Detailed Description
The principles and spirit of the present invention will be described with reference to a number of exemplary embodiments. It is understood that these embodiments are given solely for the purpose of enabling those skilled in the art to better understand and to practice the invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be embodied as a system, apparatus, device, method, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of: entirely hardware, entirely software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.), or a combination of hardware and software.
According to an embodiment of the invention, a data processing method, a medium, a device and a computing device are provided.
In this context, it is to be understood that the terms referred to include: application theme styles, resource configuration files, metadata, application theme style resource tool classes, and the like. The application theme style refers to the display style of the applied interface elements, and the resource configuration file of the application theme style is used for defining the specific values of the interface elements under any theme style. Metadata is also called metadata, which is data describing other data information, mainly describing data attributes, and is used to support functions such as indicating storage locations, history data, resource search, file recording, and the like. The application theme style resource tool class is a tool class encapsulated with application theme change logic, and can be directly called and executed when an application needs to change a theme style. Moreover, any number of elements in the drawings are by way of example and not by way of limitation, and any nomenclature is used solely for differentiation and not by way of limitation.
The principles and spirit of the present invention are explained in detail below with reference to several representative embodiments of the invention.
Summary of The Invention
In the course of implementing the disclosed concept, the inventor finds that the prior art implementation of the application changing theme style function has the following problems: the setting granularity of the application theme style is large, and the fine customization of the application theme style cannot be realized; when the application theme style is required to be finely customized, developers need to manually write the resource tool kit supporting the application theme style replacement, a large amount of work needs to be paid, and the written resource tool kit is different in standard, poor in readability, incapable of being expanded and inconvenient to use.
Therefore, the embodiment of the invention provides a data processing method and a device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: acquiring a resource configuration file of an application theme style, wherein the resource configuration file carries out resource description through specified metadata; automatically constructing an application theme style resource tool class based on specified metadata in the resource configuration file; and generating an application installation package based on the application theme style resource tool class so that the application theme style resource tool class can be called and executed when the theme style is changed. In the scheme, the resource configuration file applying the theme style carries out resource description by specifying the metadata, and the codes can automatically identify the metadata and construct the resource tool class which can be called and executed by utilizing the marking function of the metadata. The method can realize fine-grained resource allocation, does not need developers to manually compile element resources of theme patterns one by one, is time-saving and labor-saving, has strong expansibility, is suitable for constructing application theme pattern resource tools in batch, and can realize the application theme pattern replacement function in a refined and convenient manner.
Having described the general principles of the invention, various non-limiting embodiments of the invention are described in detail below.
Application scene overview
First, an application scenario of the data processing method and the apparatus thereof according to the embodiment of the present invention is described in detail with reference to fig. 1.
Fig. 1 schematically illustrates an application scenario of a data processing method and an apparatus thereof according to an embodiment of the present invention, and in the application scenario illustrated in fig. 1, aterminal device 100 may be included, and an application a is installed in theterminal device 100.
Starting the application A in theterminal device 100, entering a main page corresponding to the application A shown in the middle, wherein the main page is displayed with a search bar and two icons, and entering a corresponding sub-page by clicking different icons. The current application A uses the first theme style, and in response to an operation of changing the theme style of the application A by a user (for example, an application skin changing operation by the user), the application A is changed from the middle first theme style to the right second theme style. It can be seen that the color of the main page corresponding to application a has changed, the shape of the search bar has changed, and the pictures and fonts of the two icons have also changed.
Similarly, when the application A is changed into other theme styles, the page display of the application A can be correspondingly changed, and a user can select a proper application theme style according to the preference of the user.
Exemplary method
A data processing method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to fig. 2 to 3B in conjunction with the application scenario of fig. 1. It should be noted that the above application scenarios are merely illustrated for the convenience of understanding the spirit and principles of the present invention, and the embodiments of the present invention are not limited in this respect. Rather, embodiments of the present invention may be applied to any scenario where applicable.
Fig. 2 schematically shows a flow diagram of a data processing method according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 2, the method includes the following operations:
operation S201 is to obtain a resource configuration file of the application theme style, where the resource configuration file includes specified metadata describing a resource.
In operation S202, an application theme style resource tool class is constructed based on the specified metadata of the resource configuration file.
In operation S203, an application installation package is generated based on the application theme style resource tool class, so that the application theme style resource tool class can be invoked to be executed when the theme style is changed.
It can be seen that, in the method shown in fig. 2, the resource configuration file of the application theme style performs resource description by specifying metadata, and with the marking function of the metadata, the code can automatically identify the metadata and construct a resource tool class that can be called and executed. The method can realize fine-grained resource allocation, does not need developers to manually compile element resources of theme patterns one by one, is time-saving and labor-saving, has strong expansibility, is suitable for constructing application theme pattern resource tools in batch, and can realize the application theme pattern replacement function in a refined and convenient manner.
