Systems and methods for integrating modules into a software application

• US 10,514,897 B1
• Filed: 06/15/2018
• Issued: 12/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Liu, Yang
• Primary Examiner(s): Pan, Hang
• Application Number:
  US16/009,851
• Publication Number:
  US 20190384581A1
• Time in Patent Office: 557 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

Methods and systems are presented for providing a platform that seamlessly integrates software modules into an application. In particular, the platform allows software modules to access services provided by other software modules, through a host module, without the need of exposing the source code of any of the software modules. The application is configured as a host module by integrating one or more software modules into the application. The application may directly consume services provided by the software modules and also facilitate service accessing between software modules that are integrated into the application. As such, a software module does not need to interact with another software module directly to access services provided by the other software module, but rather, using the application as a medium to interact with the other software module.

Claims

1. A system for integrating a plurality of software modules into an application, the system comprising:

a non-transitory memory; and

one or more hardware processors coupled with the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising;

configuring the application as a host module that integrates a first software module and a second software module into the application;

initiating, through the application, a first process flow associated with a first service of the first software module;

receiving, through a first function call implemented by the application from the first software module during a runtime execution of the first process flow, a first request for information related to a second service of the second software module;

in response to determining that the second software module is integrated with the application, providing to the first software module the information related to the second service of the second software module as a response to the first request, wherein the information comprises one or more parameters required for using the second service of the second software module;

receiving, through a second function call implemented by the application from the first software module, a second request for initiating the second service associated with the second software module, wherein the second request comprises the one or more parameters required for using the second service;

initiating, through the application, a second process flow associated with the second service of the second software module based on the second request during the runtime execution of the first process flow;

receiving, through a third function call implemented by the application from the second software module, an indication indicating that the second process flow is completed; and

in response to receiving the indication indicating that the second process flow is completed, returning, through the second function call, a return value associated with the second process flow to the first software module as a response to the second request.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the first software module, a third request for initiating a third service of a third software module; and

in response to determining that the third software module is not integrated with the application, returning to the first software module an indication indicating that the third service of the third software module is unavailable.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein an interface of the second software module is insulated from the first software module by the application.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the application extends a host module base class and implements a set of function calls, comprising the first, second, and third function calls, defined by the host module base class.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the return value comprises a value obtained from the third function call.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein configuring the application as the host module comprises integrating compiled code associated with the first and second software modules into the application.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is a mobile application.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the first, second, and third function calls are part of a programming interface of the application that is accessible by the first software module and the second software module.

9. A method comprising:

integrating, by one or more hardware processors associated with an application, a first software module and a second software module into the application;

initiating, by the application, a first process flow associated with a first service of the first software module;

receiving, through a programming interface by the application from the first software module during a runtime execution of the first process flow, a first request for information related to a second service of the second software module;

in response to determining that the second software module is integrated with the application, providing, through the programming interface by the application, to the first software module the information related to the second service of the second software module as a response to the first request, wherein the information comprises one or more parameters required for using the second service of the second software module;

receiving, through the programming interface by the application from the first software module, a second request for initiating the second service associated with the second software module, wherein the second request comprises the one or more parameters required for using the second service;

initiating, by the application, a second process flow associated with the second service of the second software module based on the request during the runtime execution of the first process flow;

receiving, through the programming interface by the application from the second software module, an indication indicating that the second process flow is completed; and

in response to receiving the indication indicating that the second process flow is completed, returning, by the application through the programming interface, a return value associated with the second process flow to the first software module as a response to the second request.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing, by the application, a user interface configured to receive a user input from a user, wherein the first process flow is initiated based on the user input.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the second process flow is a sub-flow of the first process flow.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

instantiating, by the application, a flow stack implemented in a first-in-last-out arrangement; and

pushing, by the application, a first flow object indicating the first process flow into the flow stack based on the initiating of the first process flow.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising pushing, by the application, a second flow object indicating the second process flow into the flow stack based on the request for the second service.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

in response to receiving the indication indicating that the second process flow is completed, popping the second flow object from the flow stack, wherein the application determines the second process flow is requested by the first process flow based on the second flow object.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the application from the first software module, a third request for a third service of a third software module; and

in response to determining that the third software module is not integrated with the application, returning, by the application to the first software module, an indication indicating that the third service of the third software module is unavailable.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein an interface of the second software module is insulated from the first software module by the application, and wherein the application initiated the second process flow by accessing the interface of the second software module.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the application extends a host module base class and implements a set of functions for the programming interface of the application defined by the host module base class.

18. A non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

configuring the application as a host module that integrates a first software module and a second software module into the application;

initiating, by the application, a first process flow associated with a first service of the first software module;

receiving, through a programming interface implemented by the application from the first software module during a runtime execution of the first process flow, a first request for information related to a second service of the second software module;

in response to determining that the second software module is integrated with the application, providing, through the programming interface, to the first software module the information related to the second service of the second software module as a response to the first request, wherein the information comprises one or more parameters required for using the second service of the second software module;

receiving, through the programming interface by the application from the first software module, a second request for initiating the second service associated with the second software module, wherein the second request comprises the one or more parameters required for using the second service;

initiating, by the application, a second process flow associated with the second service of the second software module based on the request during the runtime execution of the first process flow;

receiving, by the application from the second software module, an indication indicating that the second process flow is completed; and

in response to receiving the indication indicating that the second process flow is completed, returning, through the programming interface by the application, a return value associated with the second process flow to the first software module as a response to the second request.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the programming interface comprises a set of functions defined by a host module base class extended by the application.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 19, wherein the second request for initiating the second service of the second software module is received from the first software module via a first function from the set of functions.