Abstract: An apparatus and method for monitoring and routing status messages to another process running on the same or a different computing system during the installation of one or more applications are provided. With the apparatus and method, one or more objects can monitor the progress, log events, status message, etc., generated during an installation, silent or otherwise, of one or more products. Monitoring includes a Status Listener object and a Status Producer object for the installation application. The Status Producer object obtains status messages, progress indications, and log events from a vendor supplied installation program. The Status Producer object then forwards these messages to registered Status Listeners that implement the Status Listener interface. The Status Listeners then forward these messages to their associated external processes which may be located on the same or a remotely located computing system.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for protecting sensitive data in a log file. Data is logged into a file. The data in the log file is in a protected state and the data is never written to the log file in an unprotected fashion. Prior to the data being logged into the file, the data is parsed for specific data meeting predetermined criteria. The specific data is selectively protected with a security measure while leaving a remainder of the log file unprotected by the security measure. The viewer or program used to access the data in the log file is responsible for unprotecting or allowing the data to be viewed if the appropriate key is provided.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system, method, and program for uninstalling an installed program comprised of installed components installed from file sets. A call is made to a first uninstall program to uninstall the installed program. The first uninstall program is in a first directory. A call is then made to a class loader to load a second uninstall program. The second uninstall program is maintained in a second directory. The first uninstall program processes the file sets to determine installed components to remove, and deletes the installed components. A call is made from the first uninstall program to the second uninstall program to perform uninstall operations.

Abstract: A system, method, and program enables a versatile tool kit to be used in developing a program that can be run on multiple operating systems. A script file, containing properties and associated values that are to be used by the program on a specific operating system, is created. The properties and associated values from the script file are read into property objects used by the program. After the program is compiled, a value for a property variable in a property object can be changed, e.g., changed temporarily such as for testing the newly created program, by using a special designation in a set statement. The specially designated “set to environment variable” method compares each environment variable name in the specially designated set statement with the property variable name in the script file. If the names match, the method updates the corresponding property object with the value of the environment variable set in the specially designated method.

Abstract: The system, method, and program of this invention enables a developer to write a platform independent program that can read, create, modify, delete, and enumerate registry type of information regardless of whether or not a targeted operating system supports a registry or registry equivalent functionality. More specifically, as disclosed herein, there is a global registry object for carrying out, i.e., mapping, registry functions or registry equivalent functions across multiple operating systems. In particular, the global registry object is used to map registry equivalent functions in an OS/2 operating system environment. A given INI file is specified through a filename field of the global registry object to resemble a registry file. A key and a subkey representative of a Windows registry are stored in an application name of the specified INI file. A value representative of the Windows registry is stored in a key of the specified INI file.

Abstract: The system, method, and program of this invention enables a developer to write a platform independent program that can read, create, modify, delete, and enumerate registry type of information regardless of whether or not a targeted operating system supports a registry or registry equivalent functionality. More specifically, as disclosed herein, there is a global registry object for carrying out, i.e., mapping, registry functions or registry equivalent functions across multiple operating systems. In particular, the global registry is used to map registry equivalent functions in an AIX operating system environment. The global registry object enables a specified ODM file of an AIX operating system to resemble a registry. A key and a subkey representative of a Windows registry are stored in the key1 field of a specified ODM file. Likewise, a value representative of the Windows registry is stored in the key2 field of the ODM file.

Abstract: An installation tool kit apparatus and method that allows developers to create installation programs in which all of the variables and variable values used during a product installation are automatically stored in one or more of a system product registry or database and a fileset object. With one particular embodiment, during installation of a product, the variables and variable values are stored in a hashtable. The hashtable is saved as part of a serialization of a fileset object. Thus, when the fileset is reinstantiated at uninstall time, all of the installation information is contained within the reinstantiated fileset. The fileset object and other objects used by the uninstall program can make use of this information to affect the uninstall behavior. In another embodiment, the variable and variable values are stored in a hashtable that is saved to the system product registry at the end of the installation process.

Abstract: Disclosed is a set of tools or program instructions, an installation program, and a system that operates a drive in a platform independent manner. A drive object represents a single drive mounted by an operating system and contains fields providing information including drive name, block size, free space, type, format long file name support, and space needed by the files to be installed on that drive. During the installation process, each drive is processed to ensure that the drive has sufficient free space for the files to be installed.

Abstract: A system, method, and program utilizes a software state machine for carrying out the processes and functions of a program. The components of a program, e.g., the process flow, functions, dialogs, etc., are implemented using various states. A value of a state variable indicates a corresponding state. A method checks for a current value of the state variable. Any given function within any given state, or input received from a user, such as through “next” or “previous” buttons on a dialog box, can return a value for the state variable. When the method determines a new value of the state variable, an object corresponding to the state indicated by the new value is brought up and enabled. A vector keeps track of the sequence of states being executed so that a value indicating a previous state will return the program to the previous state without having program logic built into a state of how the program arrived at that state.

Abstract: The system, method, and program of this invention enables a developer to write a platform independent program that can read, create, modify, delete, and enumerate registry type of information regardless of whether or not a targeted operating system supports a registry or registry equivalent functionality. More specifically, as disclosed herein, there is a global registry object for carrying out, i.e., mapping, registry functions or registry equivalent functions across multiple operating systems. A system independent registry, referred to as a registryDB object, is created for those systems that do not have a registry equivalent. In a preferred embodiment, the registryDB object provides a registry equivalent store for any operating system by using a text file that resembles a Java properties file; although any database or file system could be used to save the registry information.

