Visual application partitioning for creating distributed object oriented applications

Claim 3

The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of receiving specific middleware characteristics for the server part and including said characteristics in the distributed interface generated for the server code structure and the client stub.

Claim 6

A method, according to claim 3, wherein the internal representation is built based upon metadata.

Claim 7

A method, according to claim 3, wherein the step of initially building an internal representation comprises building a single partition and locating all program objects of the application within said single partition whereby all method calls between said program object are initially defined as local method calls.

Claim 8

A method, according to claim 3, further comprising the step of defining middleware defaults setting for said empty partition containers in response to user selection of middleware protocol options in the displayed application.

Claim 9

A method, according to claim 3, wherein the step of redefining connections crossing said at least one partition boundary as distributed connections, comprises, for each distributed connection: inferring one program object of the connection as a server object and another program object of the connection as a client object; defining a representation of a server stub and middleware protocols for the server object; and defining a representation of a client stub for the client object.

Claim 10

A method, according to claim 7, wherein the code is generated according to the representations defined of the server and client stubs.

Claim 11

A software development tool for designing and coding a distributed application, the tool being adaptable to interoperate with a visual building component for displaying an application as multiple program objects having connections between them representing method calls, for displaying discrete partitions having boundaries, and for permitting a user to relocate program objects across partition boundaries while maintaining the visual representation of connections between the objects, the tool comprising: a metadata generator for defining a current internal representation of the displayed application and for defining any connections crossing partition boundaries in said displayed application as distributed connections in the current internal representation; and a code generator for generating distributed interfaces for all distributed connections defined in the current internal representation, said code generator being activated by user action.

Claim 12

A software development tool for designing and coding a distributed application, the tool being adaptable to interoperate with a visual building component for displaying an application as multiple program objects having connections between them representing method calls, for displaying discrete partitions having boundaries, and for permitting a user to relocate program objects across partition boundaries while maintaining the visual representation of connections between the objects, the tool comprising: a metadata generator for defining a current internal representation of the displayed application and for defining any connections crossing partition boundaries in said displayed application as distributed connections in the current internal representation; and a code generator for generating distributed interfaces for all distributed connections defined in the current internal representation, said code generator being activated by user action.

Claim 13

A software development tool, according to claim 9, further comprising a repository of reusable code modules, each module defining middleware protocols, and means for accessing an appropriate module when generating a distributed interface.

Claim 14

A software tool, according to claim 10, wherein the repository of reusable code modules comprises coded templates.

Claim 15

A computer program product comprising: a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for creating a distributed application for an object oriented environment having a visual building component adapted to display an application design input by a user, the displayed application design having multiple program objects and connections between said objects representing method calls, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product comprising: computer readable program code means for causing the computer to initially define an internal representation of the objects and connections of the displayed application design; computer readable program code means for causing the computer, in response to user definition of at least one partition boundary in the displayed application design, to define corresponding empty partition containers in the internal representation; computer readable program code means for causing the computer, in response to user relocation of at least one program object across said at least one partition boundary in the displayed application design, to redefine said at least one program object in the internal representation as a distributed object and its connections crossing said at least one partition boundary as distributed connections; and computer readable program code means for causing the computer, in response to a user commit action, to generate code including middleware characteristics for every distributed connection defined in the internal representation.

Claim 16

A computer program product comprising: a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for creating a distributed application for an object oriented environment having a visual building component adapted to display an application design input by a user, the displayed application design having multiple program objects and connections between said objects representing method calls, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product comprising: computer readable program code means for causing the computer to initially define an internal representation of the objects and connections of the displayed application design; computer readable program code means for causing the computer, in response to user definition of at least one partition boundary in the displayed application design, to define corresponding empty partition containers in the internal representation; computer readable program code means for causing the computer, in response to user relocation of at least one program object across said at least one partition boundary in the displayed application design, to redefine said at least one program object in the internal representation as a distributed object and its connections crossing said at least one partition boundary as distributed connections; and computer readable program code means for causing the computer, in response to a user commit action, to generate code including middleware characteristics for every distributed connection defined in the internal representation.