA ANY object is a self-describing type based on Interface Definition Language types and contains helper classes to insert, extract, and narrow items.  
     
     
         25 . The data processing system of  claim 23  wherein primitive types null, string, long, ulong (unsigned long), short, ushort (unsigned short), float, double, char, and octet are displayed directly with type-in capability to change values.  
     
     
         26 . The data processing system of  claim 23  wherein a boolean type is displayed as checkbox with a simple toggle to change value and an enumerated type is displayed as a drop-down list with selection of one value from an item list.  
     
     
         27 . The data processing system of  claim 23  wherein a complex object is an array, structure, or sequence of other allowed Interface Definition Language types, including other complex objects.  
     
     
         28 . The data processing system of  claim 23  wherein constructing a new CORBA ANY object can be performed by a sequence of copy and paste operations.  
     
     
         29 . A computer program product on a computer-readable medium for use in a network workstation for processing CORBA objects of type ANY, the computer program product comprising: 
 instructions for decomposing the contents of a CORBA ANY object;    instructions for displaying the contents of a CORBA ANY object;    instructions for modifying the contents of a CORBA ANY object;    instructions for copying data from any allowed Interface Definition Language object to a CORBA ANY object, and    instructions for pasting data from a CORBA ANY object to any allowed Interface Definition Language object.    
     
     
         30 . The computer program product of  claim 29 , wherein the data object that is processed may be primitive or complex.  
     
     
         31 . The computer program product of  claim 30  wherein the primitive object is one of the following types: null, string, long, ulong (unsigned long), short, ushort (unsigned short), float, double, boolean, char, octet.  
     
     
         32 . The computer program product of  claim 30 , wherein a complex type is an array, structure, or sequence of any other type, including complex types themselves; and  
     
     
         33 . The computer program product of  claim 29 , wherein an easily understood graphical computer interface allows users to display, modify, and construct CORBA ANY objects.