Abstract: A methodology for using multiple execution threads to regulate message traffic is presented. An application thread spawns a limiter thread, and each have access in shared memory to a message count that reflects a number of messages that are transmitted by the application thread within a regulated time period. The limiter thread cycles by entering a sleep state for the regulated time period, resetting the message count upon awakening, and then reentering a sleep state. The application thread executes a loop that compares the message count against a maximum number of messages for the regulated time period; if the comparison is favorable, then another message is transmitted and the message count is adjusted. If the comparison is not favorable, then the application thread enters a sleep state; after awakening, it repeats the comparison, and depending on the result, it transmits a message or reenters a sleep state.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system, method, and program for creating a file, such as a batch file, that is capable of executing on one of many different operating systems. An object is processed including a plurality of instructions. Each instruction is associated with at least one executable function. A determination is made of an operating system in which the generated file will be executed. For each instruction in the object, a native operating system command is generated that is capable of executing the function associated with the instruction on the determined operating system. Each generated native operating system command is inserted into the file. Execution of the file on the determined operating system will execute the native operating system commands in the file to perform the functions associated with the instructions included in the object.

Abstract: A product action bean is provided for updating lines and keywords in computer system configuration flat text or ASCII files, which is especially useful for during installation of software applications on computer systems. In its embodiment as a Java Bean, it is customized and configured using a visual application builder across multiple computing platforms. The primary bean is a container bean, which includes an engine, and which provides a graphical user interface (“GUI”) that developers can easily specify the required changes along with the file name to be changed when an application is installed or uninstalled. The container bean also contains a set of action beans which perform operations to modify the ASCII file, such as finding strings or lines, adding strings or lines, and deleting strings or lines. The specified actions are performed as a “unit of work” in the customized bean.

Abstract: The system, method, and program of this invention enables a developer to write a platform independent program that can read, create, modify, delete, and enumerate registry type of information regardless of whether or not a targeted operating system supports a registry or registry equivalent functionality. More specifically, as disclosed herein, in a first preferred embodiment, there is a global registry object for carrying out, i.e., mapping, registry functions or registry equivalent functions across multiple operating systems. In a second preferred embodiment, the global registry object is used to read, create, modify, delete, and enumerate registries for the Windows operating system in a simplified manner. In a third preferred embodiment, the global registry object is used to map registry equivalent functions in an OS/2 operating system environment. In a fourth preferred embodiment, the global registry is used to map registry equivalent functions in an AIX operating system environment.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method, system, program, and data structure for installing a program onto a computer including an operating system. Dependency objects indicate a dependent component on which the program to install depends. The program processes the dependency objects before installing the program and determines an operating system command that is capable of determining whether the dependent component indicated in the dependency object is installed in the computer. The program then executes the operating system command to determine whether the dependent components indicated in the dependency objects are installed in the computer. An indication is made as to the dependent components that are not installed after determining that dependent components are not installed.

Abstract: A system, method, and program utilizes a software state machine for carrying out the processes and functions of a program. The components of a program, e.g., the process flow, functions, dialogs, etc., are implemented using various states. A value of a state variable indicates a corresponding state. A method checks for a current value of the state variable. Any given function within any given state, or input received from a user, such as through “next” or “previous” buttons on a dialog box, can return a value for the state variable. When the method determines a new value of the state variable, an object corresponding to the state indicated by the new value is brought up and enabled. A program utilizing a software state machine is easily customized by merely adding or deleting states or by changing a value of the state variable returned for a given function within a state or for any given input received.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method, system, and program for updating a registry object during the installation of a computer program on a computer system. The operating system includes an installation program that updates the registry object during installation of the computer program on the computer system. The registry object and installation program are operating system specific. During execution of the program, a call is made to a cross-platform installation program. The cross-platform installation program is capable of installing the computer program on different operating system platforms. The cross-platform installation program installs the installed components for the computer program on the computer system. The cross-platform installation program further makes a call to an operating system interface program specific to the operating system on which the computer program is being installed.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method, system, program, and data structure for managing background display information being installed on a computer system. Certain embodiments include at least one file set including install objects to install a computer program. The install objects include a graphics object containing background display information relating to the program. The install objects are processed to install the computer program, and the graphics object is processed to display the background display information on a display monitor. A copy of the graphics object is stored to a memory location, and the copy of the graphics file is maintained in the memory location after the program is installed onto the computer. Embodiments may also include a file set having uninstall objects to uninstall the computer program.

Abstract: An install system, method, and program for installing a given program utilizes a containment structure having a fileset object for the program or several fileset objects for various parts of a program. Each fileset object contains install objects. An install object may be a file object, registry object, shortcut object, directory object, permissions object, library file object, dependency object, folder objects or other objects. Each fileset and install object contains the means for installing itself, uninstalling itself, logging itself to a file and recreating itself from a log file. The install process includes defining and building up a program object, for the program, which contains fileset objects which contain install objects. Install is called on the program object which effectuates an install call on each of the filesets and install objects. For each fileset object, a log is created. Then, each install object for a fileset logs itself to the particular log file of that fileset.

Abstract: A new class of data file storing objects which have the ability to self-extract, i.e. within objects in the new class, there is a method to extract selected individual files stored in the objects. There is provided a computer controlled object oriented programming system having means for interfacing a plurality of programming objects with each other and including at least one data storage object of an object class comprising means within said object for storing a plurality of data files, and means within said object for extracting said stored data files from said object. The object class is most effectively used with Java objects. The compressed files stored in the objects may be program files. The files are usually compressed into a single file for distribution.