Patent ID: 7480726

Claim:
A method for communicating application programming interface (API) capabilities supported by a database of a first device to one or more second devices for establishing communication between the first device and the one or more second devices, comprising the steps of: generating a first bit stream having bits in a predetermined sequence successively arranged from lowest functional level to highest functional level to send from the first device to the one or more second devices, the first bit stream representing a highest API feature and intermediary API features installed on the first device, wherein the installed intermediary API features of the first device are not required to utilize the installed highest API feature; receiving a second bit stream having bits in a predetermined sequence successively arranged from lowest functional level to highest functional level sent from one of the one or more second devices to the first device, the second bit stream representing a highest API feature and intermediary API features installed on the second device wherein the installed intermediary API features of the one of the one or more second devices are not required to utilize the installed highest API feature; and comparing the first and second bit streams in relation to the predetermined sequence at the first device and at the one of the one or more second devices to configure communications between the APIs for mutually supported API features, the mutually supported features including a highest API feature and one or more intermediary API features commonly installed to both the first device and the one of the one or more second devices, and, adapting processing to utilize a resulting set of the mutually supported API features during the communication between the first device and the one of the one or more second devices by installing the highest API feature of the second bit stream and only the intermediary API features of the second bit stream that are not already installed in the first device, wherein the first device and the one or more second devices communicate across a heterogeneous network, the first device and each of the one or more second devices are any of a client and server, and the API on the first and the one or more second devices comprises one or more of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), Object Linking and Embedded Database (OLEDB) or Java Database Connectivity (JDBC).