Business process management for a message-based exchange infrastructure

• US 20040254945A1
• Filed: 05/14/2004
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Liebig, Christoph, Baeuerle, Stefan, Burgmeier, Hermann, Schmidt, Patrick, Naundorf, Stephan
• Granted Patent: US 7,788,319 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/547 Messaging middleware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Methods and systems for managing integration of a heterogeneous application landscape are disclosed. The landscape is defined by one or more business process. A business process management system includes an integration server connected between two or more applications in the landscape. The integration server includes a business process engine configured to execute one or more business processes that define message-based interactions between the two or more applications. The business process management system further includes a runtime engine, under direction of the business process engine, for executing one or more messaging services on the message-based interactions between the two or more applications.

Claims

1. A system for integrating two or more applications in an enterprise system, the system comprising:

an integration server connected between the two or more applications, the integration server including a process engine configured to execute one or more predefined business processes; and

a runtime engine, operating under direction of the business process engine, for executing one or more messaging services between the two or more applications based on at least one predefined business process.

2. A system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a repository for storing the one or more predefined business processes.

3. A system in accordance with claim 2, wherein the repository includes design-time objects that define interactions between the two or more application systems.

4. A system in accordance with claim 2, further comprising a directory for storing a portion of the one or more predefined business processes based on a runtime configuration of the enterprise landscape.

5. A system in accordance with claim 4, wherein the runtime portion of the one or more predefined business processes are accessible by the process engine for execution by the runtime engine.

6. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the messaging services include logical routing of a message, a mapping of the message from one application to another, and a physical address resolution of the two or more applications, in accordance with the one or more business processes executed by the business process engine.

7. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein each business process defines message-based interactions between the two or more applications.

8. A system for message-based exchange between two or more business applications in an enterprise system, comprising:

a repository storing enterprise system design-time descriptions of the two or more business applications, the design-time descriptions including design-time business processes; and

a directory storing enterprise system configuration-specific descriptions of the two or more business applications, the configuration-specific descriptions including configuration-specific business processes to be executed between the two or more business applications.

9. A system in accordance with claim 8, wherein the repository further includes design-time interface descriptions of the two or more business applications, message context descriptions of messages to be exchanged between the two or more business applications, and interface mapping descriptions associating pairs of the design-time interface descriptions, and wherein the design-time interface descriptions, the message context descriptions, and the interface mapping descriptions are linked to at least one design-time business process.

10. A system in accordance with claim 9, wherein the repository further includes design-time business scenario descriptions that represent an abstraction of the design-time business processes.

11. A system in accordance with claim 9, wherein each design-time interface description includes a link to at least one interface type object and/or at least one message type object.

12. A system in accordance with claim 9, wherein each design-time interface mapping description includes a link to at least one message mapping object defining a mapping between pairs of interfaces based on a business process.

13. A system in accordance with claim 8, wherein the directory further includes configuration-specific business scenario descriptions, which comprise the configuration-specific business processes.

14. A system in accordance with claim 13, wherein each configuration specific business process includes a link to at least one routing relation object and/or at least one mapping relation object.

15. A method for integrating two or more application services in a enterprise application landscape, the method comprising:

associating the two or more applications within a business scenario;

defining one or more design-time business processes based on the business scenario; and

linking each of the one or more design-time business processes to interface descriptions of the two or more applications.

16. A method in accordance with claim 15, further comprising linking each of the one or more design-time business processes to at least one context object that describes a routing of a message between two of the applications based on message content.

17. A method in accordance with claim 15, further comprising linking each of the one or more design-time business processes to at least one interface mapping description that describes a mapping between interfaces of two or more applications.

18. A method in accordance with claim 15, further comprising defining one or more configuration-specific business processes associated with a runtime configuration of the enterprise application landscape and based on the design-time business processes.

19. A method in accordance with claim 18 further comprising:

generating an instance of at least one configuration-specific business process in a runtime engine; and

executing the instance to communicate messages according to the at least one configuration-specific business process.

20. A method in accordance with claim 19, further comprising communicating a message between two of the two or more applications according to the configuration-specific business process.