Abstract: According to a computer-implemented approach for renting items to customers, customers specify what items to rent using item selection criteria separate from deciding when to receive the specified items. According to the approach, customers provide item selection criteria to a provider provides the items indicated by the item selection criteria to customer over a delivery channel. The provider may be either centralized or distributed depending upon the requirements of a particular application. A “Max Out” approach allows up to a specified number of items to be rented simultaneously to customers. A “Max Turns” approach allows up to a specified number of item exchanges to occur during a specified period of time. The “Max Out” and “Max Turns” approaches may be used together or separately with a variety of subscription methodologies.

Abstract: An intelligent approach for performing administrative functions generally involves performing a set of administrative function steps within a “maintenance window” that is defined by one or more specified time periods. First, a set of administrative function steps to be performed are identified. The set of administrative function steps is prioritized to produce a set of prioritized administrative function steps. Then, the set of prioritized administrative function steps is performed during the maintenance window. Aspects and features of the invention include: identifying and prioritizing administrative function steps; estimated function times and maintenance window; failure prediction; environment recommendations; history information and learning techniques; saving state and context information; and user feedback.

Abstract: A novel locking approach for managing access to resources generally includes generating and storing duplicate lock data that may be used if the original lock data upon which the duplicate lock data is based is lost or otherwise becomes unavailable. In response to granting a lock on a resource to a first process, lock data is generated that indicates that the lock on the resource was granted to the first process. Duplicate lock data is generated that indicates that the lock on the resource was granted to the first process. When a change is made to the lock data, the duplicate lock data is updated to reflect the change made to the lock data. If the lock data is lost or otherwise becomes unavailable, the duplicate lock data may be used to continue managing access to the resource.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for implementing a content-based publish-and-subscribe system in a relational database system. A subscriber may request for messages by using a query language supported by the database server. The queries are then used as subscription rules for determining whether an incoming message is to be sent to the subscriber. Evaluation of incoming messages against subscription rules involves a two-tier process. The first tier involves filtering out all the subscription rules that could not possibly apply to the incoming message. The second tier involves further evaluation of the incoming message, if needed, to determine which subscribers are to receive the incoming message. In another aspect of the embodiment, in cases where the publisher is the relational database system itself, queries that request for messages are not stored as subscription rules because publication of the messages is implicit.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for performing an array DML operation. During the performance of the operation on a data item in the array, and if an error occurs, then error information is stored and the array operation continues by performing the operation on the next data item in the array. The error is used to create update input data for the DML operation, and the update input data can be supplied during run-time of the program.

Abstract: A method and system for recovering after failure of a first server to which a client was connected for accessing a resource is provided. When it is detected that a connection between the first server and the client has failed, the client is automatically connected with a second server that has access to the resource. After automatically connecting the client, the client accesses the resource through the second server. The client stores information about the state of the session with the first server so that processing can continue where it left off after the client connects with the second server. The client may be pre-connected to the second server prior to the failure of the first server to reduce the latency caused by switching in response to a failure. The second server may be configured to pre-parse the commands that the client issues to the first server to further reduce the latency associated with switching to the second server.

Abstract: A method and system for optimizing the passing of a parameter to a routine is provided. It is determined if any parameters are aliased in a call to a called routine. In the absence of aliases, calling routines passing parameters to called routines using “call by reference”. Recovery mechanisms are provided, when appropriate, when unhandled exception occur during execution of the called routines. According to the method, a recovery mechanism includes encapsulating the called routine and call statement block with a “catch-all” exception handler. The response to an otherwise unhandled exception includes restoring the actual parameter using a stored copy of the actual parameter. The restoration is performed by making a handle point to the copy of the actual parameter that was made before execution of the called routine.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for printing an automatically assembling an electronic document is disclosed. The electronic document comprises first and second sets of pages, in which the first set of pages has a first characteristic and the second set has a second characteristic. Using a parser or based on information embedded in the electronic document, the first and second sets of pages are identified. First and second output devices, that are respectively compatible with the first and second sets of pages, are selected. The sets of pages are routed to the respective output devices, where they are output. Identifying information is also routed to be output with the pages. After the pages are output, a complete document is automatically merged or assembled based on the identifying information. In a preferred embodiment, the electronic document has monochrome or black-and-white pages and color pages. The pages are identified within the document.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for converting a non-versioned schema to a version-enabled schema. The method includes reading a first set of table definitions that belong to the non-versioned schema. A second set of table definitions is generated for the version-enabled schema such that each table definition in the second set of table definitions corresponds to a table definition in the first set of table. Each table definition in the second set of table definitions includes columns that correspond to the columns of the corresponding table definition in the first set of table definitions and one or more additional columns for storing version information. Multiple versions of a particular object are stored within the table. In response to a request from a user to retrieve the particular object, a version of the particular object to present to the user is determined based on a workspace associated with the user.

