Driver query and substitution for format independent native data access

Claim 2

In a computer system, a method for accessing data stored in a variety of formats, the method comprising: providing an interface for receiving client requests for access to data stored in a variety of formats; providing a plurality of drivers for accessing data stored in a variety of formats, each driver including method steps providing native access to a data file of a particular format, said plurality of drivers including a subset of one or more drivers that support a particular operation; receiving at said interface a request for access to a particular data file; in response to said request for access, successively invoking each of said drivers until a particular driver is located which includes method steps providing native access to said particular data file; accessing said particular data file using said method steps providing native access to said particular data file; receiving at said interface a request to perform said particular operation on said particular data file; and if said particular driver does not support said particular operation on said particular data file, passing said request to perform said particular operation to one of said subset of drivers that support said particular operation.

Claim 3

The method of claim 1, wherein said interface includes a database client interface and wherein said particular data file includes an electronic spreadsheet file.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1, wherein said interface includes an electronic spreadsheet interface and wherein, said particular data file includes an electronic database file.

Claim 5

The method of claim 1, wherein said method steps providing native access to said particular data file includes steps for opening the data file.

Claim 6

The method of claim 4, wherein said steps for opening the data file includes steps for opening the data file in a shared access mode, so that the data file can be accessed concurrently among multiple clients.

Claim 7

The method of claim 1, wherein said method steps providing native access to said particular data file include steps for retrieving a particular data record from the data file.

Claim 8

The method of claim 1, wherein said method steps providing native access to said particular data file includes steps for locking at least a portion of the data file, so that said data access includes exclusive access to at least a portion of the data file.

Claim 9

The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving at said interface another request for access to another data file, said another data file being stored in a format different from that of said particular data file; successively invoking each of said drivers until a particular driver is located which includes method steps providing native access to said another data file; and accessing said another data file using said method steps providing native access to said another data file.

Claim 10

The method of claim 8, further comprising: while the particular data file and said another data file are being accessed, receiving a request at the interface for performing a join operation on the data file; and using said drivers for accessing individual files of each data file for joining the two data files, so that data files of different formats can be joined.

Claim 11

The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing a default driver including method steps providing native access to a data file of a generic format; and wherein said method further comprises: if a particular driver cannot be located which includes method steps providing native access to said particular data file, accessing said particular data file using said default driver.

Claim 12

In a data processing system, a method for accessing data objects of unknown type stored at a remote system, the method comprising: providing at a local client an interface for requesting access to data objects; storing a plurality of drivers for accessing remote data objects, each driver including knowledge of how to communicate with a remote system and including knowledge of how to access the data objects stored at the remote system, said plurality of drivers including a default driver; receiving at the interface a request for access to a particular data object which is stored at a particular remote system; invoking each driver in turn until a particular driver indicates that it is able to successfully communicate with the particular remote system and it is able to access the particular data object which is stored at the particular remote system; providing access to the particular data object using said particular driver; receiving at the interface a request to perform a particular operation on the particular data object; and if said particular driver does not support said particular operation on the particular data object, passing said request to perform said particular operation to said default driver.

Claim 13

In a data processing system, a method for accessing data objects of unknown type stored at a remote system, the method comprising: providing at a local client an interface for requesting access to data objects; storing a plurality of drivers for accessing remote data objects, each driver including knowledge of how to communicate with a remote system and including knowledge of how to access the data objects stored at the remote system, said plurality of drivers including a default driver; receiving at the interface a request for access to a particular data object which is stored at a particular remote system; invoking each driver in turn until a particular driver indicates that it is able to successfully communicate with the particular remote system and it is able to access the particular data object which is stored at the particular remote system; providing access to the particular data object using said particular driver; receiving at the interface a request to perform a particular operation on the particular data object; and if said particular driver does not support said particular operation on the particular data object, passing said request to perform said particular operation to said default driver.

Claim 14

The method of claim 11, wherein said remote system includes a remote computer system connected to said computer system through a telecommunication network.

Claim 15

The method of claim 11, wherein said data access includes shared access with data integrity maintained.

Claim 16

The method of claim 11, wherein said data access includes exclusive access.

Claim 17

The method of claim 11, wherein said particular data object comprises a spreadsheet data file and wherein said invoking step comprises: invoking each driver until a driver is invoked which is able to access a spreadsheet data file correctly.

