US 7,559,052 B2
Meta-model for associating multiple physical representations of logically equivalent entities in messaging and other applications
Suman K. Kalia, Maple (Canada); David A. Spriet, North York (Canada); and Michael Starkey, Vancouver (Canada)
Assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. (US)
Filed on Nov. 06, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/703,037.
Claims priority of application No. 2412383 (CA), filed on Nov. 22, 2002.
Prior Publication US 2004/0103071 A1, May 27, 2004
Int. Cl. G06F 9/44 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 717—121 32 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of creating models of alternative physical representations of one or more entities, each alternative physical representation corresponding to a wire format, the alternative physical representations facilitating conversions from one wire format to another, the method comprising:
creating a meta-model for defining entity models, the meta-model including a logical meta-model and a physical meta-model, the logical meta-model defining a logical model describing a logical structure of the one or more entities in a platform and programming language neutral manner wherein said logical meta-model comprises logical entity component classes representing logical entity components, and the physical meta-model defining a physical model describing a plurality of alternative physical representations of the one or more entities whose logical structure is described in the logical model, said physical meta-model comprising base classes which represent wire format neutral physical entity components corresponding to said logical entity components, and further comprising correspondence associations between said logical entity component classes and said corresponding base classes wherein said physical meta-model comprises a mapper class for representing said correspondence associations, said mapper class having a first association with a logical entity component class and a second association with a corresponding base class; and
creating the plurality of alternative physical representations.