Resource adapter and integrated development environment

• US 20030074217A1
• Filed: 10/09/2002
• Published: 04/17/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Fahmy, Hesham E., Beisiegel, Michael, Przybylski, Piotr
• Granted Patent: US 7,480,916 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

In one aspect of the present invention a resource and tooling adapter (RTA), a new kind of resource adapter, interacts, in the development process, with an integrated development environment (IDE). The RTA, responsive to a request from the IDE, provides identification of the services provided by the EIS. Additionally, the RTA provides data to the IDE describing how to access or invoke those services. Utilizing the data (describing the services and how to use those services of an EIS) an IDE is able to generate a business application designed to exploit the services of the EIS. In a further aspect of the present invention, the RTA (previously employed by an IDE to develop a business application) also provides runtime support to enable communication between the business application and the selected EIS.

Claims

1. A resource adapter comprising:

a first mechanism providing a description of a service provided by an enterprise information system sufficient to invoke said service;

a second mechanism for invoking said service described;

said resource adapter adapted to communicate with an integrated development environment to assist in development of a business application; and

said resource adapter further adapted to communicate with a business application during execution of said business application.

2. The resource adapter of claim 1 wherein said first mechanism, responsive a request for a description of a service provided by an enterprise system, provides said requested description having queried said enterprise information system.

6. The resource adapter of claim 1 wherein said resource adapter is adapted to communicate with a business application during execution of said business application via a connector, said connector comprising one of:

a Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Connector Architecture connector; and

a Common Connector Framework (CCF) connector.

7. The resource adapter of claim 6 wherein said second mechanism maps elements comprising said description of said service to elements of said connector.

8. The resource adapter of claim 7 wherein said connector comprises a J2EE connector and said second mechanism maps from said description of said service to connection and interaction elements of said J2EE connector.

3. The resource adapter of claim I wherein said first mechanism providing a description of a service comprises a document describing said service.

4. The resource adapter of claim 3 wherein said document comprises an XML document.

5. The resource adapter of claim 4 wherein said XML document conforms to the WSDL standard.

9. A method for generating code for a business application, said code adapted to use a connector to access a service provided by an Enterprise Information System (EIS), said method comprising:

receiving data describing said service provided by said EIS;

mapping said data describing said service to elements of said connector;

generating code of said business application, said code implementing said mapping.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said receiving data describing said service comprises:

querying a resource and tooling adapter for data describing said service; and

responsive to said querying, receiving said data.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said code generated is adapted to said resource and tooling adapter.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein said resource and tooling adapter comprises a connector and a document describing said service provided by said EIS.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said connector is one of:

a Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Connector architecture connector; and

a Common Connector Framework (CCF) connector.

14. An integrated development environment (IDE) for generating a business application, said business application, when executed, uses services provided by an enterprise information system (EIS), said IDE comprising:

an interface for querying a resource and tooling adapter to ascertain a service provided by said EIS;

said interface for receiving a response to a query from a resource and tooling adapter, said response describing said service provided by said EIS and information to invoke said service; and

a generator generating code for said business application to access said service, said code using data from said response.

15. A computer readable media storing data and instructions readable by a computer system, said computer system executing an integrated development environment (IDE) for generating a business application to access a service provided by an Enterprise Information System (EIS), said data and instructions defining a resource and tooling adapter that, when deployed on said computer system, adapts said IDE to:

obtain a description of said service, said description providing details required to invoke said service; and

using said description of said service, generate code which when executed, communicates with said resource and tooling adapter to use said service.

16. A resource adapter comprising:

first means for communicating with an integrated development environment (IDE) during development of a business application;

second means for communicating with an Enterprise Information System (EIS);

third means for communication with an executing business application;

fourth means for providing a description of a service provided by said EIS to said IDE; and

fifth means for mapping aspects of said description of said service to said third means.

17. The resource adapter of claim 16 wherein said second and third means comprise a connector.

18. The resource adapter of claim 17 wherein said connector comprises one of:

a connector conforming to the Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Connector Architecture; and

a connector conforming to the Common Connector Framework architecture.

19. The resource adapter of claim 17 wherein said fourth means comprises an abstract description of said service.

20. The resource adapter of claim 19 wherein said abstract description of said service comprises one or more documents conforming to the Web Services Definition Language (WSDL).

21. The resource adapter of claim 20 wherein said connector comprises said connector conforming to the J2EE Connector Architecture and said fifth means comprises mapping said extensibility elements to connection and interaction elements of said J2EE connector.

22. The resource adapter of claim 17 wherein said fifth means comprises mapping elements in said abstract description of said service to connection and interaction elements of said connector.

23. A method of adapting an integrated development environment to enable generation of code to use a service provided by a back end system, said method comprising:

transmitting to said integrated development environment data describing said service; and

mapping elements of said data describing said service to elements of a connector, said connector for facilitating communication between said back end system and an application generated to use said service provided by said back end system.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

prior to transmitting, initializing communication with a resource and tooling adapter.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein said transmitting comprises:

receiving listing data listing said service.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein said transmitting further comprises:

receiving data describing said service listed by said listing data.

27. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

prior to said transmitting, said resource and tooling adapter, responsive to a query of said back end system, receiving said data describing said service.

28. A resource adapter comprising:

a connector adapted to facilitate, during execution of an application, communication between said application and a back end system resulting in said application using a service provided by said back end system;

functions to provide an integrated development environment (IDE) with a description of said service wherein said elements of said description map to elements of said connector.

29. The resource adapter of claim 28 wherein said functions are adapted to query said back end system for said description.

30. The resource adapter of claim 28 wherein said connector comprises one of a Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Connector Architecture connector and a Common Connector Framework (CCF) connector.

31. The resource adapter of claim 28 wherein said description comprises a service listing identifying said service.

32. The resource adapter of claim 31 wherein said description further comprises one or more documents describing services identified by said service listing.

33. The resource adapter of claim 32 wherein said one or more documents conform to the WSDL standard.

34. The resource adapter of claim 28 wherein said resource adapter is adapted to communicate with said IDE during development of said application and further adapted to communicate with said application and said back end system during execution of said application.

35. The resource adapter of claim 34 wherein said resource adapter is further adapted to communicate with said back end system during development of said application.