Claim 18

In a computer system, a method for providing data access to data objects with dynamically-loaded drivers, the method comprising: receiving a request for access to a data object of interest; communicating the request for access to a driver manager; until a driver is found which provides appropriate access to the data object of interest, loading by the driver manager each driver in turn and attempting to access the data object with the driver; if no driver is found which provides appropriate access to the data object of interest, loading a default driver for providing access to the data object of interest; providing access to the data object of interest with the driver which is loaded for providing access to the data object of interest; receiving a request to perform a particular operation on the data object of interest, the particular operation being supported by a subset of one or more of said dynamically loaded drivers; and if the driver which is loaded for providing access to the data object of interest does not support the particular operation on the data object, performing the particular operation on the data object of interest with one of said subset of drivers that support the particular operation on the data object.

Claim 19

In a computer system, a method for providing data access to data objects with dynamically-loaded drivers, the method comprising: receiving a request for access to a data object of interest; communicating the request for access to a driver manager; until a driver is found which provides appropriate access to the data object of interest, loading by the driver manager each driver in turn and attempting to access the data object with the driver; if no driver is found which provides appropriate access to the data object of interest, loading a default driver for providing access to the data object of interest; providing access to the data object of interest with the driver which is loaded for providing access to the data object of interest; receiving a request to perform a particular operation on the data object of interest, the particular operation being supported by a subset of one or more of said dynamically loaded drivers; and if the driver which is loaded for providing access to the data object of interest does not support the particular operation on the data object, performing the particular operation on the data object of interest with one of said subset of drivers that support the particular operation on the data object.

Claim 20

The method of claim 16, further comprising: providing a data base engine with core services for accessing data objects of a variety of types; registering call backs to said core services with the loaded driver; and accessing the data object of interest by calling back into said core surfaces for data access operations which are not supported by the loaded driver.

Claim 21

The method of claim 16, wherein said dynamically-loaded drivers include selected ones of a spreadsheet file driver and a database file driver.

Claim 22

The method of claim 18, wherein said particular data object is a spreadsheet file and wherein only said spreadsheet file driver remains loaded during access to the data object of interest.

Claim 23

The method of claim 16, wherein said dynamically-loaded driver includes a spreadsheet file driver, the driver including functionality for processing spreadsheet data files selected from Quattro Pro, Lotus 1-2-3, and Microsoft Excel data files.

Claim 24

The method of claim 16, wherein said data access includes access operations for information retrieval, storage, and sorting.

Claim 25

The method of claim 16, further comprising: unloading the dynamically-loaded driver after access to the data object of interest ceases.

Claim 26

The method of claim 16, wherein each driver includes functionality sufficient for providing access to a particular type of data object without employing said data object.

Claim 27

The method of claim 16, further comprising: receiving a request for access to another data object of interest while said data object of interest is being accessed; and until a driver is found which provides appropriate access to said another data object of interest, loading each driver in turn and attempting to access said another data object with the driver.

Claim 28

The method of claim 24, wherein said data object of interest and said another data object of interest are different types of data objects.

Claim 29

The method of claim 16, wherein said subset of drivers that support the particular operation includes the default driver.

Claim 30

In a computer system, a method for providing format-independent access to different data objects, the method comprising: providing a database interface and a default database file driver; receiving at the interface a request for access to a particular data object, said particular data object comprising a spreadsheet data file; passing said request for access to the particular data object to a spreadsheet data file driver, said spreadsheet data file including knowledge of how to access the spreadsheet data file; receiving at the interface a request to perform a database sort operation on the particular data object; attempting to sort the particular data object by passing the request to perform a database sort operation to the spreadsheet data file driver; and if said spreadsheet data file driver does not include knowledge of how to sort the spreadsheet data file, passing the request to perform a database sort operation to said default database driver.

Claim 31

In a computer system, a method for providing format-independent access to different data objects, the method comprising: providing a database interface and a default database file driver; receiving at the interface a request for access to a particular data object, said particular data object comprising a spreadsheet data file; passing said request for access to the particular data object to a spreadsheet data file driver, said spreadsheet data file including knowledge of how to access the spreadsheet data file; receiving at the interface a request to perform a database sort operation on the particular data object; attempting to sort the particular data object by passing the request to perform a database sort operation to the spreadsheet data file driver; and if said spreadsheet data file driver does not include knowledge of how to sort the spreadsheet data file, passing the request to perform a database sort operation to said default database driver.

Claim 32

The method of claim 27, wherein said request for access includes a dBASE-compatible command to open the spreadsheet data file, said spreadsheet data file being a Lotus 1-2-3 compatible spreadsheet data file, and wherein the request for sorting said spreadsheet data file includes a dBASE-compatible command which creates an index for sorting the spreadsheet data file by a particular field of the spreadsheet data file.