Claims
- 1. A system for loading applications, comprising:
a server for providing a software application, wherein said software application has a number of modules and classes associated therewith; a control file associated with said software application, wherein said control file specifies a hierarchy of classloaders to be used with said software application; and, a deployment mechanism that loads with said application a selection of said classloaders according to the hierarchy specified by said control file.
- 2. The system of claim 1 wherein said control file can be modified by a software developer to specify a particular hierarchy of classloaders to be used with a particular software application.
- 3. The system of claim 2 wherein said control file is a deployment descriptor.
- 4. The system of claim 3 wherein said control file is interpreted by an application container constructor during deployment so as to define the application container.
- 5. The system of claim 4 wherein said interpretation includes traversing the hierarchy and building parent child relationships between the tiers of selected classloaders.
- 6. The system of claim 1 wherein said hierarchy is specified by a classloader structure declaration.
- 7. The system of claim 1 wherein a combination of said modules may be associated with a plurality of subordinate classloaders.
- 8. The system of claim 7 wherein said combination allows a module to be reloaded without reloading other modules.
- 9. The system of claim 1 wherein the server provides multiple software applications, each with their own hierarchy of classloaders.
- 10. The system of claim 1 wherein, if a hierarchical classloader is not specified in said control file for a particular application, then a standard non-hierarchical classloader is used.
- 11. A method for loading software applications on a server, comprising the steps of:
providing a software application, wherein said software application has a number of modules and classes associated therewith; parsing a control file associated with said software application, wherein said control file specifies a hierarchy of classloaders to be used with said software application; retrieving a selection of said classloaders according to the hierarchy specified by said control file; and, loading said modules and classes as part of said application according to said hierarchy.
- 12. The method of claim 11 wherein said control file can be modified by a software developer to specify a particular hierarchy of classloaders to be used with a particular software application.
- 13. The method of claim 12 wherein said control file is a deployment descriptor.
- 14. The method of claim 13 wherein said control file is interpreted by an application container constructor during deployment so as to define the application container.
- 15. The method of claim 14 wherein said interpretation includes traversing the hierarchy and building parent child relationships between the tiers of selected classloaders.
- 16. The method of claim 11 wherein said hierarchy is specified by a classloader structure declaration.
- 17. The method of claim 11 wherein a combination of said modules may be associated with a plurality of subordinate classloaders.
- 18. The method of claim 17 wherein said combination allows a module to be reloaded without reloading other modules.
- 19. The method of claim 11 wherein the server provides multiple software applications, each with their own hierarchy of classloaders.
- 20. The method of claim 11 wherein, if a hierarchical classloader is not specified in said control file for a particular application, then a standard non-hierarchical classloader is used.
- 21. A computer-readable medium including instructions stored thereon which when executed cause the computer to perform the steps of
providing a software application, wherein said software application has a number of modules and classes associated therewith; parsing a control file associated with said software application, wherein said control file specifies a hierarchy of classloaders to be used with said software application; retrieving a selection of said classloaders according to the hierarchy specified by said control file; and, loading said modules and classes as part of said application according to said hierarchy.
- 22. The computer readable medium of claim 21 wherein said control file can be modified by a software developer to specify a particular hierarchy of classloaders to be used with a particular software application.
- 23. The computer readable medium of claim 22 wherein said control file is a deployment descriptor.
- 24. The computer readable medium of claim 23 wherein said control file is interpreted by an application container constructor during deployment so as to define the application container.
- 25. The computer readable medium of claim 24 wherein said interpretation includes traversing the hierarchy and building parent child relationships between the tiers of selected classloaders.
- 26. The computer readable medium of claim 21 wherein said hierarchy is specified by a classloader structure declaration.
- 27. The computer readable medium of claim 21 wherein a combination of said modules may be associated with a plurality of subordinate classloaders.
- 28. The computer readable medium of claim 27 wherein said combination allows a module to be reloaded without reloading other modules.
- 29. The computer readable medium of claim 21 wherein the server provides multiple software applications, each with their own hierarchy of classloaders.
- 30. The computer readable medium of claim 21 wherein, if a hierarchical classloader is not specified in said control file for a particular application, then a standard non-hierarchical classloader is used.
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
[0001] This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/446,836, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING CLASSLOADER HIERARCHY TO LOAD SOFTWARE MODULES”, by Mark Spotswood, filed Feb. 12, 2003 (Atty. Docket No. BEAS-01312US0), and which application is incorporated herein by reference.
[0002] This application is related to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/446,878, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR HIERARCHICAL LOADING OF EJB IMPLEMENTATIONS”; by Mark Spotswood, filed Feb. 12,2003 (Atty. Docket No. BEAS-01313US0); and to U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR HIERARCHICAL LOADING OF EJB IMPLEMENTATIONS”, by Mark Spotswood, filed Feb. 12,2004 (Atty. Docket No. BEAS-01 31 3US1), both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60446836 |
Feb 2003 |
US |