Abstract: A method and system for filtering a list of data elements within an object-oriented environment are disclosed. According to the present invention, a filter object is created that supports a filter method which discriminates data elements within an input list utilizing a filter criterion. A message is then sent to the filter object specifying an input list of data elements to be filtered. In response to receipt of the message, data elements within the specified input list are discriminated utilizing the filter criterion. In one embodiment, one or more filter objects are registered with a finder object such that a list of data elements satisfying a search criterion produced by the finder object are automatically furnished to the filter objects as an input list.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for implementing generic factories which are used to create objects in a distributed object-oriented programming environment. This method and apparatus are applicable to the Object Management Group (OMG) CORBAservices GenericFactory interface. A create.sub.-- object method implementation is subdivided into its' elemental parts, specifically finding an appropriate factory, interacting with that factory to create the object, and initializing an object. New operations are introduced which support each of these elemental parts. This allows implementations of GenericFactories to have a higher degree of reuse then when the standard interfaces are used as is.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling a scope of location for a FactoryFinder object used by a program to find a factory object which is used to create another object in an object-oriented system. The scope of location may be a specific machine, all machines within a work group, all object server processes running under a particular operating system, etc. An abstract location interface is provided which is subclassed to provide a location object. The location object provides methods for returning a list of servers, for returning a boolean value of TRUE or FALSE for a specific server, and for creating a new location object and registering servers that result from an intersection/union of the servers registered with the current location and another location.

Abstract: The specification of specific user policies in an object oriented environment is allowed prior to a search for factory objects. A ConstraintBuilder interface object is contained within an Object Management Group's (OMG) FactoryFinder object. The ConstraintBuilder object is a subclass of an abstract ConstraintBuilder interface, and contains a method which accepts specific policy information from a user, processes the information, and returns the policy controls in a format understandable by an underlying search mechanism. The policies embodied by ConstraintBuilder objects may then be considered during searches for factory objects in order to eliminate factory objects that do not adhere to the specified policies, thus allowing for control of factory objects returned by a search mechanism.