Methods and apparatus for providing dynamic invocation of applicatons in a distributed heterogeneous environment

Claim 2

The process of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting includes the substep of causing the server one of the platforms to execute the server application.

Claim 3

The process of claim 2 further including the step of starting the server application.

Claim 4

The process of claim 1 wherein the data processing network includes user context information corresponding to a user of the client application, and wherein the step of determining the identifier for the first method includes the substep of determining the identifier for the first method by reference to the user context information.

Claim 5

The process of claim 1 wherein the data processing network includes group context information corresponding to a group of users of the network, and wherein the step of determining the identifier for the first method includes the substep of determining the identifier for the first method by reference to the group context information.

Claim 6

The process of claim 1 wherein the data processing network includes a global data base accessible to each of the platforms in the network and containing information about the classes, and wherein the step of determining the identifier for the first method includes the substeps of determining the class of the first instance; accessing the global data base with the class of the first instance and the first message to locate the identifier for the first method; and retrieving the identifier of the first method.

Claim 7

The process of claim 6 wherein the data processing network includes context information corresponding to users of the client application, and wherein associated with each of the methods is a set of attributes defining the common characteristics of the instances in the associated class, and wherein the step of determining the identifier for the first method includes the substep of comparing the context information with the set of attributes of each method to select one of the methods.

Claim 8

The process of claim 2 wherein the step of causing the server application to execute includes the substep of generating a context object data base for use by the server application, the context object data base including context information.

Claim 9

The process of claim 1 wherein the transmitting step includes the substep of transmitting to the server one of the platforms context information for use by the server application.

Claim 10

The process of claim 1 wherein associated with each of the classes is a set of attributes defining the instances in the associated class, and wherein the classes are hierarchically ordered into superclasses and subclasses such that the ones of the classes which are subclasses of a corresponding superclass inherit the attributes from the corresponding superclass, and wherein the method further includes the step of determining the attributes of the first instance from the attributes of the class for the first instance and from the attributes of all the superclasses of the class for the first instance.

Claim 11

The process of claim 1 wherein the client application is executing in a client one of the platforms, and wherein the step of determining the identifier for the first method includes the substep of determining, in the client one of the platforms, the class into which the first instance is organized.

Claim 12

A data processing network for allowing remote invocation of server applications by client applications in an object oriented manner comprising: memory in the network containing a data base including a plurality of class entries containing information for a plurality of uniquely identifiable classes, the classes identifying types of instances, which are items that may be manipulated or accessed by the applications, according to shared characteristics, each of the class entries containing an identification of a corresponding group of message entries, the message entries containing information specifying the types of operations which can be performed on instances in the corresponding classes, each of the class entries containing an identification of a corresponding group of method entries containing references to invocation commands to invoke the applications; and a plurality of first platforms for executing the client applications and a plurality of second platforms for executing the server applications, the first platforms including means for generating a first message including an identifier for a first instance and an identifier for a desired operation to be performed on the first instance, data base control means, coupled to the memory, for controlling the data base, the data base control means including means for selecting a server application to be invoked as a result of the first message, means for determining an identifier for a first method from the first message and from a class into which the first instance is organized, the first method including a reference to a selected server application to perform the desired operation on the first instance, and means for transmitting to a selected one of the second platforms the reference to the selected server application over the identifier for the first instance, and the second platforms including means for receiving the reference for the server application from the transmitting means in the data base control means.

Claim 13

The data processing network of claim 12 wherein selected ones of the first platforms can be ones of the second platforms.

Claim 14

The data processing network of claim 12 wherein a portion of the memory resides in the first platforms.

Claim 15

The data processing network of claim 12 wherein a portion of the memory resides in the second platforms.

Claim 16

The data processing network of claim 12 wherein the first platforms include storage means for holding context information corresponding to users of the client application, and means for determining the identifier for the first method by reference to the context information.