Patent ID: 7870536

Claim:
A computer implemented method for sharing source code files among a plurality of project containers in a data processing system, the computer implemented method comprising: creating a shared project container for at least one source code file to be shared among the plurality of project containers, wherein a project container defines a compilation unit in which source code files are stored and built to produce an executable multi-tiered application, and wherein the source code files for the multi-tiered application are distributed among the plurality of project containers with each project container being dedicated to a specific tier in the multi-tied application, and wherein at least one of the plurality of project containers includes a composite project that contains other projects; moving each at least one source code file to be shared from an original project container to the shared project container; creating a link between each original project container and each at least one source code file to be shared in the shared project container; creating a link between a subject project container and a target shared source code file of the at least one source code file to be shared in the shared project container to enable the subject project container to access the target shared source code file in the shared project container, wherein the subject project container accesses and uses the target shared source code file in the shared project container; customizing processing of the target shared source code file for the subject project container such that the target shared source code file is processed differently for the subject project container than for others of a plurality of subject project containers that are linked to the target shared source code file, wherein the target shared source code file includes shared source code, and wherein the plurality of subject project containers include a plurality of programming projects, and wherein customizing processing of the target shared source code file for the subject project container includes customizing compilation and linking of the shared source code differently for each of a plurality of computing platforms in which each programming project that links to the shared source code is intended to run; and unsharing a source code file to be shared in the shared project container, wherein unsharing a source code file to be shared in the shared project container includes removing the link between a subject project container and the shared source code file to be unshared in the shared project container, copying the shared source code file to be unshared from the shared project container to the subject project container, and removing the shared source code file to be unshared from the shared project container.