Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A system and method for providing dynamic references between services in a computer system which allows a first service (e.g. an application program running on a client computer in a local environment) to gain reference to a second service (e.g. a service running on a server computer in a distributed environment) without requiring knowledge of how to find the service or a particular version of the service on a distributed computer network. In a particular embodiment disclosed, when a getService method is called, a reference back to an instance of the service is returned and an implementation of a service connector interface encapsulates the logic necessary to lookup an instance of a specific service and return a reference to that service. In this regard, developers of a service may write, or program, a module that adheres to a service connector interface. Users of a service specify that the service connector provided by the service can be used to dynamically gain a reference to the service in their application. Additional methods can be added to the service connectors to support retrieval of references to specific versions or instances of a service.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim