Universal deployment tool

• US 20040177352A1
• Filed: 03/03/2003
• Published: 09/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Narayanaswamy, Sreedhara Srinivasulu, Boyd, Gerald L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,069,553 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation

Abstract

A system and method for a deployment tool is provided. The deployment tool in one aspect assembles and deploys software components generated by any predetermined standard compliant application tools. The system and method in one aspect isolates each application server'"'"'s specific deployment logic into plug-in modules. A user is provided with a series of input tools or panels for specifying deployment variables and customizing the deployment as needed. The customization includes the ability to select the target application server and optionally, the target platform and operating system.

Claims

1. A system for deploying program modules, comprising:

a deployment module operable to run in an integrated development environment or in a standalone mode, the deployment module operable to determine a target application server to which to deploy one or more program modules; and

one or more plug-in modules dynamically loadable by the deployment module to process application server specific deployment configurations associated with one or more target application servers for deploying the one or more program modules to the one or more target application servers from the deployment module.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the deployment module is operable to provide a user with a list of available target application servers to allow the user to select the target application server.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the deployment module is operable to allow the user to add a new target application server.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein a new plug-in module associated with the new target application server may be dynamically loaded to run with the deployment module without updating the deployment module.

5. The system of claim 1, further including a common set of program definitions for the one or more plug-in modules to implement for interacting with the deployment module.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the common set of program definitions includes object oriented interface definitions.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the application server specific deployment configurations include one or more platforms on which the one or more target application servers run.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the application server specific deployment configurations include information related to the one or more platforms.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the application server specific deployment configurations include directory structure of the target application server.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the application server specific deployment configurations include security information associated with the target application server.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the application server specific deployment configurations include information related to the one or more program modules.

12. A method for deploying program modules, comprising:

determining a target application server to deploy one or more program modules;

dynamically loading a plug-in associated with the target application server for determining configuration information related to the target application server;

updating a deployment file with the determined configuration information;

packaging the one or more program modules and the updated deployment file; and

deploying the packaged one or more program modules to the target application server.

13. The method of claim 12, further including transferring the packaged one or more program modules to the target application server.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the transferring includes transferring by file transfer protocol (FTP).

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining a target application server includes determining a target application server among a plurality of application servers provided by different application server providers.

16. A method for providing a deployment tool for deploying programs to one or more target application servers, comprising:

providing a deployment module operable to determine a target application server;

providing a set of common definitions for a plug-in module to implement, the set of common definitions used to provide interaction between the deployment module and the plug-in module and also used to process one or more target application server specific configurations for deploying one or more program modules to the target application server.

17. The method of claim 16, further including:

providing one or more plug-in modules implementing the set of common definitions, the one or more plug-in modules associated with respective one or more target application servers.

18. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps of deploying program modules, comprising:

determining a target application server to deploy one or more program modules;

dynamically loading a plug-in module associated with the target application server for determining configuration information related to the target application server;

updating a deployment file with the determined configuration information;

packaging the one or more program modules and the updated deployment file; and

deploying the packaged one or more program modules to the target application server.

19. A system for deploying one or more program modules to a target application server, comprising:

a deployment module operable to run in an integrated development environment or in a standalone mode, the deployment module operable to determine a target application server to which to deploy one or more program modules; and

a common set of program definitions for a plug-in module to implement for interacting with the deployment module, the common set of program definitions used by the plug-in module and the deployment module to configure target application server specific information for deploying to the target application server.

20. The system of claim 19, further including:

one or more plug-in modules associated with respective one or more target application servers, the one or more plug-in modules implementing the common set of program definitions to determine application server specific configurations associated with respective one or more target application servers.