Abstract: A highly scalable, flexible, and extensible mechanism is provided for authenticating a request from a client. In a preferred embodiment, the invention comprises an authentication engine, an authentication host, a plurality of providers coupled to the host which implement selected authentication schemes, and a machine independent communication mechanism which enables the various components to communicate with each other irregardless of the machine each component resides on. The communication mechanism enables the invention to be distributed, which in turn, makes the invention highly scalable. In operation, the authentication engine receives a request having associated therewith a protect string. The protect string specifies the authentication scheme or schemes that need to be implemented for that request. The authentication engine parses the protect string into one or more provider requests, and sends the requests to the authentication host.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for indexing electronic documents that include one or more visible text portions and one or more non-visible text portions. The method includes the step of identifying an electronic document. Once the electronic document is identified, a set of words is selected from a particular tag type that is associated with one or more non-visible text portions of the electronic document. Each word in the selected set of words is compared with words in the one or more visible text portions of the electronic document. An index word set is then determined for the electronic document based on matches between words in the selected set of words and words in the one or more visible text portions of the electronic document.

Abstract: A power supply switching apparatus for a facsimile machine includes a power supply switch, a switch controller and a capacitor-based power supply. The power supply switch is configured to selectively couple and decouple a power supply to a facsimile machine. The switch controller is communicatively coupled to the power supply switch and is configured to control the power supply switch in response to the satisfaction of one or more switch criteria. The capacitor-based power supply is communicatively coupled to and provides power to the power supply switch, for example, when the power supply switching apparatus is operating in a standby mode, or any other time the switch controller needs power. Other embodiments include the use of a second power supply to recharge the capacitor-based switch power supply and a switch trigger instead of a switch controller.

Abstract: According to a transaction-based locking approach, a request for a first lock on a particular resource is received from a first process, wherein the first process is associated with a first transaction. A first lock on the particular resource is granted to the first process. A request for a second lock on the particular resource is received from a second process. A determination is made whether the second process is associated with the first transaction. If the second process is associated with the first transaction, then a second lock on the particular resource is granted to the second process prior to the first lock being released.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing access to a resource using anticipatory lock conversions in a distributed lock management system is provided. According to the method, when an entity requests a lock on a resource, the entity is granted, if possible, a lock with a more restrictive lock mode than is required if it is determined that the entity may require the more restrictive lock mode in the near future.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for implementing a content based publish-and-subscribe system in a relational database system. A subscriber may request for messages by using a query language supported by the database server. The queries are then used as subscription rules for determining whether an incoming message is to be sent to the subscriber. Evaluation of incoming messages against subscription rules involves a two-tier process. The first tier involves filtering out all the subscription rules that could not possibly apply to the incoming message. The second tier involves further evaluation of the incoming message, if needed, to determine which subscribers are to receive the incoming message. In another aspect of the embodiment, in cases where the publisher is the relational database system itself, queries that request for messages are not stored as subscription rules because publication of the messages is implicit.

Abstract: According to an approach for propagating messages in a distributed computer system, message information is identified that needs to be sent to a destination site. After the message information is identified, the message information is assigned a propagation sequence number that identifies when the message information is sent to the destination site relative to other message information sent from the source site to the destination site. A message that is based on the message information is then transmitted to the destination site. The transmitted message includes the sequence number value and a source ID that identifies the source site as transmitting the message to the destination site. After the message is received at the destination site, the propagation sequence number that was assigned to the message information may be stored in nonvolatile memory at the destination site.

Abstract: Techniques are described for reducing the number of sort operations required for a query that contains window functions. The techniques involves determining a set of Partition By and Order By clause pairs that corresponds to the set of window functions and then grouping the Partition By and Order By clause pairs into Ordering Groups where each Ordering Group may be satisfied by a single sort operation. From the set of Ordering Groups, a minimal set of Ordering Groups is determined. The techniques account for the interaction of orderings from Group By and Order By clauses in the query block.

Abstract: An approach for presenting search results using dynamic categorization involves examining search results and dynamically establishing one or more categories of search results based upon attributes of the search results. A variety of grouping or clustering techniques may be used to dynamically establish the categories of search results. The categories of search results are then presented using category indicators.

Abstract: According to an approach for providing communication between sub-applications in a vertical application, messages transmitted by sub-applications in message formats supported by the sub-applications are translated to produce messages in a predetermined common message format referred to herein as a “common view.” Messages to be received by sub-applications in the common view are translated to produce messages in the formats supported by the sub-applications. An adapter attached to each sub-application provides for the translation of messages between a message format supported by the sub-application to which it is attached and the common view.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for partitioning a buffer cache for dynamically mapping data blocks with a particular replacement strategy based on the associated table's access and/or usage patterns. According to the method, a buffer cache in a computer system is managed by dividing the buffer cache into multiple buffer pools. In managing the buffer cache, when a data item is requested, it is first determined whether the requested data item is stored in a buffer within the buffer cache. If the requested data item is not stored in a buffer in the buffer cache, then a particular buffer pool in the buffer cache is dynamically selected for storing the requested data item. Once the particular buffer pool is selected, the requested data item is stored into a buffer in the particular buffer pool.