Asset composition

• US 20040254951A1
• Filed: 06/16/2003
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bloesch, Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 7,702,668 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A system and method facilitating asset composition based, at least in part, upon metadata (e.g., asset specification) describing compositional property(ies) of the asset(s) is provided. Asset specification(s) (e.g., metadata) that describe asset(s) to efficiently search and/or match asset(s) are employed. The system can facilitate matching (e.g., automatically) the particular software component to available server(s). Thus, the system can provide a flexible manner of describing asset(s) and an efficient way of locating matching description(s).

Claims

1. A system facilitating asset composition comprising:

a composition component comprising an input component that receives a composition request, and, an identification component that identifies assets in response to the composition request, identification being based, at least in part, upon asset specification information stored in an asset specification store, the asset specification information comprising compositional properties of assets and ports that describe respective aspects of the assets that support composition.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising the asset specification store.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one asset.

4. The system of claim 3, the asset comprising at least one of a computer hardware component, a software component, an operating system and a database management system.

5. The system of claim 1, the asset specification information being stored based, at least in part, upon an XML schema.

6. The system of claim 1, the compositional properties comprising at least one of an asset description, a list of port specifications, a port description, an interface, a configuration section, a services section, a requirements section and a wants section.

7. The system of claim 1, employed to compose a plurality of assets into an application.

8. The system of claim 1, the identification component employing a matching algorithm in identifying assets responsive to the composition request.

9. A composition component comprising:

an input component that receives a composition request;

an identification component that identifies assets in response to the composition request, identification being based, at least in part, upon asset specification information stored in an asset specification store, the asset specification information comprising compositional properties of assets and ports that describe respective aspects of the assets that support composition; and

,

a composer that links ports of the assets identified in response to the composition request in connection with composing the assets into an application.

10. The component of claim 9, the port linking effected via at least one of:

matching the ports, setting configuration information, providing code and providing deployment information.

11. The component of claim 9, the asset comprising at least one of a computer hardware component, a software component, an operating system and a database management system.

12. The component of claim 9, the asset specification information being stored based, at least in part, upon an XML schema.

13. The component of claim 9, the compositional properties comprising at least one of an asset description, a list of port specifications, a port description, an interface, a configuration section, a services section, a requirements section and a wants section.

14. A system facilitating asset composition comprising the component of claim 9.

15. A method of performing asset composition comprising:

utilizing metadata describing compositional properties of respective assets and ports that describe respective aspects of the assets that support composition to search for assets responsive to a composition request; and

,

composing an application based, at least in part, upon the assets responsive to the composition request.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising receiving the composition request.

17. A method of matching assets comprising:

generating a first n-bit hash code for a service section of an interface;

generating a second n-bit hash for a requirement section of another interface; and

,

comparing the first n-bit hash code and the second n-bit hash code to determine whether assets potentially match.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising determining whether an expression in the requirement section matches the service section.

19. A data packet transmitted between two or more computer components that facilitates asset composition, the data packet comprising:

an application composed of assets, the assets identified based, at least in part, upon compositional properties of assets and ports that describe respective aspects of the assets that support composition.

20. A computer readable medium storing computer executable components of a composition component, comprising:

an input component that receives a composition request;

an identification component that identifies assets in response to the composition request, identification being based, at least in part, upon asset specification information stored in an asset specification store, the asset specification information comprising compositional properties of assets and ports that describe respective aspects of the assets that support composition; and

,

a composer component that links ports of the assets identified in response to the composition request in connection with composing the assets into an application.

21. A system facilitating asset composition comprising:

means for receiving a composition request;

means for identifying assets in response to the composition request, identification being based, at least in part, upon asset specification information stored in an asset specification store, the asset specification information comprising compositional properties of assets and ports that describe respective aspects of the assets that support composition; and

,

means for linking ports of the assets identified in response to the composition request in connection with composing the assets into an application.