Method and system for module initialization with an arbitrary number of phases

1. A method for initializing a module comprising:

identifying a first module for initialization; and

performing a plurality of processing phases on the first module and all modules in a dependency graph of the first module, wherein the performing comprises, for each module:

executing a processing phase of the plurality of processing phases on the module;

determining whether the processing phase has been executed on all modules in a dependency graph of the module; and

when the processing phase has been executed for all modules in the dependency graph of the module, executing a subsequent processing phase of the plurality of processing phases on the module.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the processing phase has been executed further comprises:

walking the dependency graph of the module to determine an initialization status of each of the modules in the dependency graph, wherein the initialization status indicates which processing phase of the plurality of processing phases was last performed on a module.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dependency graph of the module is a transitive closure of a directed cyclic graph of modules on which the module depends.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein executing the processing phase further comprises:

identifying all modules on which the module directly depends.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising adding the identified modules to an initialization queue.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein executing the processing phase further comprises:

performing a conflict check on all modules upon which the module directly depends.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the plurality of processing phases further comprises:

selecting the module from an initialization queue, wherein the initialization queue comprises modules in the dependency graph of the first module.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the plurality of processing phases further comprises:

when the processing phase has not been executed on a second module in the dependency graph of the module, executing the processing phase on the second module.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the plurality of processing phases further comprises:

setting an initialization status of the module to indicate an error when the processing phase does not complete successfully.

10. A module system comprising:

module storage configured to store a plurality of module definitions; and

a module initialization engine configured to initialize a first module created from a module definition of the plurality of module definitions by:

performing a plurality of processing phases on the first module and all modules in a dependency graph of the first module, wherein the performing comprises, for each module:

executing a processing phase of the plurality of processing phases on the module;

determining whether the processing phase has been executed on all modules in a dependency graph of the module; and

when the processing phase has been executed for all modules in the dependency graph of the module, executing a subsequent processing phase of the plurality of processing phases on the module.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein determining whether the processing phase has been executed further comprises:

walking the transitive closure of a dependency graph of the module to determine an initialization status of each of the modules in the dependency graph, wherein the initialization status indicates which processing phase of the plurality of processing phases was last performed on a module.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein executing the processing phase further comprises:

identifying all modules on which the module directly depends.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein executing the processing phase further comprises:

performing a conflict check on all modules upon which the module directly depends.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein performing the plurality of processing phases further comprises:

when the processing phase has not been executed on a second module in the dependency graph of the module, executing the processing phase on the second module.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein performing the plurality of processing phases further comprises:

setting an initialization status of the module to indicate an error when the processing phase does not complete successfully.

16. A computer readable medium comprising executable instructions to initialize a module by:

identifying a first module for initialization; and

performing a plurality of processing phases on the first module and all modules in a dependency graph of the first module, wherein the performing comprises, for each module:

executing a processing phase of the plurality of processing phases on the module;

determining whether the processing phase has been executed on all modules in a dependency graph of the module; and

when the processing phase has been executed for all modules in the dependency graph of the module, executing a subsequent processing phase of the plurality of processing phases on the module.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein determining whether the processing phase has been executed further comprises:

walking the dependency graph of the module to determine an initialization status of each of the modules in the dependency graph, wherein the initialization status indicates which processing phase of the plurality of processing phases was last performed on a module.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein executing the processing phase further comprises one selected from a group consisting of identifying all modules on which the module directly depends and performing a conflict check on all modules upon which the module directly depends.