Process for data driven application integration for B2B

• US 20030023604A1
• Filed: 04/18/2001
• Published: 01/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: OʼBrien, Terrence Ross, Stevens, Richard Joseph, Rapp, William Craig
• Granted Patent: US 6,816,865 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Aspects of the present embodiments provide an eCommerce environment adapted to accept and process various message types (e.g. cXML and mXML). In general, requests are provided from a requesting entity to an application hosting entity. Data from incoming requests are mapped to a format understandable to an appropriate application(s). Responses from the application(s) are then mapped into a response format acceptable by the requesting entity.

To this end, embodiments disclosed herein provide processes for the development and execution of a data driven process for mapping multiple request/response message pairs to a single application interface or set of application interfaces. In one embodiment, these processes are driven by development time and run time documents that describe a development time view of the message pairs and the application interfaces as well as runtime instructions for providing the mappings, respectively.

Claims

1. A data structure configured as an interface definition of a message format of a particular eCommerce transaction type, comprising:

protocol information identifying a protocol and the particular eCommerce transaction type;

request data format information identifying a request message format for the particular eCommerce transaction type, wherein the request message format comprises a plurality of input fields; and

input field information identifying at least a portion of the plurality of input fields.

2. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the input field information identifies a physical location of each input field of at least the portion of the plurality of input fields.

3. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the protocol is selected from the group comprising cXML and mXML.

4. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the transaction type is a purchase order.

5. The data structure of claim 1, wherein a total number of fields of the plurality of input fields identified by the input field information is less than all of the plurality of input fields.

6. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the plurality of input fields includes input fields for at least two different request types and wherein the input field information represents only a first request type.

7. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the protocol information further identifies a sub-transaction type.

8. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the eCommerce transaction type is selected from a group comprising of a purchase order, a change purchase order, a remote catalog shopping request, an invoice request and a shopping basket content request.

9. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the input field information comprises a corresponding input field corresponding to each field of the portion of the plurality of input fields.

10. The data structure of claim 9, wherein a name of at least one field of the portion of the plurality of input fields is different than a name of the corresponding input field corresponding to the at least one field.

11. The data structure of claim 1, further comprising:

response data format information identifying a response message format for the particular eCommerce transaction type, wherein the response message format comprises a plurality of output fields; and

output field information identifying at least a portion of the plurality of output fields.

12. The data structure of claim 11, wherein a total number of fields of the plurality of output fields identified by the output field information is less than all of the plurality of output fields.

13. The data structure of claim 11, wherein the plurality of output fields includes output fields for at least two different request types and wherein the output field information represents only a first request type.

14. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the input field information and the output field information is configured for mapping to an application access method, wherein the application access method is configured to describe an interface to an application.

15. The data structure of claim 14, wherein the application access method is selected from a program call access method, a java access method and a queue application access method.

17. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the transaction type is a purchase order.

18. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the input field information identifies a physical location of each input field of at least the portion of the plurality of input fields in the request message format and the output field information identifies a physical location of each output field of at least the portion of the plurality of output fields in the response message format.

19. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the input field information and the output field information is configured for mapping to an application access method, wherein the application access method is configured to describe an interface to an application configured to process the particular eCommerce transaction type.

20. The data structure of claim 1, wherein the input field information comprises a corresponding input field corresponding to each field of the portion of the plurality of input fields and wherein the output field information comprises a corresponding output field corresponding to each field of the portion of the plurality of output fields.

16. A data structure configured as an interface definition of a request message format and a response message format of a particular eCommerce transaction type, comprising:

protocol information identifying a protocol and a transaction type;

request data format information identifying the request message format, wherein the request message format comprises a plurality of input fields; and

input field information identifying at least a portion of the plurality of input fields, wherein the plurality of input fields includes input fields for at least two different request types and wherein the input field information represents only a first request type;

response data format information identifying a response message format, wherein the response message format comprises a plurality of output fields; and

output field information identifying at least a portion of the plurality of output fields, wherein the plurality of output fields includes output fields for the at least two different request types and wherein the output field information represents only the first request type.