Apparatus, system, and method for facilitating transactions between thin-clients and message format service (MFS)-based information management system (IMS) applications

• US 20050203944A1
• Filed: 03/18/2005
• Published: 09/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ho, Shyh-Mei F., Dinh, Thu-Tram T., Hung, Jenny ChengYin, Lo, Kevin Yu Chang
• Granted Patent: US 7,421,701 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/84 Mapping; Conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for facilitating conversational and non-conversational transactions between thin-clients and MFS-based IMS applications. The method includes storing conversation attributes associated with a conversational transaction between a thin-client and an MFS-based IMS application, the conversation attributes comprising connection information and conversation-specific information. Next, one or more transaction messages from the thin-client are preprocessed based on a transaction message type. The stored conversation attributes are updated in response changes in the conversation attributes caused by the one or more transaction messages. Then, a conversation output message is formatted for the thin-client. The apparatus may include a security module that authenticates user, a connection module that establishes a connection with an MFS-based IMS application, a state module that preserves and maintains conversation attributes, and a control module to process a transaction message having one or more transaction message types.

Claims

1. A programmed method for facilitating transactions between thin-clients and Message Format Service (MFS)-based Information Management System (IMS) applications, the programmed method comprising the process steps of:

storing conversation attributes associated with a conversational transaction between a thin-client and an MFS-based IMS application, the conversation attributes comprising connection information and conversation-specific information;

preprocessing one or more transaction messages from the thin-client based on a transaction message type;

updating the stored conversation attributes in response to a change in the conversation attributes caused by the one or more transaction messages; and

formatting a conversation output message for the thin-client.

2. The programmed method of claim 1 wherein said programmed method is in the form of process steps.

3. The programmed method of claim 1 wherein said programmed method is in the form of a computer-readable medium embodying computer instructions for performing the process steps.

4. The programmed method of claim 1 wherein said programmed method is in the form of a computer system programmed by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof, for performing the process steps.

5. The programmed method of claim 1 wherein said programmed method is in the form of an apparatus comprising software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof, for performing the process steps.

6. The programmed method of claim 1 further comprising selectively transmitting conversation input messages to a MFS-based IMS applications based on the transaction message type and conversation attributes.

7. The programmed method of claim 6 wherein conversation input messages are transmitted through an MFS adapter configured to mediate conversational transactions and conversation output messages are received from the MFS adapter.

8. The programmed method of claim 1 wherein formatting a conversation output message comprises generating HTML data from thin-client specific XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) information provided by a conversational transaction mediator and XML Stylesheet Language (XSL) information and the programmed method further comprising sending the HTML data to the thin-client.

9. The programmed method of claim 8 wherein the XMI information is associated with a particular MFS-based IMS application and the XSL information is user configurable.

10. The programmed method of claim 1 wherein the one or more transaction messages comprise a conversation command and preprocessing comprises selectively modifying connection information in response to the conversation command.

11. The programmed method of claim 1 wherein the one or more transaction messages comprise a paging command and preprocessing comprises selectively modifying the conversation output message based on pagination information associated with the conversation-specific information.

12. A system for facilitating conversational transactions between thin-clients and Message Format Service (MFS)-based Information Management System (IMS) applications, comprising:

an IMS interface configured to execute on a mainframe operating system and enable conversational transactions between an MFS-based IMS application and a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) client;

a web module configured to operate on a web application server as the TCP/IP client and translate between XML conversation messages and a byte stream compatible with the IMS interface;

a conversational transaction servlet configured to operate on a web application server, the conversational transaction servlet further comprising,

a state module configured to store conversation attributes associated with conversational transactions between a thin-client and the MFS-based IMS application over a network, and update the stored conversation attributes in response to a change in the conversation attributes caused by one or more transaction messages;

a preprocessor configured to preprocess one or more transaction messages from the thin-client based on a transaction message type; and

a formatter configure to format a conversation output message for the thin-client according to the conversation attributes.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the formatter combines XMI information from the web module with XSL information to generate a HTML data suitable for display on the thin-client.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the one or more transaction messages comprise a conversation command selected from the group consisting of “

EXIT,”

“

HOLD,” and

“

RELEASE” and

the preprocessor selectively modifies connection information in response to the conversation command.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the one or more transaction messages comprise a paging command directed to one of a logical page and a physical page, the preprocessor selectively modifying the conversation output message based on pagination information associated with the conversation-specific information.

16. An apparatus for facilitating transactions between thin-clients and Message Format Service (MFS)-based Information Management System (IMS) applications, comprising:

a security module configured to preserve and maintain user security credentials;

a connection module configured to establish a connection with an MFS-based IMS application by way of an MFS adapter, the connection supporting a conversational transaction;

a state module configured to preserve and maintain connection information associated with the connection and conversation-specific information based on one or more transaction messages from the thin-client; and

a control module configured to process a transaction message having one or more transaction message types.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the control module further comprises,

a function key module configured to process a transaction message having a function key indicator;

a page module configured to process a transaction message having a paging request;

a command module configured to process a transaction message having a conversational command; and

a formatter configure to format a conversation output message for the thin-client based on presentation information provided by the MFS-based IMS application.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the formatter determines a subset of XMI information from an XMI repository based on page information within the conversation-specific information and combines the subset of XMI with XSL information to produce HTML suitable for presentation by the thin-client.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the security module authenticates the security credentials with a mainframe security control subsystem.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the connection module manages a plurality of connections in response to conversational commands.