For example, the application a includes a default theme style, a first theme style and a second theme style, and a resource configuration file of the application theme style corresponding to the application a is obtained, where specific values of each element resource in a display interface of the application a in the default theme style, specific values of each element resource in the display interface of the application a in the first theme style, and specific values of each element resource in the display interface of the application a in the second theme style are defined in the resource configuration file. In the scheme, the resource configuration file carries out resource description by specifying the metadata, and the marking characteristics of the metadata are utilized to mark the resource attributes corresponding to the theme styles. For the resource configuration file described by the specified metadata, the expression of the specified metadata can be identified by using the marking characteristics of the metadata, and the resource configuration logic expressed based on the identified specified metadata is packaged and constructed into the application theme style resource tool class of the application A. And generating an application installation package of the application A based on the application theme style resource tool class package. The application installation package of the application A can be installed in the terminal equipment of the user, wherein the application theme style resource tool class is stored in the corresponding catalogue. And when the default theme style is installed, calling and executing a corresponding application theme style resource tool class by taking the application A as the default theme style so as to finish rendering and presentation of the default theme style. When the user changes the application theme style of the application A in the terminal equipment, if the default theme style is changed into the first theme style, the corresponding application theme style resource tool class is called and executed to finish the rendering presentation of the first theme style.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the acquiring a resource configuration file of an application theme style in operation S201 includes: specifying metadata is defined, the specifying metadata including a plurality of member variables corresponding to a plurality of theme styles, i.e., the specifying metadata including a plurality of member variables corresponding to different theme styles. And then generating a resource configuration file applying the theme style, wherein the resource configuration file is used for declaring one or more element resources, and the specified metadata is used for describing the value of the element resources based on the theme style.
According to the scheme of the embodiment, the specified metadata are defined, and then the values of the element resources under different themes are described by using the defined specified metadata, so that the resource configuration file of the application theme style expressed by the specified metadata is generated. The method is equivalent to predefining a uniform expression form, then the uniform expression form can be used for efficiently expressing in batches in the resource configuration file, the readability is strong, so that in the subsequent process of generating the application theme style resource tool class by using the application theme style resource configuration file, the code can also efficiently identify the resource configuration information expressed by the resource configuration file, developers do not need to manually write the fine-grained resource configuration information into the tool class one by one, and the method is very efficient and convenient. And if the application theme style needs to be added subsequently or the resource configuration information of the original application theme style needs to be modified, the resource configuration information can be directly added or changed in the original resource configuration file by using the defined specified metadata to obtain a new resource configuration file, the new resource configuration file is identified to construct a new application theme style resource tool class, the workload of developers cannot be increased in the process, and the expandability is strong.
Wherein optionally, the element resource may include at least one of: color resources, picture resources, and font resources. In other embodiments, the element resource may include any type of element resource displayed by the application interface, and may be selected according to actual needs, which is not limited herein.
Following the example of application a above, application a includes a default theme style, a first theme style, and a second theme style. First, specific metadata is defined, which in this example is called annotation data (annotation), and the corresponding code is as follows:
class NTColor{
finalint color;
final int t1;
final int t2;
……
const NTColor(this.color,{this.t1,this.t2....};
}
in this section of code, a class NTColor is defined, and then a const construction method const NTColor with the same name is defined in the class, which is defined as a compile-time constant. The annotation data includes: the theme style comprises a member variable color corresponding to the default theme style, a member variable t1 corresponding to the first theme style and a member variable t2 corresponding to the second theme style, wherein the color is a value of a color resource under the default theme style, t1 is a value of a color resource under the first theme style, and t2 is a value of a color resource under the second theme style. The defined annotation data NTColor specifies the expression form of the resource configuration information of the color resource. Similarly, the scheme of this embodiment also needs to define annotation data corresponding to other element resources, such as picture resources and font resources, in a manner the same as that of the annotation data corresponding to the defined color resources, and is not described herein again.
After the specified metadata is defined, a resource configuration file of an application theme style is generated, each element resource is declared by using the defined specified metadata, and corresponding codes are as follows:
@NTColor(0xff999999,t1:0xff666666,t2:0x333333......)
String_title;
in the code, a modifier @ NTColor starting with "@" is taken as annotation data defined above, and the resource configuration file of the application theme style declares values of color resources corresponding to a title in a display interface of the application a in different application theme styles by using the annotation data. In this example, it is stated that: the value of the color resource of the title in the default theme style is 0xff999999, the value of the color resource of the title in the first theme style is 0xff666666, and the value of the color resource of the title in the second theme style is 0x 3333. Similarly, the annotation data @ NTColor can be used for declaring values of color resources corresponding to other display contents in the display interface of the application A under different theme styles, and the more the display contents are declared, the more the setting of the application theme styles is refined. In addition, if annotation data corresponding to other element resources, such as annotation data of a font resource, is defined, values of the font resource corresponding to the title in different application theme styles may be declared in the resource configuration file of the application theme style using the annotation data of the font resource, and values of font resources corresponding to other display contents in different application theme styles may also be declared. The resource configuration file of the application theme style declares the dereferencing process of the corresponding element resource under different application theme styles by using the predefined annotation data of various element resources, which is the same as the above, and is not described herein again.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the constructing of the application theme style resource tool class based on the specified metadata of the resource configuration file in operation S202 includes: identifying the element resources described by the appointed metadata in the resource configuration file, establishing a mapping relation between identification information and values of the element resources under different theme styles, and establishing an application theme style resource tool class based on the mapping relation.
According to the scheme of the embodiment, the designated metadata in the resource configuration file is identified based on the marking characteristics of the designated metadata, the mapping relation between the identification information and the value of each element resource under different theme styles is established, and the mapping relation is written into the application theme style resource tool class.
Continuing to use the example of the application a in the above, after generating the resource configuration file of the application theme style corresponding to the application a, traversing the resource configuration file of the application theme style, identifying the resource configuration information described by using the specified metadata, for example, scanning the resource configuration information described by the @ NTColor shown in the above, and establishing a mapping relationship between the identification information and the value of the corresponding color resource in different theme styles as follows:
title:0xff999999,
t1_title:0xff6666,
t2_title:0x333333
wherein, title represents the identification information of the color resource of the title of the display interface of the application A under the default theme style, and the identification information has a mapping relation with the color value Oxff 999999. t1_ title represents identification information of a color resource of the title of the display interface of application a in the first theme style, the identification information having a mapping relationship with the color value 0xff 6666. t2_ title represents identification information of a color resource of the title of the display interface of application a in the second theme style, the identification information having a mapping relationship with the color value 0x 333333. Similarly, for the resource configuration information described by other specified metadata, the corresponding specified metadata can be identified to establish the mapping relationship of the corresponding element resource under different theme styles, and details are not repeated here.
Constructing an application theme style resource tool class based on the established mapping relation as follows:
the mapping relationship related to the color resource established above is stored in Map < string.int > colorMap, and a tool class corresponding to the color resource of the title in the display interface of the application a is formed, and the forming processes of other display contents in the display interface of the application a and the tool classes corresponding to other element resources are the same, and are not repeated.
After the application theme style resource tool class is constructed, an application installation package is generated based on the application theme style resource tool class, and the application installation package can be installed on the terminal equipment of the user. As an optional embodiment, in response to an operation of changing an application theme style by a user, when an application is changed to a first theme style in a plurality of theme styles, the application theme style resource tool class is invoked, and a mapping relationship of each element resource associated with the first theme style in the application theme style resource tool class is used to set a corresponding element resource. When the application is changed into a second theme style in the plurality of theme styles, the application theme style resource tool class is called, and the corresponding element resource is set according to the mapping relation of each element resource associated with the second theme style in the application theme style resource tool class.
For example, when the application a is changed to the first theme style, the color of each display content of the application a is set according to the mapping relationship associated with the first theme style in the mapping relationship Map < string.int > colorMap related to the color resource, the picture of each display content of the application a is set according to the mapping relationship associated with the first theme style in the mapping relationship Map < string.int > imgMap related to the picture resource, and the font of each display content of the application a is set according to the mapping relationship associated with the first theme style in the mapping relationship Map < string.int > fontMap related to the font resource.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the resource configuration file of the application theme style and the application theme style resource tool class in the present scheme are generated based on the Dart language. For example, the scheme is implemented based on a flute library, the flute is an open source library for cross-platform mobile application development, the ski engine is used for rendering an interface by itself to avoid the interface inconsistency of each mobile terminal, and the development language is Dart.
The following describes, with reference to fig. 3A to 3B, a process of constructing an application theme style resource tool class based on the Dart language by using a specific embodiment:
in this example, specified metadata NTColor has been defined, and a resource configuration file res. And utilizing a source _ gen open source package and a design tool class generator NTColorGenerator for constructing and generating a final ColorConstants tool class according to the resource description in the resource configuration file of the application theme pattern.
FIG. 3A schematically illustrates a flow diagram for building an application theme style resource toolclass according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 3A, the method includes the operations of:
operation S301 starts.
Operation S302 traverses the res.dart file to generate Map < string.int > colorMap.
The operation specifically comprises the following steps: searching resource description with NTColor annotation data in a res.dart file, determining identification information according to related element names in the resource description, taking values of corresponding color, t1 and t2, establishing a mapping relation between the identification information and the values, and putting Map < string.int > colorMap.
For example, finding a resource with NTColor annotation data is described as follows:
@NTColor(0xff999999,t1:0xff666666,t2:0x333333......)
String_title;
according to the element names of 'title','t 1' and't 2', the identification information is determined to be 'title','t 1_ title' and't 2_ title', three values of 0xff999999, 0xff666666 and 0x3333 are respectively taken, the mapping relation between 'title' and 0xff999999, the mapping relation between't 1_ title' and 0xff666666 and the mapping relation between't 2_ title' and 0x 33333333 are established, and Map < string.int > colorMap is put in.
It should be noted that, when the values of the corresponding color, t1, and t2 are taken, if a certain value does not exist, for example, the value of t2 does not exist, the value of the color in the default theme style is used instead, so as to avoid the situation that the value taken out is empty.
In operation S303, a res.r.dart file is created as a part of the res.dart file.
Operation S304 writes content to the res.r.dart file, resulting in a complete res.r.dart file.
The operation specifically comprises the following steps: a res.r.dart file is declared first as part of the res.dart file, i.e. part of "res.dart" is declared. Then class descriptions are written into class ColorConstants, Map < String.int > ColorMap is traversed, corresponding codes of the Map < String.int > ColorMap are written into according to the mapping relations under the default theme style, the first theme style and the second theme style, the class descriptions are written into, and the final ColorConstants tool class is obtained.
Operation S305 ends.
FIG. 3B schematically illustrates a data flow diagram for a tool class generator according to one embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 3B, the input of the custom tool class generator NTColorGenerator is a resource profile for resource description with specified metadata NTColor:
@NTColor(0xff999999,t1:0xff666666)
String_title;
the tool class generator NTColorGenerator performs the build process as shown in fig. 3A, and the output of the tool class generator NTColorGenerator is the application theme style resource tool class:
the generation rules of the tool classes corresponding to other element resources are the same as those of the color resources, and are not described herein again. The foregoing specific examples are merely for more clearly illustrating the scheme of the embodiment of the present disclosure, and the type of the element resource, the type of the display content, the number of the application theme styles, and the like may be set according to specific situations, and are not limited herein.
The scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure enables the corresponding relation of the resource values of each element resource under different themes to be clear by customizing the designated metadata, and utilizes a customized code automatic generation tool based on the marking characteristics of the designated metadata, thereby greatly reducing the code amount required by developers for describing the resources of each resource under different themes, having higher readability and expansibility, and having high support degree for possible various application theme styles.
Exemplary devices
Having described the method of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a data processing apparatus of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to fig. 4.
Fig. 4 schematically shows a block diagram of a data processing device according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 4, thedata processing apparatus 400 includes:
the obtainingmodule 401 is configured to obtain a resource configuration file of an application theme style, where the resource configuration file includes specified metadata describing a resource.
Thebuilding module 402 is used to build an application theme style resource tool class based on the specified metadata of the resource profile.
Thepackaging module 403 is configured to generate an application installation package based on the application theme style resource tool class, so that the application can invoke and execute the application theme style resource tool class when changing the theme style.
The resource configuration file of the application theme style carries out resource description by specifying the metadata, and the code can automatically identify the metadata and construct a resource tool class which can be called and executed by utilizing the marking function of the metadata, so that fine-grained resource configuration can be realized, developers do not need to manually write the element resources of each theme style one by one, time and labor are saved, the expansibility is strong, the resource configuration file is suitable for constructing the application theme style resource tool class in batch, and the change function of the application theme style can be finely and conveniently realized.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the acquiringmodule 401 acquires the resource configuration file of the application theme style, including: theacquisition module 401 defines specified metadata including a plurality of member variables corresponding to a plurality of theme styles; and generating a resource configuration file of the application theme style, wherein the resource configuration file is used for declaring one or more element resources, and the specified metadata is used for describing the value of the element resources based on the theme style.
Optionally, the element resource includes at least one of: color resources, picture resources, and font resources.
In an embodiment of the present invention, thebuilding module 402 building the application theme style resource tool class based on the specified metadata of the resource configuration file comprises: thebuild module 402 identifies the element resources described by the specified metadata in the resource profile; establishing a mapping relation between the identification information and the value of the element resource based on the theme style; and constructing an application theme style resource tool class based on the mapping relation.
