Drag-and-drop dynamic distributed object model

Abstract

An external object model is built into a comprehensive, drag-and-drop, dynamic, distributed object model, to offer its users lower total cost of ownership than do conventional user interface applications and application builders. A Windows® workstation user computer is provided with a quick, simple, easily-managed path to combinations of available applications on a network of systems, in such a way that the user can establish and exploit complex data relationships and software capabilities on the workstation without application installation, significant access effort, or specialized knowledge. Runtime binding prepares and links user forms and reports to application programs as desired, without preparatory steps. The definition and use of query objects to view concurrently multiple database tables offers the unique ability to combine fields from dissimilar database engines into a single view.

What is claimed: 
     
       1. A system for accessing and operating distributed dynamic external objects across a computer network, in response to an application program on at least one client computer comprising:
 one or more server computers, each one further comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to wide area networks or local area networks; 
 at least one client computer comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to the server computers via wide area networks or local area networks; 
 an application software program operating on of the at least one client computer for presenting configured to present a first form or menu to a user of the via the at least one client computer and including locations of dynamic external objects used by the application program and for creating create an instance of one or more of the dynamic distributed external objects on the at least one client computer, wherein the application software program includes locations of the dynamic external objects; 
 thea set of dynamic external object classes associated with the dynamic external objects including methods and attributes, stored on one or more of the server computers or on one or more of the at least one client computerscomputer, said dynamic external object classes comprising object code; and 
 an interpreting software program for converting configured to convert the located dynamic external objects into machine code on the user's machine at least one client computer and for resolving the to resolve class inheritances, polymorphic behaviors, and encapsulation behaviors of the objects, classes, methods, and attributes of the dynamic external objects, across the at least one client computer and the server computers in a network, at the a time of the user's request for execution of the programs based on the dynamic external objects. 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , further comprising one or more user interface programs operating on of the at least one client computer for interpreting configured to interpret mouse and keyboard actions of the user at least one client computer to select the computers on of the network holding storing the dynamic external objects required by associated with the application software program. 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 2 , wherein the application programs further software program comprises a functionality including at least one of data entry, data retrieval, and or data reporting programs. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the dynamic external objects are in code executable by the at least one client computer. 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the interpreting software program operating on the client computer interprets the compiled is configured to interpret the object code into machine executable code to create an the instance of the one or more dynamic external object objects in on the at least one client computer. 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the application programs further software program comprise comprises a functionality including at least one of data entry, data retrieval, and or data reporting programs. 
     
     
       7. The system of  claim 1 , further comprising means for providing a user with an alias name for each computer accessed by the application software program using comprising the distributed dynamic external objects. 
     
     
       8. A drag and drop, dynamic, distributed, object model based software user interface system for accessing and operating distributed applications across computer networks, comprising:
 two or more peer-to-peer computers, each one further comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory subsystems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to wide area networks or local area networks; 
 a first peer computer comprising one or more interconnected processors, one or more main memory sub-systems, one or more mass storage subsystems, and one or more connections to the server computers via wide area networks or local area networks; 
 an application software program operating on the first peer computer for presenting a first form or menu to a user of via the first peer computer and including locations of dynamic external objects used by the application software program and for creating an instance of one or more of the dynamic distributed external objects on the first peer computer; 
 thea set of dynamic external object classes associated with the dynamic external objects including methods and attributes, stored on a different peer computer and stored as compiled object code; and  
 an interpreting software program for converting the located dynamic external objects into machine code on the a user's machine and for resolving class inheritances, polymorphic behaviors, and encapsulation behaviors of the objects, classes, methods, and attributes, across computers in the network, at the a time of the User's request for execution of the application software program. 
 
     
     
       9. The system of  claim 8 , further comprising a one or more user interface programs operating on the first peer computer for interpreting mouse and keyboard actions of the user first peer computer to select the computers on the network holding the dynamic external objects required by the application software program. 
     
     
       10. The system of  claim 8 , wherein the application software program further comprises a functionality including at least one of data entry, data retrieval, and or data reporting programs. 
     
     
       11. The system of  claim 8 , wherein the dynamic external objects are in code executable by the first peer computer. 
     
     
       12. The system of  claim 8 , wherein the interpreting software program operates on the first peer computer for interpreting the compiled object code into machine executable code to create an the instance of the one of more dynamic external objects in on the client first peer computer. 
     
     
       13. The system of  claim 8 , wherein the user application program further comprises data entry, data retrieval, and reporting programs. 
     
     
       14. A method for implementing dynamic external objects, comprising the steps of:
 on one or more first computers, compiling source code for the objects to create dynamic external objects (DEOs) of object code for performing one or more tasks of a launching application program; 
 on a second computer, installing a launching application with one or more tasks and locations of DEOs on the first computers to enable a user to locate the DEOs corresponding to the one or more tasks of the launching application program and create an instance of the dynamic external objects on the second computer for accomplishing the selected task(s); and 
 interpreting the dynamic external objects on the second computer to perform one or more of the selected tasks of the launching program. 
 
     
     
       15. A method for using dynamic external objects, comprising the steps of:
 providing one or more dynamic external objects comprising object code:   on a user's computer, running an application program that includes one or more tasks to be performed on the user's computer and information about the location of dynamic external objects which correspond to the tasks;   accepting the user's selection of one or more task of the application for execution;   automatically locating the dynamic external objects required to execute each task by creating an instance of the dynamic external objects on the user's computer for execution; and   executing the selected tasks of the application on the user's computer.   
     
