Displayable presentation page and SQL searchable relational data source implementation of a system, method and software for creating or maintaining distributed transparent persistence of complex data objects and their data relationships

Abstract

The invention provides systems, methods and software for creating or maintaining distributed transparent persistence of complex data objects and associated data stores. In one aspect, the invention also relates to an application programming object capable of creating or maintaining distributed transparent persistence of data objects or data object graphs without the necessity of inserting any byte codes or modification of the object graph. Virtually any java object or object praph can be transparently persisted. Further, copies of a data graph or of a portion of the data graph can be automatically reconciled and changes persisted without any persistence coding in the object model.

1 . A system for creating or maintaining transparent persistence of a member selected from the group consisting of a data object, an object graph model and a portion of an object graph model when a user of the system is creating, maintaining, accessing or navigating complex data objects as a CDOG model, comprising: 
 a) a set of definitions for the relationships between a data source schema and objects capable of storing data for an object language application, wherein the set of definitions is stored in a repository;    b) a set of definitions for the relationships between objects for an object language application, wherein the set of definitions is part of an object application navigation model;    c) a list of objects, or a set of objects that are to be persisted, wherein the list of objects or set of objects is part of an object application navigation model;    d) an object or set of objects as a programming module that contains the logic capable of persisting an indicated object or set of objects;    e) an input method to provide the programming module of d) with the location of information related to a), b) and c), and    f) at least one data source to in which persisted data may be stored.    
   
   
       2 . A system according to  claim 1 , that does not require any modifications to an object model or the inclusion of any persistence byte code in the object model in order to provide persistence for all or a portion of the the CDOG model.  
   
   
       3 . A system according to  claim 2 , that provides persistence for a CDOG model on a distributed network environment.  
   
   
       4 . A system according to  claim 1 , further providing a system for displaying, updating or creating the data or structure of one or more data objects, and optionally its links to other objects of an object model, by utilizing a displayable presentation page format wherein the displayable presentation page source code contains embedded object programming code, and persisting one or more of a member selected from the group consisting of an object, the data of an object, links of an object, or an object model by having the object programming code embedded in the displayable presentation page directly or indirectly communicate with at least one programming object that has has implemented in its object programming logic methods for getting, setting, resetting and loading of data, and wherein the programming object also includes programming code for communicating directly or indirectly with a persistence manager API or persistence library to persist one or more members selected from the group consisting of an object, the data of an object, a link to another object in an object model, and an object model.  
   
   
       5 . A system according to  claim 4 , wherein the displayable presentation page is a JSP that is associated with a first Java object referenced within the JSP source code, which is a JSP processor class object, that is in turn associated with a second Java object referenced by the first Java Object with embedded business logic that reflects the data of the first business object and can be tailored to provide additional business logic for forward and reverse conversion of data types acceptable for the JSP into data types to be stored in a data source.  
   
   
       6 . A system according to  claim 1 , for creating or maintaining transparent persistence of a member selected from the group consisting of a data object, an object graph model and a portion of an object graph model when a user of the system is creating, maintaining, accessing or navigating complex data objects as a CDOG model, further comprising a generic ejb stateful session bean.  
   
   
       7 . A system according to  claim 1 , that does not require any modifications to an object model or the inclusion of any persistence byte code in the object model in order to provide persistence for all or a portion of the the CDOG model, further comprising a generic ejb stateful session bean.  
   
   
       8 . A system according to  claim 2 , that provides persistence for a CDOG model on a distributed network environment, further comprising a generic ejb stateful session bean.  
   
   
       9 . A software module, or set of modules, for creating or maintaining transparent persistence of a member selected from the group consisting of a data object, an object graph model and a portion of an object graph model when a user of the system is creating, maintaining, accessing or navigating complex data objects as a CDOG model, comprising: 
 i) a software module for creating a set of definitions for the relationships between a data source schema and objects capable of storing data for an object language application, wherein the software module is capable of causing the storage of the set of definitions in a repository;    ii) a software module for creating and accessing a set of definitions for the relationships between objects for an object language application, wherein the software module is capable of causing storage of the set of definitions in a navigation model;    iii) a software module providing an input means for a member selected from an object name, a list of objects, or a set of objects that are to be persisted, wherein the software module is capable of capable of causing the storage of the input as part of a navigation model that can be access by ii);    iv) a software module containing the programming logic to persist an object or set of objects based upon access to (a) a set of definitions for the relationships between a data source schema and objects capable of storing data for an object language application, (b) a set of definitions for the relationships between objects for an object language application, and (c) an object name, a list of objects, or a set of objects that are to be persisted, and    v) a software module having an input method capable of informing iv) of the location of information relating to iv)(a), iv)(b) and iv)(c).    
   
   
       10 . A software module, or set of modules, according to  claim 9 , for creating or maintaining transparent persistence of a member selected from the group consisting of a data object, an object graph model and a portion of an object graph model when a user of the system is creating, maintaining, accessing or navigating complex data objects as a CDOG model, comprising software code for generating, accessing, or maintaining a generic ejb stateful session bean object.  
   
   
       11 . A software module, or set of modules, according to  claim 9 , that does not require any modifications to an object model or the inclusion of any persistence byte code in the object model in order to provide persistence for all or a portion of the the CDOG model, comprising software code for generating, accessing, or maintaining a generic ejb stateful session bean object.  
   
   
       12 . A software module, or set of modules, according to  claim 9 , that that provides persistence for a CDOG model on a distributed network environment.  
   
   
       13 . A software module, or set of modules, according to  claim 9 , that includes software modules automatically generated from a relational data source schema, or generated from an object to relational mapping resource, said software modules comprising: 
 a). at least one presentation page having embedded within its source code object language programming logic that references attributes of a data object and also referencing at least one associated programming object for excuting commands associated with navigating the presentation page, wherein the presentation page has an ability to display the data of an object in an object model, and to optionally display information regarding at least one link of that object to another object in an object model and/or to provide a labeled link button for navigating to the presentation page of a linked object in an object model, and    b). at least one associated corresponding programming object containing programming logic for communicating with the presentation page and executing commands associated with such navigation, and further containing logic for directly or indirectly communicating with a persistence manager API, or persistence library, that can persist the object, its data and/or links to other objects in an object model as its presentation page is being navigated, and    c). optionally comprising a set of related navigatable presentation pages and their associated programming objects as described in (a) and (b) above, which collectively represent the linked objects of a specified object model.    d). optionally comprising an ability to query against the object graph using a object query facility or syntax.    
   
   
       14 . A method for visually navigating an object model while dynamically creating, updating and persisting such an object model to a data source by utilizing the software modules of  claim 13 , whereby a navigation model may be navigated in at least one direction and any changes to one or more of members selected from the group consisting of the data of an object, an object, a link between an object, or an object model can be dynamically persisted to a data source.  
   
   
       15 . A method of  claim 13 , comprising a set of related navigatable presentation pages and their associated programming objects as described in (a) and (b), which collectively represent the linked objects of a specified object model.  
   
   
       16 . A method according to  claim 13 , wherein the object query facility utilizes EJB-QL query syntax or similar syntax.  
   
   
       17 . A method according to  claim 15 , wherein the object query facility utilizes EJB-QL query syntax or similar syntax.