In an embodiment of the present invention, when an application is changed to a first theme style in a plurality of theme styles, the application theme style resource tool class is invoked, and a mapping relationship of each element resource associated with the first theme style in the application theme style resource tool class is used to set a corresponding element resource.
In a specific embodiment of the present invention, the resource configuration file and the application theme style resource tool class are generated based on a Dart language.
It should be noted that the implementation, solved technical problems, implemented functions, and achieved technical effects of each module/unit/subunit and the like in the apparatus part embodiment are respectively the same as or similar to the implementation, solved technical problems, implemented functions, and achieved technical effects of each corresponding step in the method part embodiment, and are not described herein again.
Exemplary Medium
Having described the method and apparatus of exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a medium implementing the data processing method of exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described.
An embodiment of the present invention provides a medium storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a processor, are configured to implement the data processing method according to any one of the above method embodiments.
In some possible embodiments, aspects of the present invention may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a computing device to perform the steps of the data processing method according to various exemplary embodiments of the present invention described in the above section "exemplary method" of this specification, when the program product is run on the computing device, which may perform the operational steps as shown in fig. 2, for example.
The program product may employ any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. A readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium include: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Fig. 5 schematically shows a schematic diagram of a computer-readable storage medium product according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 5, aprogram product 50 implementing a data processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is described, which may employ a portable compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) and include program code, and may be run on a computing device, such as a personal computer. However, the program product of the present invention is not limited in this regard and, in the present document, a readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
A readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated data signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A readable signal medium may also be any readable medium that is not a readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
Program code embodied on a readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C + + or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In the case of a remote computing device, the remote computing device may be connected to the user computing device through any kind of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computing device (e.g., through the internet using an internet service provider).
Exemplary computing device
Having described the method, medium, and apparatus of exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a computing device implementing a data processing method according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described next.
An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computing device, including: a memory, a processor and executable instructions stored on the memory and executable on the processor, the processor implementing the data processing method of any of the above method embodiments when executing the instructions.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or program product. Thus, various aspects of the invention may be embodied in the form of: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, microcode, etc.) or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system.
In some possible embodiments, a computing device implementing a data processing method according to the present invention may include at least one processing unit, and at least one storage unit. Wherein the storage unit stores program code which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the processing unit to perform the operational steps in the data processing method according to various exemplary embodiments of the present invention described in the above section "exemplary method" of the present specification. For example, the processing unit may perform the operational steps as shown in fig. 2.
Acomputing device 60 implementing the data processing method according to this embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to fig. 6.Computing device 60 as shown in FIG. 6 is only one example and should not be taken to limit the scope of use and functionality of embodiments of the present invention.
As shown in fig. 6,computing device 60 is embodied in a general purpose computing device. Components ofcomputing device 60 may include, but are not limited to: the at least oneprocessing unit 601, the at least onememory unit 602, and abus 603 that connects the various system components (including thememory unit 602 and the processing unit 601).
Thebus 603 includes a data bus, an address bus, and a control bus.
Thememory unit 602 may include volatile memory, such as Random Access Memory (RAM)6021 and/orcache memory 6022, and may further include read-only memory (ROM) 6023.
Thememory unit 602 may also include a program/utility 6025 having a set (at least one) ofprogram modules 6024,such program modules 6024 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each of which, or some combination thereof, may comprise an implementation of a network environment.
Computing device 60 may also communicate with one or more external devices 604 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), which may be through an input/output (I/O)interface 605. Moreover,computing device 60 may also communicate with one or more networks (e.g., a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network, such as the internet) throughnetwork adapter 606. As shown,network adapter 606 communicates with the other modules ofcomputing device 60 overbus 603. It should be appreciated that although not shown in the figures, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in conjunction withcomputing device 60, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems, among others.
It should be noted that although in the above detailed description several units/modules or sub-units/modules of the data processing apparatus are mentioned, such a division is merely exemplary and not mandatory. Indeed, the features and functionality of two or more of the units/modules described above may be embodied in one unit/module according to embodiments of the invention. Conversely, the features and functions of one unit/module described above may be further divided into embodiments by a plurality of units/modules.
Moreover, while the operations of the method of the invention are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this does not require or imply that the operations must be performed in this particular order, or that all of the illustrated operations must be performed, to achieve desirable results. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step execution, and/or one step broken down into multiple step executions.
While the spirit and principles of the invention have been described with reference to several particular embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, nor is the division of aspects, which is for convenience only as the features in such aspects may not be combined to benefit. The invention is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.