Patent ID: 6622176
Filing Date: 2003-09-16
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
An apparatus for providing an interface in a data management system between a plurality of application programs and one or more client programs, each application program using a device dependent message format and each client program using a device independent message format, wherein the interface is arranged to translate between each device independent message format and each device dependent message format, said interface comprising:input means for receiving device independent messages containing a keyword from at least one of the client programs; output means for sending device dependent messages to the application programs; instruction storage means for storing one or more sets of instructions for translating between said device independent message formats and the device dependent message formats, each set of instructions being associated with a keyword and one or more sets of instructions being arranged to translate at least one of the device independent messages into a plurality of device dependent messages; and processing means operable in response to receipt of a message via said input means to identify the keyword in the input message and, in accordance with associated instructions from said instruction storage means, to translate a single device independent message conforming to a device independent format into an appropriate plurality of device dependent messages each conforming to respective device dependent formats, and to send the device dependent messages each conforming to respective device dependent formats to appropriate application program(s) via the output means so that the appropriate application program(s) can concurrently run multiple transactions using the device dependent messages each conforming to respective device dependent formats; wherein any one of the application programs using a device dependent message format may be independently updated without affecting its ability to interact with any of the client programs using a device independent message format so that an application program can be updated without requiring a corresponding update to any of the client programs.