Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

In an object-oriented application being executed in a digital computing system comprising a processor, a method and apparatus are provided for managing information retrieved from a structured database, such as a relational database, wherein the processor is used to construct a plurality of object instances, each of these object instances having its own unique object ID that provides a mapping between the object instance and at least one row in the structured database. The processor is used to construct a single cohesive data structure, called an object cache, that comprises all the object instances and that represents information retrieved from the structured database in a form suitable for use by one or more object-oriented applications. A mechanism for managing the object cache is provided that has these three properties: First, through a technique called key swizzling, it uses explicit relationship pointers between object instances in the object cache to reduce the volume of queries to the structured database. Second, it ensures that only one copy of an object instance is in the cache at any given time, even if several different queries return the same information from the database. Third, the mechanism guarantees the integrity of data in the cache by locking data appropriately in the structured database during a database transaction, flushing cache data at the end of each transaction, and transparently re-reading the data and reacquiring the appropriate locks for an object instance whose data has been flushed.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim