Method and system for storing java objects in devices having a reduced support of high-level programming concepts

US6754886B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Lothar Merk · Weilmünster, DE
• Thomas Stober · Herrenberg, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 21, 1999
• Grant date: Jun 22, 2004
• Expiry date: Oct 21, 2019

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06F9/4493
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

The objects to be stored on a SmartCard or on a similar device are output from the host application computer in a form adapted to the device, particularly in form of a byte array which can easily be stored on such a SmartCard. That serialization comprises to convert any particular object into a sequence of bytes representing the object and its current status by storing all attributes, the name of them and all further objects which are referenced by the object which is subject to that serialization step. With the total of that information that object can be recovered in an unchanged form after any reset or interruptions which can possibly take place during usage of the SmartCard in a respective SmartCard terminal. The recover procedure is performed in analogous form: the object as well as all further objects being referenced by that object is instantiated and is initialized with the data read out from the SmartCard. The byte array representing that object can be stored both on common file system oriented SmartCards and on JavaCards, too, without being confronted to any specific further problem.