     
       16. The method of claim  15  32, wherein the step of locating the dynamic external objects further comprises the steps of:
 reading the application's initialization (.ini) file to obtain one or more search paths for locating the required compiled dynamic external objects corresponding to the at least one of the one or more tasks; 
 searching in the search paths in their given order to locate each required compiled the dynamic external object objects corresponding to the at least one of the one or more tasks; 
 searching in the folder from which the application was launched for each required compiled the dynamic external object objects corresponding to the at least one of the one or more tasks not found in the preceding steps search paths; and 
 searching in the application's executable (.exe) file for each required compiled the dynamic external object objects corresponding to the at least one of the one or more tasks not found in either the preceding steps search paths or the folder from which the application was launched. 
 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 15 , wherein the step of locating the compiled objects further comprises the steps of:
 searching in the search paths in their given order to locate each required compiled object;   searching in the folder from which the application was launched for each required compiled object not found in the preceding steps; and   searching in the applications executable (.exe) file for each required compiled object not found in the preceding steps.   
     
     
       18. The method of claim  15  32, wherein the step of creating an the instance of the compiled DEO dynamic external objects on the user's computer includes;
 linking the DEO dynamic external objects into the RAM of the user's computer for execution on the user's computer, and 
 further comprises the step of instancing all parent objects of the required compiled objects dynamic external objects corresponding to the at least one of the one or more tasks into the RAM of the user's computer. 
 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 15 , wherein the step of executing the application further comprises the steps of: resolving all object hierarchy inheritances for each compiled object; executing the application with all inheritances resolved. 
     
     
       20. A method for deploying objects of an application program comprising:
 on a network of computers, storing a plurality of objects in object code, each of which has the objects having inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation; 
 on one of the computers, installing an application program that has the location of the objects needed to run an a task of the application program; and  
 creating an instance of an at least one of the object objects associated with the task on the computer with having the application program; installed thereon, and on the computer with the instance of the object, executing the program task. 
 
     
     
       21. The method of  claim 20 , further comprising the further step of: changing the objects on the network of the computers. 
     
     
       22. The method of  claim 20 , wherein the creating the instance of the at least one of the objects are executed without associated with the task is not dependent on registration. 
     
     
       23. The method of  claim 20 , wherein the objects inherit properties and methods from their classes associated with the objects. 
     
     
       24. A system comprising,
 a memory having computer executable components stored thereon; and   a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to facilitate execution of the computer executable components, the computer executable components, comprising:   an application software program of a client computer configured to present a first form or menu on the client computer including locations of dynamic external objects and to locate one or more of the dynamic external objects implicated to execute a task of the application software program, wherein the dynamic external objects are stored externally to the client computer;   a set of classes associated with the dynamic external objects, the set of classes including methods and attributes and comprising object code; and   an interpreting software program configured to convert the one or more of the dynamic external objects implicated to execute the task of the application software program into machine code on the client computer to create an instance of the one of more of the dynamic external objects implicated to execute the task of the application software program on the client computer.   
     
     
       25. The system of claim 24, wherein the dynamic external objects are code executable by the client computer. 
     
     
       26. The system of claim 24, wherein the interpreting software program is further configured to interpret compiled object code into machine executable code to create the instance of the one or more of the dynamic external objects implicated to execute the task of the application software program on the client computer. 
     
     
       27. A system, comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions and the processor configured to carry out the computer-executable instructions including instructions for:
 executing an application configured to present a first form or menu on a first computer, wherein the first form or menu includes information about locations of a set of dynamic external objects used by the application program, and to facilitate creating an instance of one or more dynamic external objects of the set on the first computer; 
 retrieving one or more classes related to the set of dynamic external objects including methods and attributes stored as compiled object code on at least one of an other computer or the first computer based on the information about the locations of the set of dynamic external objects; and 
 converting at least one of the one or more classes into machine code on the first computer. 
   
     
     
       28. The system of claim 27, wherein the dynamic external objects are code executable by the first peer computer. 
     
     
       29. The system of claim 27, wherein the computer-executable instructions further include instructions for creating the instance of the one or more dynamic external objects of the set related to the at least one retrieved class converted. 
     
     
       30. A device, comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions and the processor configured to carry out the computer-executable instructions including instructions for:
 an application software program configured to display one or more externally stored dynamic external objects and comprises respective locations thereof; and 
 an interpreting software program configured to convert at least one of the dynamic external objects into local machine executable code on the device including methods and attributes related to the at least one dynamic external object. 
   
     
     
       31. The device of claim 30, wherein the externally stored dynamic external objects reside as object code on a remotely located device communicatively coupled to the device over a network. 
     
     
       32. A method comprising:
 providing one or more dynamic external objects comprising object code:   on a user's computer, running an application program that includes one or more tasks to be performed on the user's computer and information about the location of dynamic external objects corresponding to the one or more tasks;   accepting the user's selection of at least one of the one or more tasks of the application program for execution;   automatically locating the dynamic external objects required to execute the at least one of the one or more tasks by creating an instance of the dynamic external objects corresponding to the at least one of the one or more tasks on the user's computer for execution; and   executing the selected tasks of the application on the user's computer.   
     
     
       33. The method of claim 32, wherein the executing the application further comprises:
 resolving all object hierarchy inheritances for the dynamic external objects corresponding to the at least one of the one or more tasks.