Patent ID: 7793302

Claim:
A computer system for remote object activation, comprising: a server having at least one processor that receives requests from clients to access objects on said server; a plurality of objects located at the server, wherein each object can be accessed remotely by the clients; a plurality of object implementations of each object located at said server, wherein each of said plurality of object implementations has a corresponding activation ID, wherein each activation ID is specific to that object implementation, and wherein each client requesting access to a particular object accesses a different object implementation of the particular object; a plurality of server references each associated with a different object at the server that each services request from clients to access its associated object regardless of whether an implementation of its associated object is active, and encapsulates addressing information and instance identifiers corresponding to its associated object, wherein only a single copy of each server reference is retained at the server regardless of how many object implementations are created for its associated object; wherein a server reference for the particular object is created at the server upon the server receiving an initial request to access the particular object, where the server reference for the particular object does not already exist on the server; wherein the activation ID is sent from the server to the requesting client and stored at the client as part of an activatable remote reference to the object implementation; wherein the server activates said object implementation located at said server upon receiving from the client a request to access the object that specifies the corresponding activation ID; and further wherein object implementations are deleted during garbage collection when no longer in use, so that only a single copy of each server reference associated with each object is stored at the server, and wherein when a call subsequently comes in from the client, the object implementation is reactivated using the corresponding activation ID.