Patent ID: 6973656

Claim:
In a network comprising a first node, a second node and an computer implemented server located at a node separate from the first and second nodes, an availability server method for communicating information between a linking application in the first node and an object of a linked application in the second node, wherein the linked application is in one of an executing state and a non-executing state, wherein state data indicate the object is in one of a loaded state and an unloaded state, the computer implemented method comprising the steps of: receiving a message from the linking application addressed to the object; in response to receiving the message, determining whether the linked application is in the executing or non-executing state; upon determining that the linked application is in the executing state, forwarding the message to the object for processing the message and responding to the linking application accordingly; upon determining that the linked application is in the non-executing state, accessing a surrogate object, and forwarding the message to the surrogate object, wherein the surrogate object comprises first data and second data and wherein the first data defines the state of the object that cannot be changed when the linked application is in the non-executing state and the second data defines the state of the object which can be changed when the linked application is in the non-executing; wherein the object is initialized utilizing the updated first data by: determining whether the surrogate object associated with the object is in one of the loaded state and the unloaded state; if the surrogate object is in the unloaded state, transferring the first and second data to the linked application; and if the surrogate object cannot be unloaded, transferring only the first data to the linked application.