Modeling toll for electronic services and associated methods

• US 20030028389A1
• Filed: 07/24/2001
• Published: 02/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Sayal, Mehmet, Casati, Fabio, Shan, Ming-Chien
• Application Number:
  US09/911,980
• Publication Number:
  US 20030028389A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

An electronic services modeling tool for composite e-services and functionality, where a composite e-service is an e-service defined by composing other basic or composite e-services. Implementation of an e-service for composing e-services into a composite e-service. Characteristics of composite e-services and of their differences with respect to traditional workflow-like composition. Definition of a composition model suitable for e-services. Description of a prototype implementation, showing an approach that can be Ad reused for implementing composition on top of any E-Services Platform. Providing composition functionality as an e-service, to be used not only by the owner of the ESP, but also by any designer-user. A specific type of e-service, meta-service, called Composition E-Service, allows the definition, execution, management, and monitoring of composite e-services. A language used for specifying the composition. Architecture and implementation of the CES to deliver the service on top of an ESP.

Claims

1. A model for compiling a specification of a process definition comprising:

service nodes, wherein each of said service nodes is a representation of a consumer service; and

a first flow diagram sequencing said service nodes as a representation of the process definition.

2. The model as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

method nodes, wherein each of said method nodes is a representation of executable operations inherent to a consumer service represented by one of said service nodes.

3. The model as set forth in claim 2 further comprising:

wherein each of said service nodes is expandable into a second flow diagram of method nodes.

4. The model as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of said service nodes is executed by accessing an electronic service registered on an electronic service platform.

5. The model as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of said service nodes comprises:

consumer service-level properties.

6. The model as set forth in claim 5 wherein said consumer service-level properties comprises:

a service search recipe or service selection rule.

7. The model as set forth in claim 5 wherein said consumer service-level properties comprises:

a service reuse.

8. The model as set forth in claim 5 wherein said consumer service-level properties comprises:

a service-inherent method flow.

9. The model as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of said service nodes comprises:

consumer authentication properties.

10. The model as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of said service nodes comprises:

consumer and service certification properties.

11. The model as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of said service nodes comprises:

service-level exception handling rules.

12. The model as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of said service nodes comprises:

the definition of interaction flow, defining how the interaction with the service is conducted.

13. The model as set forth in claim 2 wherein each of said method nodes comprises:

representations of operations executed within the context of an electronic service registered with a electronic services platform.

14. The model as set forth in claim 13 each of said method nodes further comprises:

the service operation to call.

15. The model as set forth in claim 13 each of said method nodes further comprises:

invocations for a specific operation of the method node.

16. The model as set forth in claim 13 each of said method nodes further comprises:

input data, including formatting and handling specifications.

17. The model as set forth in claim 13 each of said method nodes further comprises:

output data, including formatting and handling specifications.

18. The model as set forth in claim 13 each of said method nodes further comprises:

method-level exception handling rules.

19. The model as set forth in claim 1 wherein said specification is a composition of individual electronic services.

20. The model as set forth in claim 1 applied in a distributed computer network environment.

21. The model as set forth in claim 1 wherein said process is a workflow.

22. The model as set forth in claim 1 wherein said process is a composite electronic service.

23. A computer tool for compiling a specification of a process comprising:

computer code for representing a plurality of individual services as service nodes, wherein each of said service nodes is representative of a respective service invocation setup phase for each of the individual services; and

computer code for compiling a set of the service nodes into a composite service forming a generically defined flow said process.

24. The computer tool as set forth in claim 23 comprising:

said service nodes are expandable into method nodes, wherein method nodes are representative of at least one respective operation inherent to a respective one of the individual services which is expanded thereto.

25. The computer tool as set forth in claim 24 comprising:

said method nodes represent a plurality of inherent executable operations associated with a respectively associated one of the individual services.

26. The computer tool as set forth in claim 23 comprising:

each said service nodes provides executable functions related to setting up communication with each of said individual services.

27. The computer tool as set forth in claim 23 comprising:

the composite service is a service node flow specifying generic functionalities common to said process.

28. A computer tool for compiling a specification of a process and executing the specification of the process comprising:

computer code for representing a plurality of individual services as service nodes, wherein each of said service nodes is representative of a respective service invocation setup phase for each of the individual services;

computer code for compiling a set of the service nodes into a composite service forming a generically defined flow of said process;

computer code for executing the specification of the process represented by the generically defined flow by expanding each node of said set of the service nodes into method nodes, invoking functionalities of the individual services thereby, wherein each of said method nodes represent a plurality of inherent executable operations associated with a respectively associated one of the individual services.

29. A method for structuring individual electronic services registered on an electronic service platform, the method comprising:

providing a top level having service nodes representative of extracted common elements of the composite service;

providing a subsidiary level, wherein said service nodes are expanded into method nodes for execution of specific operations inherent to a respective electronic service represented thereby; and

providing linking nodes in the top level for connecting said service nodes into a process flow, wherein said flow forms a hierarchical specification having a sequential series of said individual electronic services.

30. The method as set forth in claim 29 further comprising:

providing event nodes.

31. The method as set forth in claim 30 in an internet environment.

32. The method as set forth in claim 31 further comprising:

executing a process for providing electronic services over the internet environment by executing the hierarchical specification.

33. A method of executing a given composite process, defined as including a plurality of individual electronic services registered on an electronic services platform, the method comprising:

segregating generic electronic services common to the given composite process from operations respectively inherent to each of said generic electronic services;

compiling a composite process flow using said generic electronic services; and

invoking each operations functionalities of each of said generic electronic services by expansion of each of said generic electronic services into said operations only as needed to continue said composite process.

34. The method as set forth in claim 33, said compiling further comprising:

compiling a plurality of the individual electronic services as associated with a search for data associated with said given composite process having at least one requirement from each of said individual generic electronic services.

35. The method as set forth in claim 33, said compiling further comprising:

compiling a composite process definition as a sequential series of service nodes, wherein each said service node is a specification related to invoking communications with a specific one of said service nodes.

36. The method as set forth in claim 35 said executing further comprising:

including method nodes for each of said service nodes wherein said method nodes are invocations of operations inherent with an associated one of the generic electronic services.

37. A computer tool for composing electronic service searching runtime criteria comprising:

computer code for structuring a plurality of service nodes, wherein each of said service nodes is representative of a generic service and includes only those criteria essential to invoking said service;

computer code for invoking a plurality of method nodes, wherein a set of method nodes is representative of operations inherent to an associated one of said service nodes; and

computer code for linking nodes sequencing said service nodes into a coherent flow representative of a composite service including more than one generic service.

38. The tool as set forth in claim 37 comprising;

computer code for handing event nodes.